Windows desktop.ini file – All you need to know

• One of the mysteries Windows users may occasionally face is the presence of a desktop.ini file on their Desktop . Since the majority of users don’t know what these files are, some people usually perceive them as a virus.
• The .ini files in Windows are nothing like that. They’re just inert, text files that contain configuration data used by various programs .
• If you happen to meet with some problems regarding the system files, go straight to our Troubleshooting Hub for expert guidance.
• There no shame in missing a few tech slang words from your vocabulary. However, you can tackle that with our Tech Definitions section.

One of the mysteries Windows users may occasionally face is the presence of a desktop.ini file on their Desktop.

In fact, desktop.ini usually shows in form of two identical .ini files sitting on our Windows 10 Desktop.

Since the majority of users don’t know what these files are, some people usually perceive them as a virus, or some kind of a dangerous script that can destroy their data.

However, desktop.ini files are nothing like that, and in this article, we’re going to talk about this type of file, whether they’re dangerous or not, and how to prevent them from showing up.

What are the .ini files?

First things first, .ini files in Windows are not a script or some kind of dangerous virus that’s going to eat your data. They’re just inert, text files that contain configuration data used by various programs.

Most of these files contain data like system file locations, or windows files, required by certain programs to run. You can open any .ini file with Notepad to see what it contains.

What is the desktop.ini file?

The desktop.ini file is a hidden file that stores information about a Windows folder. So, if the layout or settings of a folder are changed, the system generates a desktop.ini file automatically to save the changes.

Here’s what a .ini file usually contains:

[.ShellClassInfo]
LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%system32shell32.dll,-21769
IconResource=%SystemRoot%system32imageres.dll,-183

Almost every program installed on your computer requires a .ini file to run properly. So, even if you delete a .ini file, the program that used it will create it again.

Ini files are usually hidden, and the only reason you’re seeing them right now is because you’ve set File Explorer to Show hidden files. In short words, .ini files have always been present on your computer, you just weren’t able to see them.

Why are .ini files present on my Desktop?

If .ini files are used by apps, programs, and folders, how come my Desktop shows them? Well, Desktop is just another folder on your computer that’s unique for every user account.

Actually, there are two Desktop folders in your computer, the one from your user files, and the one from the public folder.

The Desktop you’re seeing on your computer is a combination of these two folders. Therefore, there are two Desktop.ini files, for each Desktop folder.

Deleting Desktop.ini files is not advisable, although it can’t cause any serious damage to your computer. Anyway, it’s safer to just hide them.

If seeing .ini files on your Desktop and File Explorer is annoying to you, just change a few settings, and these files will be hidden again. If you don’t know how to do that, keep reading this article.

How to hide desktop.ini files o Windows 10

Now that we know what .ini files are, let’s see what we can do to make them disappear. So, here’s what you need to do (you can use the same method to see .ini files, just do the opposite steps):

1. Go to Search, type folder options, and open File Explorer Options
2. Head over to the View tab
3. Check the Don’t show hidden files, folder, or drives, and check the Hide protected operating system files option.
4. Click OK.

There you go, after performing this action, you won’t be seeing Desktop.ini, or any other files of this kind anymore.

Can I delete the desktop.ini file?

Of course you can delete the desktop.ini file but you shouldn’t do that. The file saves the settings of the folder which contains it so, in you delete it, those will be lost and the settings will return to default.

How to create a desktop.ini file?

1. To transform a usual folder into a system folder, first, use PathMakeSystem. You can also do that from the command line by using attrib +sNameofthefolder.
2. Next, create a Desktop.ini file for the folder. Mark it as hidden and system to ensure that it is hidden from normal users.
3. Make sure that the Desktop.ini file created by you has the Unicode format. This is needed to store the localized strings that can be displayed to users.

How can I get rid of the desktop.ini file in windows 10?

What keeps making desktop.ini files?

If the layout or settings of a system folder change, the system generates a desktop.ini file automatically to save the changes.

So, the system creates them, but by default you shouldn’t see them at all because they are hidden protected system files.

We hope that you now understand what .ini files are and that there’s no reason to fear your computer security has been compromised if you notice them.

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, just let us know in the comments below.

• Is Desktop ini a virus?

• How do I stop the Desktop ini from popping up?

