How To Remove Internet Connection Wizard and Outlook Express Icons from the Desktop in Windows 2000

This article describes how to remove the Internet Connection Wizard (ICW) and Microsoft Outlook Express icons from the desktop of the default user profile.

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

To remove the ICW and Outlook Express icons from the desktop of the default user profile, use the appropriate method:

Unattended Installation of Windows 2000

1. Extract the Icwnt5.in_ and the Msoe50.in_ files from the Windows 2000 CD-ROM.
2. In the [Base.ICW.AddReg] section of the Icwnt5.inf file, place a semicolon character (;) at the beginning of the following lines, so that it looks like the following example:
   ;Do desktop icon
   ;HKCU,%KEY_RUNONCE%,"^SetupICWDesktop",,"%16422%\%LMSIE4%\%ICW_DIR%\icwconn1.exe /desktop"
3. In the [User.Stub.50] section of the Msoe50.inf file, place a semicolon character (;) at the beginning of the following line, so that it looks like the following example:
   ;HKLM,"Software\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\%GUID_OE%","StubPath",0x00020000,"""%ProgramFiles%\%STR_MAILNEWS_DIR%\setup50.exe"" %APP_OE% %CALLER% /user /install"
4. Copy the Icwnt5.inf and the Msoe50.inf files to the source folder, and then rename the Icwnt5.in_ file to Icwnt5.old, and the Msoe50.in_ file to Msoe50.old.

Note that because the driver signature is missing on the .inf files that you are using, you need to add the following line to the [Unattended] section of your unattended script to prevent a driver signature error message:

Existing Installation of Windows 2000

To remove Outlook Express shortcuts for all future profiles on an existing installation of Windows 2000, use Registry Editor to view and then delete the following registry key: To prevent the creation of ICW shortcuts for new profiles, use Registry Editor to load the Ntuser.dat file into the registry:

1. Click the HKEY_USERS dialog box, click Load Hive on the Registry menu, click the "Documents and Settings\Default User\Ntuser.dat" file, and then name the key Test.
2. View the following registry key:
   HKEY_USERS\Test\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Runonce
   Remove "^SetupICWDesktop : REG_SZ : C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\Connection Wizard\icwconn1.exe /desktop".
3. Click the Test hive, and then click Unload Hive on the Registry menu.

After you edit the Icwnt5.in_ and Msoe50.in_ files and perform a manual installation of Windows 2000, you may receive the following driver signature error messages when Windows 2000 registers the files: These error messages are expected because you are no longer using signed files, and are also logged in the Setupapi.log file.