[SOLVED] Desktop Icon appears for optical drive and usb drives

I have been unable to find an answer to this and I don't believe it is typical behavior of Windows 7.

I am a new user to windows 7 and have noticed that when I insert a cd/dvd or a usb thumb drive, an icon for it appears on the desktop and then dissapears once it is removed. I feel this is unnecessary as a window pops up allowing me to explore the drive. Is there a way to disable this feature?

Thank you.

To my knowledge this is not typical windows 7 behavior, I know I have never seen it on the 4 Windows machines I support, but I understand it is normal for linux.

There are programs to create this functionality, such as "Desk Drive" and I would suspect your computer may have had such a program installed, perhaps as one of the freebee apps the manufacturer installed. You would have to locate the app and turn it off.

Perhaps someone else has other ideas.

Thank you for the reply. My computer does not have that program installed. I built the computer myself and installed a fresh copy of Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit retail. It happened right out of the box so I'm not sure why.

I wonder if it could be caused by a gadget (I have gadgets disabled)?

I didn't see any option to disable gadgets, but I have not enabled any gadgets and don't have any running as far as I can see (nothing is on the desktop).

Thanks.

To disable gadgets you would have to go into Control Panel \ Programs and Features and pick Turn Windows Features On & Off BUT I would first just recommend using the instructions from Microsoft in my post above just to see what gadgets are running and then list them here so I can check to see if it's possible it my be doing what you see.

You might also install SIW from our Freeware DB and go to: File ... Create Report ... HTML. Then zip the result and use the Post Reply button (rather than the quick reply box) and attach the file using the paperclip icon. With that file it's possible to look for installed apps that may be causing what you are seeing.

I did what you said to check gadgets, and even clicking on SHOW DETAILS I do not see it giving any information on whether the gadget is installed or not. I tried installing a gadget and saw no difference in the list.

But, unless gadgets install themselves, I don't think that is the problem because this situation happened as soon as I freshly installed windows. before installing any other software. I noticed it when I first inserted a CD to install some software. So I don't believe providing an SIW list will help. And I'm not sure I'm comfortable providing all of that info on the web.

But thank you for the help. If anyone else has any ideas I would love to hear them, otherwise I will just live with it.

Thank you.

SIW will show all programs installed including those that come with the OS. It has to be a running program (if not a gadget then something else) that is in memory and triggers when a device is inserted.

Basically I'm just trying to find out what is running so they can be looked up to figure out which one is doing what you described but it's up to you.

I wound up fixing this problem. I forgot that I had installed virtual CD right after installing windows 7. It was as option in virtual cd to show drive icons on the desktop when media is inserted.

Thank you.