My Desktop folder has moved. I want to get it back to its original location.

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[WCHS]

I am Win10/Pro, 22H2, patched through the March updates.

Today, my laptop suddenly took a notion to move my Desktop folder (or maybe my mouse cursor slipped a bit when I was moving a file to a folder). The Desktop folder is supposed to be directly under my personal folder, but it was suddenly demoted so that it now occurs inside a personally created subfolder of my personal folder. Here is a schematic of the original file structure of the directories inside my personal folder and the new (but unwanted) file structure that has the Desktop folder in the wrong place.

In the schematic, the folders are numbered, but they aren’t really there in the folder name; I’ve just numbered them here to show their position under MPF (=My Personal Folder) and to show where the Desktop folder landed after this mysterious ‘move’. The Desktop folder is now one level deeper, inside Current Topics, a folder that I had created a long time ago. It had only files in it, but after the move/relocation, it now has a folder in it – the Desktop system folder!!

I am thinking that I can get the Desktop folder back in the right place by right-clicking on the Desktop folder to get the Properties box, then clicking on the ‘Location’ tab, and then clicking the ‘Restore Default’ button. Will clicking on that button put the Desktop folder back at C:\Users\MPF\Desktop? Or does the system think the default location is C:\Users\MPF\Current Topics\Desktop, since that is where it is now? Or should I change the path to C:\Users\MPF\Desktop,since that’s where I want the Desktop folder to be?

• This topic was modified 11 months ago by WCHS.
• This topic was modified 11 months ago by WCHS.
• This topic was modified 11 months ago by WCHS.

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I’ve never had this issue, but on a lark I posed this question re-written in my own words to “Leo”, Braves AI engine:

“I accidently moved my desktop folder out of it’s default location under my user name and it’s now “demoted” nested under another user created folder. How do I restore the desktop folder to the default location?”

To restore the Desktop folder to its default location, follow these steps:

1. Open File Explorer.
2. Click on the ‘View’ tab.
3. Check the box that says ‘Hidden items’.
4. Navigate to the original location of the Desktop folder (usually under C:\Users\YourUsername).
5. Cut and paste the Desktop folder to its original location.
6. Restart your computer to ensure changes take effect.

It sounds possible, but I’m not in your shoes.  If you make a fresh image backup, you could try out these steps without risk.

Desktop Asus TUF X299 Mark 1, CPU: Intel Core i7-7820X Skylake-X 8-Core 3.6 GHz, RAM: 32GB, GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB. Display: Four 27" 1080p screens 2 over 2 quad.

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WScranflake, WCHS

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Click Restore Default and see what happens. As long as you don’t click OK or Apply nothing will actually change.

cheers, Paul

2 users thanked author for this post.

WScranflake, WCHS

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Duh … I thought it would go ahead and Restore the Default right away!! Yes, C:\Users\MPF\Desktop shows up in the field — the location I want.

I have a long-standing problem on my other laptop because my Music system folder (empty) assigns its location to OneDrive, but I don’t have the OneDrive app installed. As a consequence, I run into problems with my backups. I’ve had suggestions on how to change Music’s location in the Registry so that it’s back to the Default Location, but I haven’t wanted to venture into the Registry as a naive beginner. I think I can fix that problem using the Location tab as well.

{I’m assuming that a choice made under this Location tab automatically makes a change in the Registry instead of one’s having to manually make the change?}

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WCHS wrote:

automatically makes a change in the Registry

Yes it does. The registry stores the path information for all the standard links.

cheers, Paul

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WScranflake, WCHS

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Well, I did the location change today via the This PC>Desktop>right-click Properties>Location tab ->’Restore Default’ button.

All of the folders/files in the old Desktop location were copied (not moved) to the default System Folder location (C:\Users\MPF\Desktop).

In comparing the size of and number of files in the new location (the default, which means the folder is a System Folder) vs. the old, demoted Desktop location (i.e., Current Topics), the size of and the number of files in the new, default System Folder location is larger.

