Windows user 10 may encounter a situation where, without any action on his part, icons begin to be deleted from the desktop. To get rid of this problem, you need to find out why it might have appeared.
Why do icons erase themselves?
The main reasons for the disappearance of icons include a system bug or virus infection. In the first case, you need to check some system settings, in the second - get rid of the virus, and then return the icons to the desktop manually.
The problem may also be caused by:
- incorrect installation of updates;
- activated “Tablet mode”;
- incorrect shutdown of the second monitor;
- Explorer process disabled.
If the problem occurs after installing updates, most likely they were downloaded or introduced with errors that caused the icons to be removed. Check your system settings and re-add the icons.
"Tablet Mode" changes some system properties, which may cause icons to disappear. Sometimes disabling it is enough to get all the icons back, and sometimes after disabling it you need to manually add the icons you need.
How to get icons back on your desktop
If you don’t know why the icons disappeared in your case, then follow all the instructions below one by one.
Removing viruses
Before you start checking and changing settings, you need to make sure that your computer is virus-free. Some malware capable of removing and blocking desktop icons. Launch the antivirus installed on your computer and conduct a full scan. Remove any viruses found.
Scan your computer for viruses and remove any found
Activating icon display
Check if the system allows displaying icons on the desktop:
Video: How to add a My Computer icon to your desktop in Windows 10
Creating a new element
You can try to create any new element. In some cases, after this, all hidden icons immediately appear.
Deactivating "Tablet Mode"
Activating “Tablet Mode” can also cause icons to disappear. To disable it, do the following:
Video: how to disable “Tablet Mode” in Windows 10
Dual Monitor Solution
If the problem appeared when connecting or disconnecting a second monitor, then you need to change the screen settings:
Explorer.exe is responsible for the operation of Explorer, which determines whether desktop icons will be displayed correctly. The process may shut down due to some errors in the system, but it can be started manually:
- Open Task Manager.
Open Task Manager
- Expand the "File" tab and proceed to start a new task.
Start a new task via the "File" tab
- Enter “explorer” and confirm the action. Done, the process will start, the icons should return.
Launch the Explorer process to return icons to the desktop
- Find the process in the general task list if it was running and stop it, and then follow the three steps described above to start it again.
Restart Explorer if it was already running
Manually adding icons
If the icons disappeared and did not appear after following the above instructions, then you need to add them manually. To do this, move shortcuts to the desktop or use the “Create” function, called by right-clicking on an empty space on the desktop.
Add icons to your desktop through the “Create” tab
Uninstalling updates
If a problem with your desktop appeared after installing system updates, you should remove them by following these steps:
- Select Programs and Features in Control Panel.
Go to Programs and Features
- Go to the list of updates by clicking on the “View installed updates” button.
Click on the “View installed updates” button
- Select the updates that you think harmed your computer. Click on the “Delete” button and confirm the action. After rebooting the system, the changes will take effect.
Select and remove updates that could harm your computer
Video: How to remove an update in Windows 10
Registry settings
It is possible that registry settings have been changed or damaged. To check and restore them, just follow these steps:
What to do if nothing helps
If none of the methods described above helped you fix the problem, then there is only one option left - reinstalling the system or restoring it. The second option is possible if there is a previously created backup copy of the system. Sometimes it is created automatically, so don’t despair if you haven’t created a copy yourself.
System Restore
By default, restore points are created automatically by the system, so most likely you will be able to roll back Windows to the state when everything worked stably:
- Find via search bar Start menu, Recovery section.
Select a restore point and complete the restore
Video: how to restore the system in Windows 10
Icons disappeared from the “Taskbar”
The Taskbar icons are located in the lower right corner of the screen. Typically these are icons for battery, network, sound, antivirus, Bluetooth and other services frequently used by the user. If some icons have disappeared from the “Taskbar”, then you need to first check its settings, and then add the disappeared icons manually.
Checking the Taskbar settings
Adding icons to the taskbar
To add any icon to the “Taskbar”, you need to find a file in .exe format or a shortcut that launches the desired program, and secure it. The icon will appear in the lower left corner of the screen.
Pin a program to the taskbar to add its icon to the lower left corner of the screen
If icons disappear from the desktop, you need to remove viruses, check screen settings and settings, restart the Explorer process, or restore the system. If icons disappear from the “Taskbar”, then you need to check the corresponding settings and manually add the lost icons.
Sometimes such a situation happens that after another Windows boot There were no shortcuts or icons on the desktop, not even the start menu or taskbar. It is also not possible to click the second button on the desktop, windows key doesn't work. And in safe mode the same.
