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In Windows 7, is it safe to delete desktop.ini files from my destkop?

(I have 2 hidden desktop.ini files in my desktop)

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3 Answers

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Yes it is.

Here is an explanation of what they are for.

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But that link does keep going on about how they're mysteriously hidden, even though he's Showing Hidden Files. This is because they're System files, you need to take the tick out of the "Hide Protected Operating system files" box (just below Show Hidden Files) to see them. – GAThrawn Dec 17 '09 at 17:03
not necessarily ; some programs will show them anyway, like ftp explorers or if you access your drive from an unix for instance... – Damien Dec 17 '09 at 21:06
Link doesn't work. – random♦ Nov 13 '10 at 15:37
1  
still works for me... – Damien Nov 15 '10 at 22:18
up vote 3 down vote

Yes, it will just be recreated when it is next needed, however, I wouldn't... It does no harm and contains details such as Icon and name... basically customisations.

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up vote 1 down vote

You can safely delete them and they will never appear again. I did so over 2 years ago and never saw them regenerated again as some people predict.

I'm not sure what kind of customization they are supposed to store, but after deleting them I haven's observed any change anywhere related to appearance.

Most likely they are just as useless as notorious thumbs.db files. But those you can easily disable system-wide.

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