The latest Windows dirty trick?

Brian_B

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So, I just noticed this week...

Every time I reboot my Windows 11 PC, a shortcut for Microsoft Edge keeps reappearing on the desktop.

Reading around, apparently this is "normal" when Edge updates, but I haven't noticed it until just this week.
 
Quite a few of the "big" software applications do this. I've seen it with Google Earth, Adobe Acrobat, Firefox, Chrome, and more. And yes, even Edge which I never knowingly use. It is annoying as all get out.
 
Speaking of Microsoft dirty tricks with Windows ...

Today I logged onto my computer and found an unwelcome splash screen ... "your computer qualifies to run Windows 11 ... click here for a free upgrade!". Opting out or declining the upgrade was not one of the immediate choices. I had flashbacks to when I was force upgraded to Windows 10 during their last OS upgrade round of dirty tricks.
 
Speaking of Microsoft dirty tricks with Windows ...

Today I logged onto my computer and found an unwelcome splash screen ... "your computer qualifies to run Windows 11 ... click here for a free upgrade!". Opting out or declining the upgrade was not one of the immediate choices. I had flashbacks to when I was force upgraded to Windows 10 during their last OS upgrade round of dirty tricks.
Yea I have a laptop with a q6600 in it that doesn't qualify for windows 11. I'd upgrade it if it did... because i'm like that.
 
If you can't or don't want to fiddle with group policy, you can manipulate the registry entries directly, though it's really inexcusable that end users should have to resort to either to configure a desktop OS.

Initially, I used the following for reference:
  • Path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\EdgeUpdate
  • Value Name: CreateDesktopShortcutDefault
  • Value Type: REG_DWORD
Setting "CreateDesktopShortcutDefault" to a value of 0 (zero) is what most sites seem to be recommending, but most sites don't know what they're talking about. This is the Misinformation Superhighway, after all. A bit more searching suggests that the value name "RemoveDesktopShortcutDefault" may be important.

The following registry edits are what I'd try, sorted by level of desperation in ascending order:
Code:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\EdgeUpdate]
"RemoveDesktopShortcutDefault"=dword:00000002

Code:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\EdgeUpdate]
"CreateDesktopShortcutDefault"=dword:00000000
"RemoveDesktopShortcutDefault"=dword:00000002

Brute force approach:
Code:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\EdgeUpdate]
"CreateDesktopShortcutDefault"=dword:00000000
"CreateDesktopShortcut{56EB18F8-B008-4CBD-B6D2-8C97FE7E9062}"=dword:00000000
"RemoveDesktopShortcutDefault"=dword:00000002

I trust you're capable of creating an appropriately formatted ".REG" file without a tutorial, so I omitted the "registry editor version" headers from the above examples for brevity.

Comments from gHacks (link below) indicate that when "RemoveDesktopShortcutDefault" is set to a value of 2, it applies to both global and user desktop shortcuts; a value of 1 (one) applies to global desktop shortcuts only. I used a value of 2 in the my examples, but you could also try 1 (one), in case one or the other doesn't work.


I'm on Debian Linux right now, and don't have an installation of Windows 11 anywhere, so I can't verify that the above works. Hopefully you can get a solid week or two free of Edge icons on your desktop before Microsoft decides to release a new update to rob you of valuable time.
 
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