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https://docs.microsoft.com/windows/wsl
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An unremovable Linux icon shows up on the desktop upon install #11347

Open adrianghc opened 5 months ago

adrianghc commented 5 months ago

This issue is a duplicate of #11325, which was closed prematurely. Please read on.

Windows Version

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22631.3296]

WSL Version

2.1.5.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

Kernel Version

5.15.146.1-2

Distro Version

No response

Other Software

No response

Repro Steps

Install WSL on a new machine through wsl --install, through the Microsoft Store or through the MSIX fron GitHub.

Expected Behavior

A Linux icon should be added to the File Explorer sidebar and nowhere else (not the desktop).

Actual Behavior

Upon install, a Linux icon appears on the desktop that cannot be removed other than through registry changes (see here). The icon is equivalent to the one on the File Explorer sidebar and takes you to \\wsl$. (The icon in the sidebar is still created.)

This icon is created before the Ubuntu app package is installed --- it is NOT related to the Ubuntu app package as claimed in #11325. It also created if one only installs WSL through the MSIX and no distribution, or if one selects a different distribution.

image

This is new and unexpected behavior, as previously, an icon would only be added to the sidebar, not the desktop. It also only happens on new installs. On another machine where WSL has been installed and continually updated (through the Microsoft Store and GitHub) since July 2022, no desktop icon appears even after updating to the latest WSL version.

Diagnostic Logs

No response

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OneBlue commented 5 months ago

Thank you @adrianghc. We've made some installation fixes in 2.2.1, can you try upgrading and see if the icon is still there ?

If so, can you share a screenshot of it's property page ?

adrianghc commented 5 months ago

Unfortunately, 2.2.1 doesn't fix this. Also unfortunately, you cannot open the icon's property menu, as that results in this error:

image

"The properties of this element are not available."

OneBlue commented 5 months ago

Thank you @adrianghc. Does the icon go away if you run wsl.exe --uninstall ?

adrianghc commented 5 months ago

Yes, it does.

OneBlue commented 5 months ago

Ok good. Can you capture a full installing trace by downloading the msi and running:

(as administrator)

msiexec /i <path-to-msi> /L*VX C:\wsllogs.txt

And then check if that re-created the shortcut and if so, share the trace ?

adrianghc commented 5 months ago

This does indeed create the shortcut. I have attached the log file.

wsllogs.txt

OneBlue commented 5 months ago

Thank you @adrianghc. I have a theory:

Does opening regedit.exe and deleting HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{B2B4A4D1-2754-4140-A2EB-9A76D9D7CDC6} gets you rid of the shortcut ?

adrianghc commented 5 months ago

This is exactly correct. 👍

OneBlue commented 5 months ago

Ok that's the icon I was thinking from. Can you share the content of HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{B2B4A4D1-2754-4140-A2EB-9A76D9D7CDC6} ? That's probably where something is messed up.

OneBlue commented 5 months ago

Oh, I have another theory: Is your system main drive installed on C:\ ? Does C:\Windows\System32\windows.storage.dll exist ?

adrianghc commented 5 months ago

This is the content of HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{B2B4A4D1-2754-4140-A2EB-9A76D9D7CDC6}:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{B2B4A4D1-2754-4140-A2EB-9A76D9D7CDC6}]
@="Linux"
"SortOrderIndex"=dword:00000077
"System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{B2B4A4D1-2754-4140-A2EB-9A76D9D7CDC6}\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\Windows\\System32\\wsl.exe,-1"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{B2B4A4D1-2754-4140-A2EB-9A76D9D7CDC6}\InProcServer32]
@="C:\\Windows\\System32\\windows.storage.dll"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{B2B4A4D1-2754-4140-A2EB-9A76D9D7CDC6}\Instance]
"CLSID"="{4FE04BFD-85B9-49DD-B914-F4C9556B9DA6}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{B2B4A4D1-2754-4140-A2EB-9A76D9D7CDC6}\Instance\InitPropertyBag]
"DisplayType"=dword:00000002
"EnumObjectsTelemetryValue"="WSL"
"Provider"="Plan 9 Network Provider"
"ResName"="\\\\wsl.localhost"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{B2B4A4D1-2754-4140-A2EB-9A76D9D7CDC6}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=dword:a080004d
"FolderValueFlags"=dword:00000028

Is your system main drive installed on C:\ ? Does C:\Windows\System32\windows.storage.dll exist ?

Yes and yes.

OneBlue commented 5 months ago

Hmm this all looks correct.

What's the content of HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{4FE04BFD-85B9-49DD-B914-F4C9556B9DA6}\ShellFolder ?

OneBlue commented 5 months ago

Also another question: Is the "Windows subsystem for Linux" optional component enabled ?

adrianghc commented 5 months ago 
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{4FE04BFD-85B9-49DD-B914-F4C9556B9DA6}\ShellFolder]
"FolderValueFlags"=dword:00080000

The optional component is not installed on this machine, but it is on my other machine where the icon does not appear (the machine I mention in the last paragraph of the original post). You might be onto something there...

OneBlue commented 5 months ago

Thank you @adrianghc. This all looks correct.

