How to remove “Learn more about this picture” icon in Windows 11

You can remove the "Learn more about this picture" Windows Spotlight Icon from the desktop in Windows 11 if you find its presence annoying. So you can keep Spotlight for serving your wallpapers, but without its icon.

Spotlight is a feature that is familiar to most Windows users. It is available starting in Windows 10. There, Microsoft added it as a Lock Screen background option. So every time you lock the screen, you see a fresh gorgeous background image downloaded from the Internet.

With Windows 11, Microsoft goes even further by expanding  Spotlight to the Desktop. It allows you to set it as a desktop background, so you can enjoy impressive nature shots, landscapes and scenery without locking your PC. It will change your wallpaper automatically.

When Spotlight is set as your desktop background, it adds an extra icon, Learn more about this picture. The purpose of the Windows Spotlight desktop icon is to show your extra information about the current image. This works even for stock wallpapers. Also, the icon has a context menu, from where you can switch to the next background image, or upvote/downvote the current one.

As of now, Windows 11 doesn't offer any option anywhere in settings to hide the icon from desktop. So once you choose Spotlight to maintain wallpapers, it will remain always visible. To remove the "Learn more about this picture" desktop icon, you need to apply a Registry tweak.

So, if you want to remove the Spotlight icon from the Desktop in Windows 11, do the following.

Remove "Learn more about this picture" icon from Desktop

1. Press the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog, and type regedit in the Run box.
2. In the Registry Editor that opens, navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel key.
3. Right-click the NewStartPanel key on the left, and select New > DWORD (32-bit) value from the menu.
4. Set the value name to {2cc5ca98-6485-489a-920e-b3e88a6ccce3} and double-click to change its data.
5. Change the {2cc5ca98-6485-489a-920e-b3e88a6ccce3} value data from 0 to 1.
6. Now, right-click anywhere on your desktop and select Refresh from the menu. The Windows Spotlight icon will disappear from the Desktop.

As you can see in the screenshot below, the "Learn more about this picture" icon is no longer present on the Desktop.

You are done. You can restore the icon at any moment later by removing the {2cc5ca98-6485-489a-920e-b3e88a6ccce3} value you have created from the Registry.

Ready-to-use Registry files

Instead of going through Registry jungles, you can use the REG files I've created to save your time.

Download this ZIP archive and extract its contents to any folder location convenient to you.

Now, open the file remove windows spotlight icon from desktop.reg. You may be prompted by the User Account Control; if so, click on the Yes button.

Once opened the file, refresh your desktop. This is how you remove the Windows Spotlight icon from the desktop in Windows 11.

Finally, the other file add windows spotlight icon to desktop.reg is the undo tweak. Open it to restore the icon.

It is worth noting some alternative methods you can use instead of the Registry modifications.

Using Winaero Tweaker

You can use Winaero Tweaker to get rid of the Spotlight desktop icon. Starting with version 1.40 it includes a new option for that.

Download the app from here, install and run. Now, navigate to Windows 11 > Windows Spotlight Desktop Icon in the left pane.

On the right, place a checkmark next to the "Disable Windows Spotlight Desktop Icon" option, and you are good to go. You may need to refresh the desktop manually, or sign out from your user account to apply the change.

If you occasionally change your time, you can revert the change with a couple of click. Just open Windows 11 > Windows Spotlight Desktop Icon on the left, and uncheck the setting in the right panel.

Winaero Tweaker has a number of other options you may find useful as a Windows 11 user. It allows enabling full extended context menus instead of the compact ones, and show tray icons in two or even three rows, and much more. There are hundreds of options that add extra value to the OS.

The app supports exporting and importing of the changes you made, you can easily transfer them across your devices, or restore after a clean install.

Remove the Spotlight icon from desktop in Windows 11

Alternatively, you can a freeware opensource app called ExplorerPatcher. It allows customizing several areas of Windows 11 without learning about tweaks or doing much manually. The ability to hide the Spotlight desktop icon is one of its features.

Here's how use ExplorerPatcher to hide the Spotlight desktop icon in Windows 11.

1. Download the actual app version from author's Github page.
2. Run the downloaded file and follow the setup wizard.
3. When done, you will have a Windows 10-like taskbar. Right-click it and select Properties from the menu.
4. Go to the Spotlight section on the left, and select the Hide the "Learn about this picture" icon option.
5. Finally, if you don't like the Windows 10 taskbar, you can switch to the newer one under the Taskbar section.

You are done. Regardless of the method you used, you will no longer have the Windows Spotlight icon on the desktop.

You can uninstall ExplorerPatcher like any other app in Windows 11. For that, open Settings (Win + I), and head over the Apps > Installed apps section. There, find ExplorerPatcher in the list and click on the three dots button next to it. Finally, select Uninstall to remove the app from your operating system.

That's it!

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