Yes, I’m 100% sure it’s a minor bug. It’s not critical, but some people (like me) prefer full control over their desktop and want to avoid unnecessary clutter. I even tried uninstalling another security program as well as Norton, then reinstalling Norton. Despite deleting the shortcut multiple times, it kept coming back. For now, I just leave the shortcut on my desktop as a workaround. This is on all 3 of my machines.
It appears this started after an update last week. The bug seems to cause Norton to re-add the desktop shortcut during all update instances, which it normally didn’t do before except for major updates, where that behavior would be expected.
I am not a pro, and I am just guessing here but just don’t have the time to truly investigate this.
@JJGolf5343@David_Topchik As a test for the icon reappearing issue. I’ve removed the N60 desktop icon and rebooted three times this morning on my Windows 10 Pro machine. The icon has NOT reappeared. I haven’t tested on Windows 11 Pro laptops as of this posting, will post results in that regard when I have that done. Trying to determine whether, one of the several automatic live updates that happen during any given day causes the icon to be replaced. That is my suspicion. Next will be how to prevent that if possible.
Edited: Just a thought that may or may not have been introduced before now. Have any of you disabled “Allow themes to change desktop icons” in Settings > Personalization > Themes > Desktop icon settings to prevent themes from resetting your layout ?
I too just did a test of removing the 360 icon from my Win 11 Pro laptop. Yesterday I removed the 360 icon from my Windows desktop. I then did a system restart and the icon was not replaced. I repeated this again with the same result. I then Shut Down, with no Fast startup feature enabled, and when I started up this morning, the icon still not getting replaced.
As for the “Allow themes to change desktop icons”, I never looked at or changed that setting before. This is what I found as the default setting.
Live updates which are only definitions are not causing the icon to reappear my side either. Waiting for an update, silent or otherwise to slip in and see if that causes the icon to appear again. I suspect that it will. If that ends up being the case it will be in line with Windows Updates making system changes every single time.
That’s my default setting for themes as well. I have three machines—two HP desktops and one Surface laptop. The laptop doesn’t have any additional security software installed, and one of the HP desktops only has four programs installed and has been used as a server.
I’ll go ahead and remove the Norton shortcuts from all three systems and see if the issue is resolved and the shortcut does not return. I’ll also do a quick cleanup while I’m at it. It’s not a critical issue, but I’ll follow up either way and live with it either way. One last note, on one machine, there was no restart and the shortcut returned.
I spoke too soon. I restarted twice yesterday with no issues, but this morning I restarted the three machines that had been off overnight, and the Norton shortcut showed up again on two of them.
I’m not very experienced with these PC processes, but based on what I’ve read via AI, my guess is that an update may not be installing properly. It might be detecting an incomplete installation possibly due to another program and then triggering a full reinstall from a recent update, which is why the shortcut reappears. My only question; why has this not been happening all along with Norton updates? Nothing new has been installed to trigger compatibility issues? Knowing the recent issues with Windows updates-maybe something there. But only my machine.
Anyway, all is just a guess, though. For now, I’ll leave the shortcut on the desktop since it’s not causing any real problems. No big concern and no need to follow up on this further.
My system does an auto reboot late every evening and the desktop shortcut reappears every time after that. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Norton 360 using the Norton tool. The the desktop shortcut still appears after each reboot.
jeg gav dem en kæmpe opgradering om at gøre 979 super igen ikke det der med at springer over hvor de kunne hele tiden nu må vi se om de vil lytte fordi alle hader dem lige nu
This is what I got in AI but I truly do not utilize these as 100% to be honest. Passing along-as I do not think Norton ever had logic to keep a desktop Icon always visible. I have never had it as a shortcut. ———————————————————– AI RESPONSE: Yes, there’s a reason, and it’s actually a fairly common annoyance with Norton 360. Here’s what’s going on and why it might be happening repeatedly on all three of your machines:
1. Desktop Icon Recreation Behavior
Norton 360 has a feature that ensures certain shortcuts are always present on the desktop for easy access to its tools. After updates or certain repairs, Norton might think the shortcut is missing and automatically recreate it. If this process keeps happening daily, it usually means Norton is repeatedly detecting the icon as “missing” or “incorrectly configured.”
2. Possible Causes
User Permissions / Profile Settings: If your user account doesn’t allow Norton to write persistent changes in the desktop folder, the icon might disappear temporarily, prompting Norton to recreate it.
System Cleanup Tools: Some cleanup apps or Windows settings may remove or hide desktop icons automatically, which Norton interprets as a missing icon.
Corrupt Norton Profile / Installation: If Norton’s installation files or user profile data are corrupted, it may fail to remember that the icon already exists.
Cloud Syncing / Roaming Profiles: On machines where desktop folders are synced via OneDrive or other cloud services, Norton might repeatedly add the icon if it detects it’s missing in the cloud version.
De lyttede der kom ikke en mandag nu kommer der kun når de er sikker eller klar da den er ustabil for alle 979 men jeg vil tro der går max 10 dage men husk det er kun ca det kan være ny version fredag men det er når de er sikker ikke før
Everyone: Just got the latest version update, upon system reboot the desktop icon DID reappear. So it IS a now known fact that NGC or product version updates will indeed force the reapplication of the icon. Windows 10 Pro checked, I haven’t checked for updates on my Windows 11 Pro machines to validate there as of this posting.
Yes, Norton has always added a desktop shortcut after major updates. I was just about to mention that we can expect the shortcut after any major update.
What I’m curious about is whether they’ve changed this behavior so that the shortcut now appears even after minor definition updates or other smaller changes. Previously, this never happened, and I’ve never had to delete the shortcut daily.
I’m currently running an experiment on all three machines to see if this is a personal issue. As of now, I’ve removed the shortcut and will monitor whether it reappears. I’ll provide images if needed, unless Norton has already changed this behavior in the recent update, in which case it might not be an ongoing issue.
Bad news: For reasons unknown, the Norton program shortcut now always appears on the desktop no matter if deleted for me. This did not happen several weeks ago or previously on two of my three machines. There have been no other general program updates that could explain this behavior.
Good news: The shortcut does not break anything and is not a critical issue. I will simply leave the Norton shortcut on my desktop.
If there isn’t a solution for you to mark we can close the thread without one and make it so that no more posts can be placed. Let us know if that is what you want us to do. The thread will remain visible for reading regardless of not being able to post. Glad we could assist.
