Windowx XP Home - no icons show on the desktop?

Question

My friend's son messed around with their computer and now none of the desktop icons show up even after a make the my computer icon "show on the desktop" and I also can't right click something and make it a shortcut on the desktop. No errors show up but neither does the new icon. Right now his desktop is totally blank and you have to go to the start menu to access everything.

I right clicked and went to the desktop properties but everything looks fine. Upon booting there is a boot.ini error but the computer does start up quickly with no spyware issues and the normal background processes start up as usual. This might sound like two different issues but I'm wondering if they are connected. Is there an easy fix to the desktop icon issue that I'm missing? Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

what about right click on desktop, then Arrange Icons By --->> Show Desktop Icons



Make sure Show Desktop Icons is checked.

Answer 2

Very strange problem! i would try a system restore click start - run , type msconfig and choose system restore it will roll back the windows to a point before the mess..

Answer 3

Try dragging and dropping.