Windows 10: Doc folder contents display on desktop

The contents of my documents folder permanently display all over my desktop. Ive heard this is a common problem but cannot find a resolution

Help

:)

 

Windows Registry

The Desktop folder does not "run as an exe". Explorer displays the content of a number of folders and displays them on the screen.

 

Windows 10 File Explorer Preview Pane Word Doc fix

Hmmm; Well, This works displaying a Thumbnail (TN) for NEW Word docs on the desktop, but not for re-saving an existing doc to the desktop or in a folder.

It DID work a few times creating a new Word doc in a folder ... which was exciting.

But for some reason after I tried re-saving an existing doc as a TN, neither it or a new Word doc will show in Preview Pane in a folder. They will still show as a TN on desktop, but not in a folder.

And of course this does not resolve the issue for all my existing Word docs in various folders (Unless I would open all, re-save as Thumbnail, and it worked in folders ... which now it does not).

Again: For some reason Preview Pane does not work on only Word docs.

Does File Explorer, or some other component, need to be somehow 'Fixed' or re-installed?

Tx! Al

 

Hi and welcome.
Never heard of that problem, what's your default place to save documents ? Some times it defaults to Desktop.

 

Default is the documents folder. Which they appear in, but they also cover my entire desktop.

 

Any suggestions please?

 

What path do you see when you hit "Properties" on your "Documents" folder and switch to "Location" tab?

 

Can you post a screenshot? Attachments and Images

 

D:\Tony

My C drive is just a 256GB SSD containing the OS and and so I 'think' I set up all the storage to save on the D drive (it was 5 years ago) which is a separate 1TB unit so I think its a mess of my own doing. I can obviously restore the default location of the documents folder to C:\Tony but I want the keep the OS drive clean as possible

Even so, I still dont understand why everything appears on my desktop??

 

Check the properties for your Desktop folder to make sure its not pointing to your Documents folder. If you moved the location of both its an easy mistake to click the wrong folder when selecting the new destination.

 

Thanks for the screenshot, btw, Nice horse!

If the properties for your desktop folder seem okay, see this:

The one thing I'd be careful about is whether or not your SSD could be considered a HHD for this exercise, you should look for an alphanumeric registry key that matches it.

One way to find that is to go to the drive properties and under the Details tab of either the SSD and HDD and scroll down until you see Device class guid and that will show you the key number in the registry.

You may have to experiment to see which one makes the duplicates go away, I'm thinking it's the SSD because this involves the OS and Windows graphical interface, but, I'd start with the HDD guid first.



Note Make sure you create a restore point before you start working on the registry

 

If I enter '.' from the Run box and check the location of the desktop shown there it says the location is C:\Users\Tony\Desktop

But if I open that it does not display what I'm seeing on my screen desktop

 

Thanks, I made that *Smile

Thank you for the help but I'm not confident to change the registry as I don't fully understand your post.

Its as if my displayed desktop is not the one stored at C:\Users\Tony\Desktop as that folder only contains 3 shortcuts,

The desktop that displays appears to be on my D drive as a shortcut with the target D:\Tony

Instead of moving my library folders default locations, it seems I've created duplicates

Its not the end of the world, I can live with it, its just annoying. What I intended was to leave the desktop on my SSD C Drive, but store all docs/downloads/pictures etc, on the D drive

 

"Its as if my displayed desktop is not the one stored at C:\Users\Tony\Desktop as that folder only contains 3 shortcuts, ... The desktop that displays appears to be on my D drive as a shortcut with the target D:\Tony"

If you open This PC> r-click Desktop> Properties/Location tab. That should verify which one is showing but your screen shot shows two Documents folders and no Desktop folder. This is why you don't see the Tony Desktop.
One of these Documents folders should be the Desktop folder, pointing to C:\Users\Tony\Desktop. Try the 'Restore Default' option for the correct Desktop/Docs folder.
Somehow, your 'Tony' profile is messed up. See if there's a Desktop folder in your C:\Users\Tony folder.
This tutorial may help restore Default folders and you can work back from there -
Users Personal Folders - Restore Default Location in Windows 10

 

C:\Users\your user name\Desktop is where it should be if you didn't change the location. I do but most people don't, even when they move the other folders. I'm not sure what is going on with your system to be honest.