Can't remove dropbox folder icon from Win File Explorer

[Isaksp00]

Since Dropbox recently limited free accounts to three devices I had to delete it from my desktop PC and a laptop. The deletion from the laptop went OK. The deletion from the desktop (Windows 10) occurred, but left a sort of transparent document icon in File Explorer. See screen snap. I can't delete this, even after a reboot. If I right click on the icon there is no delete option, nor can I use the delete key if I click on it - nothing happens. Any ideas on how to force a deletion? It seems to be a shortcut type link that points to the now deleted dropbox folder on the C drive.

Thanks.

 

[Walter]

Thanks for following up on this @isaksp02!

I just found your ticket on our system and got back to you through that - to expedite matters further. 

Whenever you get the chance, please take a look at your inbox for my message and we'll pick this up from there. 

Talk soon 

[isaksp02 · Accepted solution]

I found a fix by using regedit to search the registry for the string "c:\users\peter\dropbox". If you use this, obviously the string would be the name that is in the Properties dialog box of your ghost system folder icon. It found one entry, "under" a clsid. See screen shot below. I searched for the string that is the clsid (the thing between curly braces), and found it in several places. One of them was here: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{E31EA727-12ED-4702-820C-4B6445F28E1A} That contained these values:

Name        Type        Data

(Default)   REG_SZ  Dropbox

I figured from the other data similar to it in the registry that it is where file explorer finds the info it uses to display these icons over to the left. For example, the value right above that reg entry is similar and has "data" = "Onedrive", which is another icon in file explorer. I deleted the key and the ghost icon is gone. Now, since the clsid appears in other places in the registry I likely have some leftover, useless data, but I hope it is not harmful.