[jsaklas]

I will never use OneDrive.  I did the following which was supposed to uninstall it (I'm running Window 10 and Classic Windows.):

 

In the Run prompt:

 

taskkill /f /im OneDrive.exe

 

 

then

 

%SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\OneDriveSetup.exe /uninstall

 

I don't know if this worked.  However, I still have the OneDrive on my desktop.

 

How can I remove OneDrive icon (and the Libraries icon) from my desktop?

 

 

I also would like to stop the automatic re-ordering of my desktop icons, but perhaps this should be a separate topic.

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Removing icons from the desktop is often not automatic and you may very well have an orphan icon for OneDrive.  The way you can verify that it is indeed an orphan is to try to open it.  Given what you've said you've done it will most likely give you a "target program not found" (or similar) warning.  Then it's nothing more than dragging it to the recycle bin.  You can drag any icon on your desktop to the recycle bin if you don't want it there (that doesn't remove the underlying program or object, though, just desktop access to it).

 

I don't know exactly what you mean by automatic re-ordering but all aspects of arrangement and sorting of desktop icons can be controlled by right clicking in a blank area of the desktop and taking a look at the View and Sort options in the context menu.  I let my icons align to grid but I do not auto-arrange nor do I use any sort option.

[britechguy]

Removing icons from the desktop is often not automatic and you may very well have an orphan icon for OneDrive.  The way you can verify that it is indeed an orphan is to try to open it.  Given what you've said you've done it will most likely give you a "target program not found" (or similar) warning.  Then it's nothing more than dragging it to the recycle bin.  You can drag any icon on your desktop to the recycle bin if you don't want it there (that doesn't remove the underlying program or object, though, just desktop access to it).

 

I don't know exactly what you mean by automatic re-ordering but all aspects of arrangement and sorting of desktop icons can be controlled by right clicking in a blank area of the desktop and taking a look at the View and Sort options in the context menu.  I let my icons align to grid but I do not auto-arrange nor do I use any sort option.

[jsaklas]

britechguy,

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

1.  However, dragging the icon for OneDrive and Libraries to the recycle bin does NOT work;  the icons to do not delete.

2.  By re-ordering, I mean that each time I start the computer, W 10 moves all my icons to the leftmost side of the desktop and puts them in an order different than the one I had them in when I turned off the computer.  Checking VIEW after right clicking shows that Auto Arrange is NOT checked.  Checking SORT BY shows that no option is checked.

 

Lastly, this problem showed up only after the last update to WIndows 10.  You would think that after working with Windows for 30+ years I would learn to never update it.

[britechguy]

It appears that you have something "not right" with Windows 10 itself.

 

You could, as a first step, try running the following command in a command prompt session that's elevated to run as administrator:

 

                DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

 

Then restart your system and see if your icons stop rearranging and/or whether you can drag the OneDrive icon to the recycle bin.  If that doesn't help there are a couple of other checks that can be done prior to, if necessary, doing a Reset on the system.  If this has been going on since "day one" and you don't have anything to lose (that is, you have backups of your user data and any programs you might need to install from things like CD/DVD) then I'd consider a full Reset immediately after trying the DISM if that doesn't work.

[jsaklas]

britechguy,

 

This problem did not exist for the first 10 months I've been running Windows 10; it only arose after the most recent Windows 10 update about 3 weeks ago.  [Good ol' Microsoft, updates have caused me annoyances with every version since Windows 95.]

 

I'm not that computer savvy (I'm on Medicare.) so I don't know what you mean by:  "in a command prompt session that's elevated to run as administrator"  This is my personal computer, so I assume I'm the administrator?

[britechguy]

Even when your own user account has administrator privileges, programs will not run with those by default, you must explicitly cause it to happen.

 

If you pull up Command Prompt either via a search or you have the icon placed somewhere for easy access, if you right click on it you will find "Run as Administrator" somewhere under the context menu.  It's very obvious if it's pulled up with a search or the icon is on your desktop, it's hidden under the "More" option of the context menu that shows up if you right click on an icon you've placed in your start menu.  All you have to do is choose that option.  The frame around the window will note, "Adminstrator: Comand Prompt" rather than just "Command Prompt" when you're running with administrator privilege.

[jsaklas]

britechguy

 

When I typed Command Prompt into the Search block, what came up was a black window with what appears as DOS with C:\Users\Baba:  prompt.   (I am Baba, my wife also uses this computer and has a different name.)

 

While I don't remember much about DOS, I do know the right clicking will get me nowhere.

 

 

Jim

[britechguy]

It is amazingly frustrating to give someone clear, step-by-step instructions and have them ignore it.

 

You RIGHT CLICK on the ICON FOR COMMAND PROMPT then you pick RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR from the context menu and it will then open in Administrator mode.  Command Prompt is exactly what you describe - the later Windows interface that looks like DOS.  It allows you to enter commands, and I gave you the very command.

 

There is nothing else I can do.  Either follow the instructions or don't.