Here is a transcript from some note I made....

To remove ICONS from desktop
a.{root@tty1} editor /etc/X11/Xsession.d/45xsession
b.rem (#) out mkdesktopicons where ever it is in this file (I found starting around line 374-576…this can also be edited in the GUI of ROOT or SYSTEM. NOTE: /usr/bin/mkdesktopicons is the code that does this. It may also be possible to remove this but I found it easier to just REM out the call for this.
c.REMEMBER: You must also login as user and physically remove the icons which have already been created. Then log out then log back in to check to make sure icons do not show back up.

ALSO...

Go into /usr/bin/mkdesktopicons and change it to oldmkdesktopicons
Remove the floppy desk icons from the /etc/skelDesktop

Hope this helps...

Richard-