Desktop.ini virus
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For the users working on Windows 7/XP/Vista, tapping F8 repeatedly would do the job. To address that issue, here are the steps:
1) Tap the Windows Key + R combination and type ‘Regedit’. To start with, one must change the Folder Options settings to seek hidden and protected files as the desktop.ini virus could create files in the hidden folders.
They’ll just keep coming back.
To understand why, we’ll look at what desktop.ini files do.
desktop.ini files
Desktop.ini files are hidden files used by Windows to store folder display settings. Two folders means two desktop.ini files.
Delete all you want; we’ll make more
It’s generally safe to delete desktop.ini files. But it’s kinda pointless.
Two things will happen:
- The settings defined within the desktop.ini file will be reset to default values.
- The next time a setting changes, the desktop.ini file will be recreated.
Resistance is, as they say, futile.
Suddenly appearing desktop.ini files
If you’ve never seen desktop.ini files and suddenly see them everywhere, then the “hide” options in Windows File Explorer have been changed to allow them to be seen.
If you have desktop.ini files displayed in some places but now see one in a new place, then some kind of setting for that folder has been applied, and a desktop.ini was created to hold it.
Do this
Delete ’em if you like, but desktop.ini files will come back.
Not just this, but many other files are present about which users do not know whatsoever, and this is because they lack the functionality or appearance of these files.
It can be found in any folder on your computer with a customized appearance set to it. Deleting them is futile; they’ll just come back when folder settings change. A simple example is “IconResource”, shown above. This includes the information relevant to the icon along with the pop-up information that is displayed on the screen when the cursor is dragged to that point.
This is because it makes no point to proceed with the understanding of the Desktop.ini file virus without garnering the basic knowledge around it.
How do I get rid of the desktop.ini pop-up?
Some say that you can't turn off the automatic generation of desktop.ini files as it is how Windows is programmed.
Since each folder has a configuration file, it's not hard to see why there are two desktop.ini files on the main desktop.
Can I delete desktop.ini?
Yes, you can delete the desktop.ini file from any directory if you are sure that won't affect your experience.
Although users are posting that they notice no change to the PC's appearance after deleting the two desktop.ini files on the desktop, we recommend you keep those generated by your system without you making any changes.
If you right-click on a desktop.ini file and choose Properties, you will see the Type of file row that displays Configuration settings.
Unlike what the name implied, the desktop.ini file does not only exist on your desktop. To avoid seeing them, adjust Windows File Explorer settings to hide hidden and protected system files.
When you see them suddenly appear on your desktop or other folders, you must have reset them to do so. Because they don't take up much space and removing them may cause other unexpected issues.
For those desktop.ini files created after you altered a folder's display, deleting them will do no harm but restore folders' view settings to the default.
It's a system file automatically generated by Windows to store changes made to folder settings, hidden by default. However, if the file is removed due to some reason, it will get automatically re-created once the folder has been re-opened.
So, coming to the main question that we must address in this section, what is the desktop.ini file all about?