How to delete the Boxcryptor icon from the Desktop?

allene

After installing Boxcryptor, there is an icon on the desktop that directs to the Boxcryptor virtual drive. How can I delete it from the desktop? I am not talking about the Boxcryptor link. There is another icon that cannot be deleted from the desktop. This is rather annoying.

Yasmin

allene
Please specify which platform. Screenshots are also welcome.
See also my ticket answer.

alexb

Hey,
I'm having the same issue. I thought about purchasing the subscription so I tested the free version first.
I like to have a clean desktop without anything on it. I'm using Widows 11.

This is on my desktop after installation. Note that the lower one is an standard .lnk shortcut which can be deleted without any problem. But the upper one is weid. Its like the mounted volume itsef, like shown in the windows explorer or on "this pc". Right click properties provides you this info.

It kind of reminds me that ubuntu shows USB-disks on the Desktop for quick access, so I thought this might be windows 11 related. But Windows 11 does not show USB disks on the desktop at all.
I looked through the Boxcryptor settings and even the settings file in C:\Program Files\Boxcryptor, but there is no option to disable this.
It's very annoing and will be a dealbraker for me, I hope someone can help out here

declined

It was bugging me too. It reminded me of how the Recycle bin is handled on the desktop. While I know there is a windows setting where you can disable the Recycle Bin, I had to do it from the registry a while back. Turns out this Icon can be removed the same way.

In regedit navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\
Locate the registry key {CA9A9348-B9BC-455E-80DC-8E803145F80B}

If you are anything like me you might want to make a backup so you can add it back later if you want. So right click and export the key somewhere.

After that you can simply delete the key altogether. It'll be removed from the desktop immediately.

alexb

declined Thank you very much! I thought the same way, but I was not able to find it in the registry. Never would have searched there.

Lennert

declined This worked for me even though my key was called differently (started with {CA as well though). And I agree that this should be an option from the settings. It's weird that on one of my Windows 11 machines I had this icon on my Desktop stuck by default, but not on another.

alexb

By the way if anyone from dev reads this - this should be a setting that the user can edit. Especially if the user paid for this software.

Florian

Hi alexb,

In fact, there is an option during installation to avoid creating the Desktop shortcut.

Please have a look at https://www.boxcryptor.com/help/teams/windows/#hidden-preferences and search for the term
CREATE_DESKTOP_SHORTCUT to get to the instruction.

If I remember correctly, I saw your report in our support. Did this finally get rid of the "duplicate" Boxcryptor icon on your desktop?

Best regards,
Florian

yellowsock

Hi Florian
after reading your reply I reinstalled boxcryptor but there is no visible option during the installation process to not create the desktop shortcut.
This desktop shortcut is super super dangerous as I thought it would be the actual installation program and moved it to the recycle bin on my desktop - and windows seem to start to delete all my files inside boxcryptor!