I setup this wonderful application – Google Drive for Desktop – to sync files and folders I create on desktop to Google Drive. I specifically created a separate Gmail account just for backup and linked it through the application. That’s a free 15GB cloud drive. This application has an option to show up Google Drive as a separate drive with it’s own drive letter. If something goes wrong and my PC won’t start or crashes, I can safely access them on other system and continue my work. Even if I delete the file accidentally from desktop and emptied it from Recycle Bin, they will be available for 30 days in Google Drive – that’s a good thing.
There is an issue. It ads an overlay of green checkmark on the icons and it covers almost 50% of the icon, making it ugly and difficult to find the file I am looking.
I searched Google and seems everybody is facing this issue and even though users complaining it since 2021, Google never listened to it. If Google puts select / deselect option for this sync indicator, it would be a relief for many.
Until Google implements it, follow this registry hack to remove the green mark.
Open registry editor by pressing Windows Button and typing registry editor. Go to the entry:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers
And delete the four folders down this key. Check below pic.
Restart the system and you can see that now desktop icons are back to normal.
As this is a registry hack, whenever the application updates, you need to redo this.