Unfortunately I still can't reproduce the issue with the optional component enabled or disabled. Does enabling the optional component and then rebooting make the icon disappear ?

adrianghc commented 5 months ago

Yes, that is indeed exactly what happens (though it also disappears from the File Explorer sidebar then).

OneBlue commented 5 months ago

Hmm I guess that does makes sense since that would overwrite the registry keys. If you uninstall and then reinstall WSL with the optional component enabled, does the icon come back ?

adrianghc commented 5 months ago

It does not come back in this case. And that would explain the difference between my two machines.

syberphunk commented 2 months ago

This happened to me out of the blue, having uninstalled WSL, the Linux icon re-appeared, and clicking upon it had Windows 11 complain at me that 'WSL components were missing'. I had to either recreate the registry entry, or uninstall WSL with wsl.exe --uninstall - I chose the latter.

akaSugarfly commented 2 months ago

This happened to me out of the blue, having uninstalled WSL, the Linux icon re-appeared, and clicking upon it had Windows 11 complain at me that 'WSL components were missing'. I had to either recreate the registry entry, or uninstall WSL with wsl.exe --uninstall - I chose the latter.

Woa thanks, that helped in my case. In the past I tested WSL but uninstalled it. The icon re-appeared after I fiddled arround with networkdrives.

YoLolo69 commented 2 months ago

Ok, it just happened for me. I found WSL was installed by MS Store few minutes before this scary little Penguin appeared on my desktop. I ran all Anti Virus & Malware tools I could think about. Thanks I landed here, and used the mentioned "wsl.exe --uninstall" through Admin Powershell command to get ride of it. Weird this cannot be uninstalled through the MS Store or Windows installed App or Components...

danilo73r commented 2 months ago

I have the same problem!!!

danilo73r commented 2 months ago

here is a workaround:

https://www.brainbytez.nl/windows/windows-11-hide-remove-wsl-linux-icon-from-desktop/ https://www.tweaknow.com/RegTweakHideDesktopIcons.php https://www.reddit.com/r/windows/comments/185fyx2/linux_icon_on_my_desktop_that_i_cant_remove_not/

danilo73r commented 2 months ago

This is strange, i had to install docker desktop, the installation seems to activate WSL in the "Windows features on/off".

So i removed the registry dword (the workaround), it is not needed when you activate wsl in win features.

Crystal-RainSlide commented 2 months ago

I got the "Linux" Explorer sidebar entry and the desktop icon after uninstalling WSL on different machines some months ago.

Both the fixes works for me:

1:

Run wsl.exe --uninstall again.

If you just uninstalled WSL, you might want to restart Windows before doing so to make sure nothing will interfere.

It will remove the whole HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{B2B4A4D1-2754-4140-A2EB-9A76D9D7CDC6}, instead of the pin-point fix below, which keeps that entry intact.

2:

Remove the Explorer sidebar entry:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{B2B4A4D1-2754-4140-A2EB-9A76D9D7CDC6}]
"System.IsPinnedToNameSpaceTree"=dword:00000000

Remove the the desktop icon:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{B2B4A4D1-2754-4140-A2EB-9A76D9D7CDC6}]

The icons won't re-appear for me and I didn't test it, since I got the settings sync disabled. If you only got 1 machine synced, then it should be fixed after you deal with it and sync the settings.

aceaslee commented 2 months ago

Hey you guys. I found the simple way to fix this.

  1. click the search box on windows and search "wsl"
  2. right-click on that wsl icon, then click "Open file location"
  3. In that folder which contains startmenu, you can find 'wsl' icon which is a shortcut to the wsl.exe in System32 folder.
  4. delete the shortcut in that folder and then the desktop icon, 'linux' will also be automatically removed.

Simply, find the shortcut in the start menu folder in your windows, then delete the appropriate shortcut (wsl) to disappear the icon (linux) in your desktop.

kaizenlpi commented 2 months ago

UNSUBSCRIBE

On Fri, Jun 14, 2024, 4:36 PM Danilo A. @.***> wrote:

This is strange, i have to install docker desktop, the installation seems to activate WSL in the "Windows features on/off".

So i removed the registry dword (the workaround), it is not needed when you activate wsl in win features.

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/11347#issuecomment-2168728089, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABIZ6L3I2BYAYZLZWSQ7T3LZHNH3ZAVCNFSM6AAAAABFDU7V3SVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDCNRYG4ZDQMBYHE . You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: @.***>

tianjyan commented 1 month ago

Hey you guys. I found the simple way to fix this.

  1. click the search box on windows and search "wsl"
  2. right-click on that wsl icon, then click "Open file location"
  3. In that folder which contains startmenu, you can find 'wsl' icon which is a shortcut to the wsl.exe in System32 folder.
  4. delete the shortcut in that folder and then the desktop icon, 'linux' will also be automatically removed.

Simply, find the shortcut in the start menu folder in your windows, then delete the appropriate shortcut (wsl) to disappear the icon (linux) in your desktop.

Not work for me.

Crashim03 commented 3 weeks ago

Was this ever solved? I got the same issue