How do I remove the 'Recent Places' icon from my Windows 7 desktop?

Question

How do I remove the 'Recent Places' icon from my Windows 7 desktop? I did something in Windows File Explorer and now it's just there. I can't delete it by right clicking on it or drag it to the recycling bin! Anyone encounter this one yet?

Answer 1

To solve the problem

Open "Computer" and drag "Recent Places" to your Favorites in the sidebar

Afterwards MAKE SURE YOU refresh your desktop by clicking on an empty space of your desktop and pressing the F5 key or right clicking the Desktop and selecting "Refresh" from the context menu.

The Recent Places icon belongs in Favorites but can sometimes accidentely be moved out, creating an odd and frustrating link. Moving it back solves the problem.

Answer 2

That didn't work for me but this did:

Quoted from http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/156440-recent-places-desktop.html

Question, do you still see "recent places" in the windows explorer under "favorites"?

If you do still see it there, it could be that at some point you tried to manually clear the recent places history by clicking into it and deleting the entries. Doing this can sometimes cause the desktop recycle bin icon to change to the name+icon of recent places. To resolve that, right click the desktop, choose personalize, then change desktop icons and un-tick "recycle bin", click OK. Then click change desktop icons once again and put a tick back in recycle bin and click OK. Recent places will be gone from the desktop and the recycle bin will be back.

If you do not see recent places in the windows explorer window, drag it back under the "favorites" area and you should be able to remove the duplicate after doing this."