A rather unpleasant situation, but completely solvable if nothing completely exceptional happened. The explorer.exe process is responsible for the external display of the system in Windows, and if you click ctrl+alt+del, thereby launching the task manager, you will not find it there in the “processes” tab. This could happen due to the action of viruses, antiviruses, or your careless actions.
To fix the problem, you first need to determine whether the explorer.exe file remains on the system at all so that it can be launched. This can be done without Explorer, using the command line.
In the task manager, click " file->new task" and enter there " cmd”; In it, enter the command “ cd C:\Windows”, then the command " explorer.exe” (if your OS is installed on another disk, then enter it). If, as a result, all desktop icons and the taskbar appear, or nothing happens, then the explorer.exe file has not been removed from the computer and most likely you will only need to correct a few registry files.
If you see an error message that such a file does not exist, then you will need to put the explorer.exe file in system folder Windows on its own. If the error was generated by explorer.exe itself, then delete it (del command), it still doesn’t work and consider that you don’t have it (but maybe there is a solvable error, or an error not related to explorer.exe; I don’t know, look depending on the situation^^)
Let's describe both situations in detail:
1. There is a file explorer.exe on the computer.
To launch the Registry Editor again, click " file->new task"in task manager and enter the command" regedit" Next you need to do the following:
- a) In the Registry Editor, select: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon. Then look at the right panel. The Shell parameter value should be Explorer.exe. If it is not, change it to Explorer.exe.
- b) We are trying to find: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options. If there is a subsection explorer.exe or iexplorer.exe, delete it (click right click mouse -> Delete).
After this, restart your computer. If this still does not help, then perhaps explorer.exe is damaged and should still be replaced. It is also possible that there are viruses in the system that somehow affect the startup process of explorer.exe.
2. The file explorer.exe was not found on the computer.
If you have installation disk your Windows, then you can find the file explorer.ex_ in the i386 folder right there, rename it to explorer.exe and use it (How to rename? This can be done in any file manager, or you can go to the control panel, select folder properties there -> view, and uncheck the box next to “hide file extensions”). If not, then you will have to find a computer with the same Windows as yours (although this is not a 100% guarantee that the file will work) and copy the file from there from the Windows folder.
We throw the resulting file, for example, into the root directory of your flash drive and insert it into the glitching computer. Run cmd on it again. We consider what kind of media the inserted flash drive is (this will be the last available disk). Enter the command “E:”, or “F:”, or another... (depending on what kind of disk the flash drive is). Next, if explorer.exe is in the root folder, enter the command: “copy explorer.exe C:\Windows”. As a result, it should be written that 1 file was successfully copied. Restart your computer and everything should work.
It’s not a fact that all this will help you, but these are the most basic simple ways to solve this problem. If that doesn’t work, you can also try to restore the system, but most effective way- this, of course, is to reinstall Windows.
Source
Sometimes users operating system Windows family find themselves in a rather unpleasant situation in which the entire contents of the desktop, including the “ ” and “ “ icons, disappear somewhere. At the same time, working on a computer becomes extremely inconvenient.
Now we will tell you how you can try to return all the contents of your desktop to its place.
Method one - enable icon display
This method is the simplest and most common. Very often, the user accidentally disables the display of desktop icons in the context menu. The display is also turned on. how to turn it off, namely:
On any free space desktop, right-click, select the very first item in the “View” menu that opens and in it check that the “Display desktop icons” checkbox is checked. If it’s not there, we’ll install it.
Enable display of desktop icons
Method two - restart the Explorer.exe process
To do this, call the task manager by pressing the CTRL+ALT+Delete key combination on the keyboard and select “Task Manager”.
Then go to the “Processes” tab and find “Explorer” or “Explorer.exe” there.
Terminating the explorer process in task manager
Right-click on it and select “End Process”.
Starting the Explorer process
Method three - recovery with AVZ program
But first you need to check your computer, which you downloaded from the official website of Dr. Web.
Only after this, unpack it and run it as administrator.
Downloading the AVZ utility from the official website
In it, click “File” -> “System Restore”.
Running System Restore in AVZ
In the window that opens, check the following operations:
- Restore desktop settings;
- Restoring Explorer settings;
- Removing system process debuggers;
- Unlocking the task manager;
- Recovering the Explorer launch key.
And click “Perform selected operations”.
Enable the actions you need to restore your desktop icons
When finished, reboot the computer.
