Homegroup Desktop Icon - Add or Remove in Windows 8

How to Add or Remove Homegroup Desktop Icon in Windows 8 and 8.1


information   Information
A homegroup is a group of PCs on a home network that can share devices (such as printers), and libraries (such as your Documents, Pictures, Music, and Video libraries). Using a homegroup makes sharing easier. Your homegroup is protected with a password, which you can change at any time.

This tutorial will show you how to add or remove the Homegroup desktop icon for only your user account in Windows 8 and 8.1.

Tip   Tip
If you are only getting the Homegroup desktop icon randomly showing on your desktop, then you could try this below instead to quickly remove it.


A) If you don't use homegroup at all, then you could stop and disable the HomeGroup Listener and HomeGroup Provider services, and restart the computer.

OR

B) Refresh (F5) your desktop.

OR

C) Turn the Network desktop icon on, apply, off, OK.

OR

D) Step 3 in the tutorial below.


EXAMPLE: Homegroup desktop icon

Homegroup_desktop_icon.jpg




Here's How:

Note   Note
The .reg files below are for the registry keys and value below.

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel

AND

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\ClassicStartMenu


{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93} DWORD

0 = Add
1 = Remove



1. Do step 2 or 3 below for what you would like to do.

2. To Add Homegroup Desktop Icon
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the .reg file below, and go to step 4 below.​
Add_Homegroup_Desktop_Icon.reg
download

3. To Remove Homegroup Desktop Icon
NOTE: This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the .reg file below, and go to step 4 below.​
Remove_Homegroup_Desktop_Icon.reg
download

4. Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5. Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

6. If prompted, click on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

7. Refresh (F5) your desktop to apply.

8. When finished, you can delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.





 

Attachments

Last edited by a moderator:
Hi Shawn,

I downloaded "Remove_HomeGroup_Desktop_Icon.reg" sometime ago and found that although it did remove the icon the damned thing reappears after a while.
Just downloaded the version from this thread and have found that it is different from the one I had previously downloaded.
The old version had each entry repeated.
Does that make a difference?

I have attached copies of both files.

View attachment Remove_HomeGroup_Desktop_Icon(1).reg

View attachment Remove_Homegroup_Desktop_Icon(2).reg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hey Jim,

The old one you have is for Windows 7 and was for all users.

The one here is only for Windows 8, and only per user instead of all users. :)
 
Hey Jim,

The old one you have is for Windows 7 and was for all users.

The one here is only for Windows 8, and only per user instead of all users. :)

Thanks Shawn.

I've run the latest one, so let's hope it has banished the icon for good. :)
 
If not, then just let me know and if you use Homegroup or not. :)
 
I'm running Windows 8.1 Classic Shell...

The keys you listed for the registry edit aren't at the location you gave. I found them in two other places, listed here with their values and data:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\
ClassicStartMenu
{871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D}.default set to 0
{9343812e-1c37-4a49-a12e-4b2d810d956b} set to 1


NewStartPanel
{031E4825-7B94-4dc3-B131-E946B44C8DD5}
{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}
{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
{5399E694-6CE5-4D6C-8FCE-1D8870FDCBA0}
{59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}
{871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D}
{8E74D236-7F35-4720-B138-1FED0B85EA75}
{9343812e-1c37-4a49-a12e-4b2d810d956b}
{B4FB3F98-C1EA-428d-A78A-D1F5659CBA93}
{F02C1A0D-BE21-4350-88B0-7367FC96EF3C}
all set to 1


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons
ClassicStartMenu
(same as above)


NewStartPanel
(same as above)

So, should I try to modify the data for the value myself in their keys? Why are mine in a different place than what you listed?
 
Hello Minnie Mouse, :)

The HKCU location in the tutorial is for the current user only. It's not always there by default, so the tutorial provides an easy way to add them to set how you like.

You don't want to change the HKLM location.

Since you don't have them at the location in the tutorial, I can only assume that you don't have the icon and want to add it?
 
I don't know how you ascertain if you're the "current user" or not. I'm the only one that has ever used this computer. I do know I have administration privileges (after fighting a scary renaming battle when I first got the new machine).

Anyway, I DO NOT want that stupid icon on my desktop. I did a lot of research to get rid of it in the first place, and like so many people have admitted, it doesn't STAY gone. I haven't pinpointed what event makes it come back, but it most certainly does. I know how to make it go away temporarily, and I don't want to completely nuke the applicable services (I think?) because I'm afraid it will mess up something I want to do, such as send jobs to my printer on bluetooth or something online. Maybe it didn't show up in the HKCU locations because it was temporarily off the desktop at the time I searched the registry?

The bottom line is that I do want to permanently make that icon stop reappearing on my desktop. Since you say not to change the data setting on the locations I found, what can I do?
 
In that case, use step 3 in the tutorial to see how it goes. :)
 
Having never "merged" a .reg file, I wasn't aware of how it works. I didn't realize that if a key/value/datum doesn't exist in the registry, the .reg file adds it. If the key/value/datum does exist, it edits it. If I had known that I wouldn't have been searching all over the registry for something that I thought was "in the wrong place."

There's sometimes a problem with blindly executing these .reg files; some of our systems want to open them in notepad instead. When that's the case, we have to use the import function within regedit (assuming we don't want to tweak our systems to always launch .reg files on faith).
 
The association of .reg files to Notepad instead of regedit is intentional, and I know how to change the association, but I don't want to. There are at least 3 other ways to launch a .reg file, and (as I said in my last message) I chose the one where you run regedit then choose "Import" from the File Menu and select the target file from the resulting dialog window.

So, yes, it did add those keys to my registry. Now I just have to wait awhile and see if it does the job it is intended to do. I'll be sure to notify this thread if and when it stops working.
 
I booted my machine today, and the Homegroup icon had returned to the desktop.

I got rid of it (again temporarily) by refreshing the desktop, but that's not the point.

I would conclude that the information in the tutorial DOES NOT WORK.
 
It works just fine, but you have some other unknown factor causing it to return.

If you don't use homegroup, then you could disabled the two services below to stop it for good.

  • HomeGroup Listener
  • HomeGroup Provider
 
As I said in my previous post, I don't want to disable those services.

I can't imagine what this mysterious "unknown factor" is. I haven't had this machine up and running long enough to have hacked a bunch of custom stuff into it. The only thing that might be a deviation is that this is Classic Shell. I don't know; I guess it's the icon from hell, huh?
 
Could be. You might temporarily remove Classic Shell to test for a few days to see.
 
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