If those steps you performed did not remove that icon from your screen, restart (not shut down) your PC, that should flush out your RAM and remove that icon from your screen.
"forbidden" icon in the middle of my screen windows 11 I can't get rid of
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(144, 6%, 23%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EE%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Erwin
10
Reputation points
i am drag file from explorer to another explorer and "forbidden" icon stuck in the moddle of my screen
what i tried:
- open task manager via "ctrl + alt + del" and restart explorer
- restart graphic via "start + ctrl + shift + b"
how to remove the "forbidden" icon without restarting my windows?
Windows for home | Windows 11 | Display and graphics
2 answers
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DaveM121 946.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor2025-08-26T10:33:38.66+00:00 -
Erwin 10 Reputation points
2025-08-26T10:46:54.67+00:00 thanks for your answer
any other suggesion?
i am still working and cant close my apps
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(284.8, 24%, 37%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EDP%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Danil Perepelyak 10 Reputation points2026-08-25T19:26:17.1133333+00:00 This drives me crazy. That icon is everywhere—and right in the middle, too. It sometimes pops up when I drag a file in File Explorer, and for some reason, whenever that icon appears, File Explorer freezes as well. I restart it through Task Manager, but the icon still stays there.
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(70.4, 5%, 16%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EK%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
krammer01 0 Reputation points2026-11-08T11:10:13.2433333+00:00 Didn't work and reappeared on restart and even hard power cycle as it sat in such a way it interfered with unity and blender. Took bouncing asks around discords to find a working answer and been told to find and end DataExchangeHost.exe.
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DaveM121 946.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor
2025-08-26T10:50:47.7633333+00:00 If restarting the Explorer process and forcing your graphics drivers to restart with that keyboard shortcut did not resolve the problem, restarting the PC to flush out the RAM is the only other avaialble option.