All you need to do is to check the Hide Protected Operating System Files option from File Explorer.

What is the Desktop.ini file under Windows & how can I use it to customize folders?

If you have already configured folder settings on your Windows PC and enabled hidden file visibility, you may have noticed the desktop.ini file located on your desktop and in each folder. What is this desktop.ini file under Windows 10/8/7? Is it a virus? If so, how can I delete it? If not, what is it for? This article explains all your basic questions about the desktop.ini file. We will also see how to customize folders using a desktop.ini file.

What is the desktop.ini file and what is its purpose

April 2021 Update:

We now recommend using this tool for your error. Additionally, this tool fixes common computer errors, protects you against file loss, malware, hardware failures and optimizes your PC for maximum performance. You can fix your PC problems quickly and prevent others from happening with this software:

• Step 1 : Download PC Repair & Optimizer Tool (Windows 10, 8, 7, XP, Vista – Microsoft Gold Certified).
• Step 2 : Click “Start Scan” to find Windows registry issues that could be causing PC problems.
• Step 3 : Click “Repair All” to fix all issues.

A Desktop.ini file is a Windows operating system hidden configuration file that is located in each folder and determines how the folder is displayed with its other properties – like the icon used for that folder, the located name, share properties, and so on.

Under Windows, you can easily configure how each file/folder to which a normal user has access is shared, how it can be shared, and other settings that control how these file/folder permissions are assigned. All this information about the presentation of this folder is stored in the desktop.ini file, which is the default initialization file format.

If you change the configuration and layout settings of a folder, these changes are automatically saved in the desktop.ini file of that folder. This is a hidden file, which means that you must hide the protected files from the operating system in the options of the file explorer .

Is desktop.ini a virus

This hidden file of the desktop.ini operating system is not a virus. This is a native system file that is saved and created at the folder level once you have customized the background, icon, thumbnail, etc. However, there is a history of the Trojan virus associated with this name. If a desktop.in file is visible even if you have enabled options to hide system files, it may be malware. Therefore, you can always scan your computer with your antivirus program.

Can I delete the desktop.ini file?

Well, you can, but then your folder display settings will be reset to the default settings. This is the case – if you change the folder icon or thumbnail, sharing properties, etc., all this information is automatically saved in the desktop.ini file. What would happen if you deleted this file from this folder? You guessed it right! Your configured changes are lost and the folder settings are replaced with the system-wide default settings.

Once you delete it, it will automatically regenerate the next time you adjust your folder settings. Now this automatic generation process cannot be disabled because it is an operating system level defined process. However, you can hide it from the big picture so that it does not bother you with its presence.

Customizing the folder with the desktop.ini file

Customizing a folder with the desktop.ini file is not a geek business. Simply create/update the desktop.ini file in this folder to update the display and appearance settings. Here are some remarkable things you can do by playing the desktop.ini file:

• Assign a custom icon or thumbnail to the parent folder
• Create a tip that provides information about the folder when you move the mouse pointer over the folder
• Customizing folder access

Follow these steps to change the style of a folder using the desktop.ini file.

1 Select any folder you want to customize with desktop.ini. Make sure you have backed up your el files so it can be restored in case something goes wrong.

2 Run the following command to make the selected folder a system folder. This sets a read-only bit on the underlying folder and enables a special behavioral feature for the desktop.ini file.

3. create an.ini file for this folder. Do it hidden and mark it as system file so that it prevents normal users from accessing it. You can do this by activating the Read-only – and Hidden– flags in the properties window of the desktop.ini file.

Note : The Desktop.ini file you create must be in Unicode file format so that localized strings stored as content are readable by the intended users.

4 Here is my example of the desktop.ini file created for a folder called FileInfo, as shown in the images.

Let us now look at what all the contents of the desktop.ini file mean:

• • • [. ShellClassInfo] – It sets the system property that you can use to customize the underlying folder by assigning values to various attributes that can be defined in a desktop.ini file.
    • ConfirmFileOp – Set this setting to 0 and you will not receive a warning You delete a system folder while you delete/move the desktop.ini file.
    • IconFile – If you want to specify a custom icon for your folder, you can specify the icon file name here. Be sure to check the absolute path of the file. Specify the full path if the file is not in the same location. In addition, the.ico file is preferred for defining custom symbols, although it is possible to specify.bmp and.dll files that contain symbols, but this is a story for another day.
    • IconIndex – If you set a custom icon for the underlying folder, you must also set this entry. Set it to 0 if there is only one icon file in the file specified for the IconFile attribute.
    • InfoTip – This special attribute is used to define a text string that can be used as a file information tip. If you define this entry on a text string and then move the cursor to the folder, the text string saved in the desktop.ini file is displayed there.

