The right question to ask is how to stop the machines from reading the desktop.ini
files in the first place, and from generating the network traffic. The wrong question to ask is how to make the server pretend that the files aren't there, which won't stop the clients from making the requests for those files to the fileserver.
Whenever a directory is marked with the read-only attribute, Explorer displays it according to what's specified in the desktop.ini
file in that directory. It sees the read-only attribute set, it goes and attempts to open and read a desktop.ini
file. The very simple answer here is to use the ATTRIB
command or something similar to remove the read-only attribute from all of these folders. Note that this will remove all folder customization from these folders.
Explorer doesn't let one change the read-only attribute using the properties dialogue. You have to use some other program such as ATTRIB
to do it.
Further reading
- Microsoft corporation (2011-06-28). You cannot view or change the Read-only or the System attributes of folders in Windows Server 2003, in Windows XP, in Windows Vista or in Windows 7. ID 326549. Microsoft KnowledgeBase.
- JP Software. ATTRIB. Take Command / TCC Help.