Lost icons on desktop?

Question

I had about 10 icons along the bottom of my screen. Now they are gone, and no matter how I try I cannot drag any of them along the bottom toolbar from somewhere else. any ideas?:

Answer 1

I lost my desktop icons!



Uhm... they're gone. Like actually gone.



Right-clicked desktop -> Properties -> Desktop tab.. made sure they're supposed to be there. They are.



Right-clicked desktop -> Arrange Icons By -> show desktop icons... Nothing, Nada, Zip, Zero...



Tried rebuilding icons, dunno what else it could be. They're just gone. And I need them.



Edit: Item seems to actually be there, just no icon, or text. I'm stumped.

27 Jun. 2004 - 20:12 fallout do you have some program to remove them running?

28 Jun. 2004 - 00:38 piaqt What O/S?

28 Jun. 2004 - 01:35 dreamz do they show up in C:\Documents and Settings\username\Desktop?



did they just disappear? did you do something that may have caused them to disappear? how do you know they are there? can you add new icons to the desktop?

28 Jun. 2004 - 18:04 fawkes OK, WinXP -Home is the OS.



No third party apps running other than TClock2 (checked this and it didn't seem to bve the source. Icons disappears if I've had Tclock2 running or not.)



Adding new desktop icons does not make them appear. New folder and icons/files do appear in the Current User/desktop folder.



Files and Icons are there, as I can right click where they ought to be and still manage to get the file's or folder's context menu.



Still puzzled.

28 Jun. 2004 - 18:10 grigri What happens if you "select" an invisible item and press f2 [or choose 'rename'] - does the text show up then?

30 Jun. 2004 - 01:15 Addy ...I blame it on Active Desktop! This monstrosity has plagued users and their icons for thousands of years! It should be shot dead, or at least had all of its fun options disabled!



(XP stole that option. Perhaps some nasty accidental defaultification process toggled a related registry value and it wasn't put back when it was turned off. Scour "HKCU>Control Panel>Desktop" and ...>WindowMetrics for possibilities.)

01 Jul. 2004 - 23:54 fawkes Renaming the item works wonders, but and soon as the focus is off the icon it disappears.



I was running active desktop (HTML in the UI) for quite some time. I went to work on another page for it and haven't used it since.



Interesting note: when i cahnge the backgorund color of the desktop, the name of the item stays the old color for a minute or two after I refresh. Then it disappears again.



Remaining stumped.

07 Dec. 2007 - 19:40 Mark_in_Marina I had the same issue and fixed it by right clicking on the desktop then Arrange Icons by ... and then the third item from the bottom of the next flyout menu should be "Show desktop items" Make sure there is a check mark by that... Hope this works for you... It did for me...

06 Feb. 2009 - 02:28 djo Any Mac users with ideas on what to do when you lose icons for menu items--network, time/date, spotlight, etc. icons???



None of the above works for me.

Answer 2

All of a sudden you find your Windows XP Desktop icons missing just when you were in the middle of something on your computer. Ever been in that situation ?



This Windows XP tips and tricks article explains what you can do when you find your Windows XP Desktop icons missing .It's pretty annoying, because usually when this happens, your taskbar and start button are gone too. That leaves you with nothing much to click on. The only thing that's left to look at is your desktop wallpaper.



The best way to get back on your feet is by pressing ctrl-alt-del. That will bring up the Task Manager. (In some cases it brings up the Windows Security dialog, but you can click on the Task Manager button from there to go where we need to be.)



Once in the Task Manager, make sure you are on the "Processes" tab and then click on "File" in the Task Manager menu. Then select "New Task (Run...)" and type " explorer .exe" (without the quotes) in the "open" field. Then click ok and watch a new incarnation of your desktop come to life in front of your eyes .In a lot of cases you can elaborate this technique a bit and use it to avoid a reboot when you have made modifications in the registry. Generally you have to reboot your computer for registry changes to take effect. Now you can avoid reboots by killing and respawning the explorer .exe process.



After you have made modifications in your registry, make sure to save and close all documents that you are working on. Then bring up the Task Manager with ctrl-alt-del. Click on the "Processes" tab and look for the explorer .exe process. Single-click this process and click on Task Manager's "End Process" button.



That will make your desktop icons, task bar and start button go away, the only thing that remains is the Task Manager. That allows you to select "File"->"New Task (Run...) from the Task Manager menu. Again, type " eplorer .exe" in the "open" field and click ok.



That will cause the new registry settings to be loaded without the necessity of a reboot.

(REF URL http://www. windows-help-central .com/ windows-xp-desktop-icons-missing .html)

This morning, after I ran an application that I use frequently, I noticed that the icons associated with many.. .but not all.. .of my desktop links had morphed to the generic windows icon. The ones that did not morph were zip files and PDF files. The same is true for the links in the Start window.



I have manually fixed the icons for the links to executables, but cannot fix the icons for folders, IE, or the Recycle Bin. Also, I cannot fix the icons in the Start window. (Note: I think McAfee Viruscan was running in the background when this occurred.)



If I create a new user, the icons appear correctly.



Does anyone know how to fix this problem without transferring all my files to a new user and deleting the corrupted old user?

(REF URL http:// techrepublic.com .com/ 5208-7343-0 .html?forumID=101&threadID=252166&start=0)

Answer 3

only circulate to private pc window then suitable click choose the 'very own pc tab' then circulate to 'customize very own pc' a the backside the verify the shortcut icon do you prefer to seem on you very own pc.

Answer 4

do a System Restore to a prior date and all will be replaced as was.

Answer 5

tricky step. browse using yahoo and bing. just that could help!