How do I prevent desktop shortcuts from being made in Windows?

Question

It is a common practice to have installers place shortcuts by default on the desktop, but most installers allow you to disable this by unchecking the appropriate checkbox. There are also installers (like Adobe Creative Cloud updates) that don't have an option to not place a shortcut on the desktop. I really hate desktop shortcuts but I still want to use my desktop for temporary files, quick management, etc. Is there any way I can automatically hide shortcuts (*.lnk files) on my desktop?

Solution

First, make a copy of your desktop (e.g. DesktopCopy folder containing the shortcuts you want on the desktop) and put it in the documents folder (or another user defined folder).

Secondly, create a batch file which will copy (and overwrite!) your desktop with the files from the DesktopCopy folder). You can use the mirror function of robocopy deleting files not present in the source directory.

Then, with the task scheduler create a task (CopyDesktopContents), which starts at windows start up or logging in and which runs the batch.

If you want to add your own shortcuts on your desktop, just do so and again copy the contents of your desktop to the DesktopCopy folder, so that next time you (or another user) starts up the computer or logs in, the new copy will be used by the batch file.

Comments

[Huey]

There's an option to hide all desktop icons somewhere.

[Graham Gold]

I can't imagine there's a solution that doesn't present more problems than it fixes. If you run installers under a different usercode then the shortcuts will be on the desktop of that user so you won't see them (unless it's creates the shortcut for all users). However, installing programs as a user other than you will give you lots of hassle. I would turn the question around and ask you why manually deleting the occasional shortcut is such a hardship?

[dylanweber]

Basically, all I'm asking for is how to automatically hide *.lnk files, and definitely nothing more. I still want a useable desktop with icons.

[Ralf]

Thanks for this question, Dylan. These unwanted icons that we have to delete after every update are the ultimate display of disrespect by software developers such as Adobe, Google et al. Have you ever found a good, easy, reliable solution?

[dylanweber]

@Ralf I have not but I assume it could be done with a script and a schedule but I only have experience in Linux and macOS so I decided to just live with it.

[Graham Gold]

Reasonably neat solution but it still requires maintenance - if you install something you want a shortcut for, and you forget to update the DesktopCopy folder, you will wipe the new shortcut(s). Perhaps the script should compare first, notify of differences and give you a choice of whether to update the baseline with each new shortcut or remove it from the desktop.

[dylanweber]

This doesn't allow me to still have a usable desktop while also completely avoiding the details of the question. I'm only concerned about shortcuts.

[Ralf]

That also makes it hard to use the desktop for shortcuts, folders and files that you actually want to use it for.