I have a file management program that will compare files/folders in Location A vs Location B. Upon inspection, I discovered that files with very long names were moved to the new, default System Folder location, but files with permissible-length file names were not moved but copied.

I’ve experimented with deleting an unimportant file or two in the old location just to see if they would also get deleted in the new location. Didn’t happen. And a closer look at the two ‘Desktop’ file types shows that the new Desktop folder at C:\Users\MPF\Desktop is a System Folder and the old, demoted Desktop folder at C:\Users\MPF\Current Topics\Desktop has changed to a regular, plain-old File Folder.

My free space on the drive has declined by about 20GB (because of copying instead of moving), so I think I can go ahead and delete everything in the demoted Desktop File Folder (or even just delete the demoted Desktop folder itself, not just the files/folders inside it). And later clear it/them out of the Recycle Bin.

I think all of the files and folders in the System Desktop folder will be unaffected. Am I correct here?

I have a backup file of the Desktop folder so I’m safe. Just trying to get a grasp of what happened and what distinctions hold when changing locations.

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Copied makes sense as it leave the old files as a backup.

The two locations are not mirrored/synched so you should only see a change in one place.
Try deleting a few more inconsequential files to be sure.

cheers, Paul

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WCHS

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Oddly, about an hour after Restoring the Default (with the Desktop File Folder and its contents still in the old location), the icons on my Desktop all got a green check mark, no matter whether a URL shortcut, a file shortcut, or a folder shortcut. This is what a URL shortcut looked like. (I don’t have OneDrive installed).

I deleted one File shortcut and then put it back. All of the green check marks turned to white X’s (Unfortunately, I didn’t take a screenshot of that).

Then, I deleted one URL shortcut and put up another one just like it by going to the website with my Firefox browser and dragging the URL to the Desktop.

Now all of the desktop icons are back to normal. Here is the one above.

Go figure! I’ll have to see if it happens again But, I do know the strange fix.

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WCHS wrote:

the icons on my Desktop all got a green check mark

If it happens again…

How to remove Green Check Marks on Desktop Icons in Windows 11/10

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WCHS

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OldGuyForum wrote:

If it happens again…

I have a free Dropbox storage account, which offers something around 2GB. Maybe, the green tick marks happened due to a Dropbox glitch.

If it were due to some kind of Dropbox glitch, however, there was no evidence that Dropbox had anything in its storage that was related to my Desktop.

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OldGuyForum wrote:

If it happens again…

I read that link before I posted. Problem is: I don’t have OneDrive installed–it’s not in Apps & features and I have no OneDrive folder under my personal folder. I have nothing OneDrive on my system, anywhere, so I don’t see how a OneDrive issue could be responsible for the green tick marks.

Maybe, using NirSoft’s ShellExView (last suggestion) would be the remedy to disable items having to do with the overlay handler. I’m not sure b/c as I said, OneDrive is not on my system. Nor has it been on my system for at least a year. (And when it got on my system it didn’t get there because I put it there!)

I think the simplest thing would be to do what I did this last time again — maybe, it worked like a desktop refresh. And if not, then actually do a desktop refresh, and then if not, try ShellExView.

I’ll keep an eye on it to see if it happens again. Hopefully, it won’t. Those green tick marks are easy to spot!!

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WCHS wrote:

the icons on my Desktop all got a green check mark

I don’t sync any files with cloud services but I do get sometimes the green check mark for all desktop shortcuts. I also get a x for all desktop shortcuts, a shortcut marks or no marks at all.

I don’t pay attention to this as it doesn’t interfere with using the OS (Windows 10 Pro 22H2).

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Alex5723 wrote:

I don’t pay attention to this as it doesn’t interfere with using the OS (Windows 10 Pro 22H2).

I know that it doesn’t interfere with using the O/S, but the green check mark or white x is erroneous information. I think that my O/S info should be accurate, not buggy.

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Alex5723

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