How to Remove a Blank Icon?

from Stardock Forums

There is a blank icon on my dock. Just underneath the icon is a small white triangle. I don't know how this blank icon got onto my dock, but I can't get rid of it.

When I right-click on the blank icon, there is no context menu entry to remove it, and if I drag it off the dock it just comes right back.

I don't even know what the icon represents. It has no name, and if I right-click on the icon one of the context menu entries says: Run ''

How can I get rid of this thing?

objectdock
9,398 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Try this.  Edit CurrentTheme.ini in this folder:  C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Stardock\ObjectDockPlus, where <username> is your actual username.  See if you can locate the rogue icon within the others and manually delete the entry.

For example, here's my icon for Internet Explorere:

[Item(1-11)]
Type=Shortcut
Target=C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
RunVisibility=5
UsePopup=0
IconManuallySet=1
TextManuallySet=1
UnpinnedLink=0
Title=Internet Explorer
Image=.\bundled images\misc icons\internet.png

You might have to renumber the remaining icons here --> ([Item(1-11)], but I don't know if that's necessary.

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top


There is a blank icon on my dock. Just underneath the icon is a small white triangle. I don't know how this blank icon got onto my dock, but I can't get rid of it.

When I right-click on the blank icon, there is no context menu entry to remove it, and if I drag it off the dock it just comes right back.

I don't even know what the icon represents. It has no name, and if I right-click on the icon one of the context menu entries says: Run ''

How can I get rid of this thing?
End of quote
The white triangle sounds like a running indicator. If the icon is for a running app, it can't be removed from the dock while running. Try right clicking on the dock, select View and then Show Names. Does it show the name for the blank Icon under it? If so, shut down whatever it represents in Taskmanager, then remove it.

 You may also be able to start up in Safe Mode and remove the icon, but if it's malware, it will be back. if so, you might want to run Rkill to kill the process,  and then Malwarebytes to clean it out.

 

WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Thanks to both of you.

After a restart, the blank icon and its white triangle were gone!

This might mean that the blank icon did, in fact, represent a running application.

In any case, this has given me the opportunity to delve more deeply into ObjectDock than I normally would, which has been instructive.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

I have solved my problem.

First, the blank icon belonged to ApplicationFrameHost.exe, a Windows system function.

To make it disappear I opened ObjectDock settings and turned off "Show running applications on my dock."

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

My eyes must be bad, I don't even see an option to show running apps on my doc.

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting gevansmd, reply 5

My eyes must be bad, I don't even see an option to show running apps on my doc.
End of gevansmd's quote

Right click dock...'dock options' - 'settings' - 'view' ...;)

Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top

What version are you running?  I don't have 'dok options', just settings -> setings.