I've searched high and low with no luck.

Is there a way to disable the WMP icon from appearing on new users desktops. It's obviously not in the AllUserProfiles\Desktop folder.

Can it be disabled completely?

There are a number of ways to set it. Since mine is a corporate image, I use the Group Policy settings:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
;===============================
; WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER
;===============================

; Prevent Desktop Shortcut
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsMediaPlayer]
"DesktopShortcut"="no"

; Prevent Quick Launch Shortcut
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsMediaPlayer]
"QuickLaunchShortcut"="no"

Edited March 16, 200620 yr by Joe User 99