If all else fails
In this case, it is possible that someone or a virus deleted the entire contents of the desktop and it is possible to go back several days before the problem with missing desktop icons appeared.
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Shortcuts and notification area icons that suddenly disappear from the desktop can cause a lot of inconvenience, because searching necessary files manually - difficult, and sometimes even impossible task. Sometimes missing shortcuts are the result of viruses or a serious system failure. But usually everything is much simpler, and the unconscious actions of the users themselves are to blame. In this case, everything can be easily fixed.
Lost shortcuts due to carelessness of users
If all the icons disappear at once, the first thing you should do is check whether the “Display desktop icons” option is turned off. To do this, right-click on the screen, hover over the “View” menu section and check the box confirming the display of shortcuts, if it is missing.
Login with a different account
Another simple reason for the change appearance desktop. If, instead of running the system as an administrator, you log in as a guest, a good half of the shortcuts may disappear.
- In Windows 7, the current username is displayed at the top when you click the Start button, and can be changed by clicking Start/Shutdown/Change User
- In Windows 8, 10, to change the user, click Start and in the window that opens with a tile, click on the user icon in the upper corner; as a result, a list containing all existing accounts appears
Accidentally moving shortcuts to another folder or deleting them to the Trash
IN Windows shortcuts can be freely dragged with the mouse. This is a very convenient function; it allows you to arrange the desktop at your discretion, but it is also possible to accidentally drag and drop shortcuts into any open or visible folder, including the Recycle Bin. To move, just select one or more shortcuts, then right-click to drag them into the window or onto a folder icon and select the “Move” option.
In a similar way, you can send several shortcuts or even all of them to another directory at once by holding down any mouse button and selecting an arbitrary area of the screen with it. While unlikely, it is still possible to accidentally move using keyboard shortcuts, such as Ctrl+A (Select All) and then dragging or pressing Delete. There are several methods that allow you to find and return missing icons and files.
- Immediately after an incorrect action, you can press Ctrl+Z (Undo) and the files will again appear in their old places
- If the exact name of at least one of the files is known, it will be found through a search. To do this, the name is written in the search field of the “Computer” window; if you add the .lnk extension to the name (typical for all shortcuts), then there will be much fewer unnecessary results
- Another effective method is searching by date. last change. In the field Windows search You can specify the time of change with an accuracy of one day. IN Total Commander and others file managers You can search by time with an accuracy of up to a minute.
The shortcuts remain, but are opened by another program or not opened at all
If we're talking about about file shortcuts: Microsoft documents Office, videos, books in digital format etc., it was probably installed new program, which now opens such files by default. For example, previously all books in PDF format opened Adobe Reader, but after installing the Yandex browser, the icons changed and books began to open through it. In order for everything to become the same as before, the association with old program. To do this, go to the file properties and in this menu select Open with / Select a program, then select the old application and check the “Use for files of this type” checkbox.
If the shortcut does not open at all, there are two options:
- The object it refers to has been deleted or moved. You can try to find it through a search, and if successful, create new shortcut. To do this, select Send/Desktop (create shortcut) in the context menu
- There is no program installed on the computer to work with files of this type. To determine which program is missing, you should copy the extension (the value in the name after the dot), and then enter a query in an Internet search engine like: “How to open .djvu files” and download the desired application.
If the shortcut that itself links to the program (a file with the .exe extension) does not open, you probably need to reinstall it or, alternatively, roll back the entire system to its previous working state.
Disappearance of shortcuts in case of system failure
In Windows of all versions for visual design user interface answers system program Windows Explorer. And if it turns off or starts to fail, the user is usually left with a bare desktop with background image, without any controls.
Disabling explorer.exe process via Task Manager
To launch the dispatcher, press Ctrl+Alt+Delete simultaneously. In the window that appears, go to the “Processes” tab and look for system process explorer.exe. If the process is running, but visual elements are not displayed, disable it by clicking the right button and selecting “End process”; if there is no process, skip this step.
Starting Windows Explorer manually
To run Windows program Explorer, in the Task Manager menu, select File/New Task (Run…).
Click the “Browse” button, go to the C:/Windows folder and find the explorer.exe program there.
As a result, all visual elements should return to their places. If this does not happen, it means that the system systems are damaged. Windows files and required from backup copy or using the installation disc.
Disappearance of shortcuts due to viruses
There are a huge number of malicious programs that somehow delete or alter files. Some of them, when trying to open a shortcut, redirect the user to their website, others make files hidden, and others, when trying to open, create huge amount copies, thereby hammering hard drive unnecessary information. And if there are viruses on your computer, in any case, you should first remove them, and only then restore the files.
