I've had this same problem for years. This is actually a problem with many apps. It seems like a marketing type move to me as a developer myself.
What is actually happening is, the software updates and checks to see if the Desktop Shortcut exists. When it cannot find it, it then creates it in C:\Users\Public\Desktop. This causes it to appear on every users desktop on the machine.
To combat this, I have created a PowerShell script that runs on a scheduled task on my computer. Each time I log into my computer, the script is ran which deletes everything in the Public Desktop. Below is my script if you would like to use it. I'll also post below the instructions of setting the scheduled task up.
Copy/Paste the script into the file name below into your users home directory (or any directory your user can access).
clear_public_desktop.ps1
$BasePath = "C:\Users\Public\Desktop\"
$DirectoryItems = Get-ChildItem -Path $BasePath
foreach ($Item in $DirectoryItems) {
if ((Get-Item ($BasePath + $Item)) -is [System.IO.DirectoryInfo]) {
Remove-Item ($BasePath + $Item) -Recurse
}
else {
Remove-Item ($BasePath + $Item)
}
}
Open File Explorer and navigate to C:\Users\Public and right-click on Desktop. Select Properties. Click "Security" tab at top. Click Edit. Select INTERACTIVE in the "Group or user names" pane. Select Full Control under Allow in the "Permissions for INTERACTIVE" pane. Click OK.
Next, you need to open Windows Task Scheduler. This can be opened by clicking the Start/Window button and typing "Task Scheduler".
At the top, click "Action", and then "Create Task".
In the new window, give the task a name. I named mine "Clear Public Desktop".
Click the "Triggers" tab at the top and click "New". Click the dropdown next to "Begin the task" and select "At log on". Click OK.
Select the Actions tab at the top of the window. Click New. Make sure the dropdown next to "Action" says "Start a program". If not, then make the change. Click "Browse". Navigate to the script you made above and select it.
Click the "Conditions" tab at the top of the window. Make sure all checkboxes under "Power" are not checked.
Click OK
At this point, you will be prompted for a user/password to use for running this script.
Congratulations! You are now beating "The Man" at his own game.
NOTE: If this is a work computer, your IT department could have you blocked from running scheduled tasks. If this happens, there is a way around that via WSL/Bash/Cron Jobs. However, this is a more advanced method and would require more permission configurations and scripts.
NOTE: This will delete everything in the C:\Users\Public\Desktop. You may want to check and see if there are shortcuts or files in that directory that you use and add them to your user's desktop or use another shared folder.
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