<< seems like an odd place to leave an .ini file- I moved to the root of drive C to check if Norton wouldn't load or work right, so far it's working right >>
Not at all odd. If you look at your User / Desktop you will see it is as folder and contains files that are the icons etc on your Desktop so the Desktop.ini file is there too. In fact I have two of them one of which mentions Norton and the other one mentions other functions of Windows.
I think you may be going back to the old days when boot.ini was in the root of the drive but I would stongly advise against trying to micro-manage modern Windows and not to move files to where you think they should be.
If you don't want to see ini files then turn OFF View hidden and system files .....
Google on [ what is purpose of desktop.ini file ] for plenty of background.