Guide: Disable Check Mark Badges in OneDrive: Guide
On Windows 10, OneDrive uses different types of badges to communicate file statuses. For the most part, they serve their purpose well by letting you know if your files are actively syncing or already synced to the cloud. But only until you change the File Explorer view mode to List or Detail, where it gets tricky. Needless to say, the green checkmarks displayed over fully synced items don’t quite match the tiny icons that represent the list and detail modes. feature, making it nearly impossible to distinguish between certain file types. For example, when was the last time you accidentally opened a Word document thinking it was an Excel spreadsheet? However, OneDrive doesn’t offer a built-in way to turn off these check mark badges, or none of the other status badges. Fortunately, you use a shell extension viewer to get the job done. If you don’t like third party applications, you will also find a solution that can alleviate the problem to some extent.
Using NirSoft ShellExView
Nirsoft ShellExView is a completely free application that allows you to quickly locate and remove shell extensions associated with the green check marks in OneDrive. Use the button below to download it in ZIP format or as an installable .exe file. Download ShellExView After extracting or installing ShellExView, launch the application with administrator privileges and wait for a while while it loads up a list of all shell extensions on your PC. Note: ShellExView should start with administrator rights by default. If not, right-click on the executable file ‘shexview’ in the extracted or installed location and then click Run as administrator.
Once it does, scroll down and find the extensions labeled ‘UpToDateCloudOverlayHandler Class’, ‘UpToDatePinnedOverlayHandler Class’ and ‘UpToDateUnpinnedOverlayHandler Class’. Then hold down the Ctrl key and click each extension to select all three. Finally, right-click and choose the Disable Selected Items option from the popupup menu.
After that, exit the application and restart your PC. Go to the OneDrive folder and you should no longer see green check marks. Regardless, you’ll still see badges related to active sync, sharing, errors, etc., although they shouldn’t be too much of a problem in terms of icon visibility. Note: To re-enable the checkmarks at a later time, right-click the disabled shell extensions in ShellExView and then select Enable Selected Items. If you want to remove other badges in OneDrive, you must disable the following shell extensions via ShellExView. However, it is really not recommended to do that as there is no way to identify useful statuses or potential issues that arise when syncing files. Again, consider disabling these status badges only when you really need to. For example, disabling the ‘ErrorOverlayHandler Class’ extension is not a good idea as you are not aware of sync issues unless you just want to rely on OneDrive notifications.
Workaround – Switch to files on demand
While OneDrive doesn’t offer a built-in option to remove checkmarks from fully synced files, you can move the badges from the file icons themselves to their own separate column. To do that, you need to enable Files On-Demand feature within OneDrive. However, this changes the standard functionality of OneDrive quite drastically. While this does not affect files already synced to your computer, items uploaded from other devices should only be displayed up as placeholders on your PC until you choose to open or download them. Note: To enable Files On-Demand, your PC must be running at least the Fall Creator’s Update (version 1709) of Windows 10. Click the OneDrive icon in the system tray, then click More. Click Settings in the context menu.
Switch to the Settings tab and click the box next to Files On Demand. Finally, click OK to save your changes.
Go to the OneDrive folder and you should see all badges individually in a dedicated status column. Even when using other display modes such as List or Large icons, status badges are displayed independently of file icons. Note: All files uploaded from other devices should have cloud-shaped status icons. While these items are automatically downloaded upon access, you can also choose to right-click and select Always on this device to download them manually.
No more confusion
So you’ve now gone through two methods you can use to stop those green check mark badges from getting in your way. Simply use ShellExView to delete them completely, or the Files on Demand solution to make them less bad. Hopefully there is no more confusion between file types.
Disable Check Mark Badges in OneDrive: Guide: benefits
Faq
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