How to hide common desktop icons on my profile?

I share a PC with some other people in the office (we all work different hours). They've installed a bunch of programs they use (AIM, etc...) that place a shortcut in C:\Users\Public\Desktop.

If I delete the icon, it's also going to be gone from their desktops as well. Is there a way to hide these icons on my desktop, yet have them be visible on other people's desktops?

There is no known way around it, but I know a little workaround: Select properties on the public folder, go to the security tab and revoke all permissions for your user profile, by dissalowing reading from it your account won't be able to see what shortcuts are inside \Public\Desktop\ - resulting in the behaviour you want - no icons/shortcuts will be loaded from it.

If they persist across all accounts its because they are present on the "public", "default" or "all users" profile, therefore global. If you want them out of your profile, copy them to an account-specific location and out of global locations.

you can do these changes at C:\Users , where "C" stands for your windows root.