How to Remove All Desktop Icons

This method worked for me:

sudo dpkg -r --force-depends gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons

This will force removal extension, but updating the system will reinstall it and you will have to remove it again. Holding it with sudo apt-mark hold gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons seems to prevent updates from installing.

Either go to here to turn off the Desktop Icons GNOME Shell extension, or use the Tweaks application to do the same thing.

Click on the gear (settings) icon to change the settings for select desktop icons.