Solved Solved the case of the mysterious desktop Homegroup icon

[waltc]

I think...

[DEL]If you are running a Win8 desktop (I am running a fully updated 8.1) and are being besieged by a pesky Homegroup icon that appears from nowhere in 33%-50% of your boots, I think I now know why it appears, and how to banish it permanently without resort to registry hacking, disabling Homegroup, etc.

If you are one of the affected folks, then the first thing you need to do is tap that Windows key & open up the Start Page that none of us uses. At the top of the page you're allowed to sort the start page icons, so go ahead and sort them by name. Go to the "H" section and you should see "Homegroup" sitting there, staring you right in the face. Right-click and choose "unpin from start page", or something very close to that. You will note that the Homegroup icon is now gone from the start page--but we don't use the start page--so tap that Windows key again and return to the desktop.

Homegroup should now have joined the gone-group...

I think the situation has to do with a bug in the code Microsoft uses to coordinate the start page with the desktop in Win8. I'm thinking that if the Homegroup icon is removed from the desktop but not the start page, too, that during a certain percentage of boots Win8 gets confused by the fact that it is present on the start page but not on the desktop--which makes a modicum of sense when we consider that the default for Win8 is the start page, not the desktop.

I hope this at last solves my problem here...I should know in a few more boots...[/DEL]

If it comes back, I'll be sure and edit this to reflect that...fingers crossed...!

EDIT: It came back to my desktop. Irony: it did not come back to my start screen! So, scratch one theory...arghghghghggggghhh!

I'll just go the Personalize/Network/ install & uninstall route, again, each time it appears.

This is one Win8 bug that should have been fixed, by now--evidently has nothing to do with the start screen.

 

[Brink]

In addition, the options below often helps to remove the spontaneous HomeGroup desktop icon.

• Refresh (F5) the desktop
• Add and remove the Network desktop icon.

 

[chev65]

Of course such a common problem has an online tutorial to fix it.

How to remove the HomeGroup icon from Windows 8 Desktop (bug fix) | Malware Removal - Software & Tutorials

 

[waltc]

Of course such a common problem has an online tutorial to fix it.

How to remove the HomeGroup icon from Windows 8 Desktop (bug fix) | Malware Removal - Software & Tutorials

Most definitely, however, the steps in this tutorial (and others that I took) failed to resolve the problem...the icon kept coming back. That's what got me thinking about the "start page"--which I don't ever view as a rule.

[DEL]So far, after 3-4 reboots, the Homegroup icon has not come back...fingers crossed...![/DEL]

It came back.

[DEL]It would be interesting if indeed it never comes back and the whole problem had such a simple solution all along...[/DEL] The most difficult thing to do when troubleshooting is to find the simplest solution *first* and work up from there. Almost always, it seems, I start with the most complex solution and work backwards from there, unfortunately....!

And then...to discover that it was all in vain...