See action below –

Let us know if you have any other doubts about the desktop.ini file in Windows 10.

Want to know more about other processes, files, file types or formats in Windows? Check these links :

Windows.edb files | Thumbs.db files | DLL and OCX files | NFO and DIZ files | Swapfile.sys, Hiberfil.sys & Pagefile. sys | Index.dat file | Desktop.ini file | S | WinSxSxS | RuntimeBroker.exe | StorDiag.exe | nvxync.exe | nvxync.exe |||| Hosts.Hosts file.

What Is an INI File?

Why software programs use INI files, and how to view one

A file with the INI file extension is a initialization file for Windows or MS-DOS. These files are plain text files that contain settings that dictate how something else—usually a program—should operate.

Various programs use their own INI files but they all serve the same purpose. CCleaner, for example, uses an INI file to store the different options. This particular INI file is stored as the name ccleaner.ini under the CCleaner installation folder, usually at C:\Program Files\CCleaner\.

A common INI file in Windows called desktop.ini is a ​hidden file that stores information about how folders and files should appear.

How to Open and Edit INI Files

It’s not a common practice for people to open or edit INI files, but they can be opened and changed with any text editor. Just double-clicking on an INI file will automatically open it in the Notepad application in Windows.

See our Best Free Text Editors list for some alternative text editors that also edit INI files.

How an INI File Is Structured

INI files contain keys (also called properties) and some use optional sections to group keys together. A key should have a name and a value, separated by an equals sign, like this:

INI files work differently across programs. Some INI files are really tiny (a few kilobytes) with only one or two lines of information, and others can be extremely lengthy (several megabytes) with lots of customizable options.

In this example, CCleaner defines the English language with the 1033 value. So, when CCleaner opens, it reads the INI file to determine in which language to display the program text. Although it uses 1033 to indicate English, the program natively supports other languages, too, which means you can change it to 1034 to use Spanish instead.

The same can be said for all the other languages the software supports, but you have to look through its documentation to understand which numbers mean other languages.

If this key existed under a section, it may look like this:

This particular example is in the INI file that CCleaner uses. You can change this INI file yourself to add more options to the program because it refers to this INI file to determine what should be erased from the computer. This particular program is popular enough that there’s a tool you can download called CCEnhancer that keeps the INI file updated with lots of different options that don’t come built-in by default.

More Information on INI Files

Some INI files may have a semicolon within the text. These just indicate a comment to describe something to the user if they’re looking through the INI file. Nothing following the comment is interpreted by the program that’s using it.

Key names and sections are not case sensitive, at least in Windows. The same effect is produced in an INI file that uses uppercase letters as one that has lowercase letters.

A common file called boot.ini in Windows XP details the specific location of the Windows XP installation. If problems occur with this file, see How to Repair or Replace Boot.ini in Windows XP.

Although it’s safe to delete desktop.ini files, Windows recreates the file and apply default values to it. So, if you’ve applied a custom icon to a folder, for example, and then delete the desktop.ini file, the folder reverts to its default icon.

INI files were used a lot in early versions of Windows before Microsoft began encouraging the Windows Registry to store application settings. Now, even though many programs still use the INI format, XML serves same purpose.

If you’re getting «access denied» messages when trying to edit an INI file, it means you don’t have the proper administrative privileges to make changes to it. You can usually fix this by opening the INI editor with admin rights (right-click it and choose to run it as administrator). Another option is to copy the file to your desktop, make changes there, and then paste that desktop file over the original.

Some other initialization files you may come across that don’t use the INI file extension are CFG and CONF files. Some programs even stick with TXT.

How to Convert an INI File

There’s no real reason to convert an INI file to another file format. The program or operating system that’s using the file will only recognize it under the specific name and file extension that it’s using.

However, since INI files are just regular text files, you can use a program like Notepad++ to save it to another text-based format like HTM/HTML or TXT.