How to find shortcuts hidden by a virus?
Many Trojans do not delete user information, but simply make it “invisible” by assigning the “Hidden” and “System” attribute to the files. To see them again you need to go to Control Panel/Folder Options, then go to the “View” tab, check the box next to “Show” hidden files and folders" and uncheck the box next to "Hide system files".
If the volume icon or other notification area items disappear
The area of the desktop in which the language, volume, clock, etc. buttons are displayed is also called the system tray. It is configured at the user’s request; to get to the tray settings, you need to right-click in this area and select “Properties” in the context menu. You can also open the same window through the Control Panel by selecting the “Small Icons” view mode and the “Notification Area Icons” item.
If you click on the “Notification Area Icons” link on the system elements settings tab, the settings window for all possible tray elements will open, including applications installed by the user.
Program icons swap places when you drag the mouse and are added to and removed from the hidden area in the same way.
Enabling the hidden Language bar
The display of the language bar is configured through the control panel. The path to the page for this setting is quite long: Control Panel/Regional and Language Options/Language and Keyboard/Change Keyboard…/ Language bar.
In the same settings window, on the “General” tab, there are options for adding new and deleting unused languages, and in the “Switching Keyboard” section, keyboard shortcuts for changing input languages are specified.
The language bar can be minimized to tray or displayed on top of other windows in any location on the desktop; switching between these modes is possible via context menu.
Removing programs from the notification area through the startup menu
Most program icons appear in the notification area by themselves when turned on and are for applications that launch automatically. It often happens that one of these programs is not used often and launching it only in vain increases the loading time of the OS. To remove applications from startup, you need to click Start/Run... and enter the word “msconfig” in the search bar. The “Computer Configuration” window will open; on its “Startup” tab there is a list of programs that start automatically.
In the example in the screenshot, there is a program called PicPick, which allows you to take screenshots while scrolling the page. However, it is used infrequently, so it can be excluded from startup, while the program itself will remain on the computer and can be launched manually.
How to display the Yandex or any other site icon on your desktop
To create a shortcut for Yandex, right-click on an empty area of the screen and select New/Shortcut. A shortcut window will open where you need to copy the link to the Yandex page from the address bar.
After this, a Yandex shortcut will appear, when clicked, the main page of the site will open. In a similar way, shortcuts to any pages from the Internet are created, for example, if you enter the location in the field, a shortcut will appear that opens home page this site.
Decorate your desktop with unique shortcuts
The icon shows the logo Google Chrome, the default browser, it can be replaced by any image in .ico format stored on your computer. Sets of icons for every taste are also available for download on the Internet; you can simply find the icon through a search engine, right-click on it, select “Save image as...” and specify the download folder. After that, go to the shortcut properties, go to the “Internet Document” tab, click the “Change Icon” button and find the previously downloaded image.
Shortcut created with my own hands, ready!
In settings Windows elements It can be difficult to figure out at first. But by learning to use them, you can create a unique desktop that is convenient for a specific user.
I am sure that you turned to this article not by accident. Most likely, icons have disappeared on your computer, now you are looking for a solution to the problem.
There are several options in which icons may disappear from the operating system desktop. Below in the material I will give only three main ones, which are one way or another common in practice. It is worth noting that the very fact of missing desktop shortcuts is not very “popular” when infected with a virus, and is often manual change …
As I have already said, there are several variants of the problem, and as a result, several solutions. Now about this in more detail...
Option 1
Typically, most computers are used by several users, so it is possible that the icons disappeared due to the fault of another person. Believe me, this is the most common option in which the shortcuts were removed manually.
To check this option, right-click on the desktop space and select “New” from the context menu. Then create any document format or folder.
- If the created file or directory appears on the desktop, then this option has been confirmed, and your icons have simply been removed!
- If new document or the folder was created, but was not displayed, then perhaps the next option will be useful to you!?
Option 2
Operating systems of the Windows family, from XP to current versions, have additional settings desktop display. These settings are more likely to be functional, or not visual effects. If you have lost your desktop icons, then you should consider this option.
Right-click on the desktop. Select the “View” item from the context menu (in the case of an operating room Windows system 7). And look for “Display desktop icons” which should be checked. 
- If the item is not checked, click on it, after which the context menu should disappear and desktop shortcuts should appear.
- If the checkbox is checked, but there are no icons, then there is a viral modification of the registry, or a third option.
Option 3
This option differs from the previous two, at least in that it most often occurs due to the fault of.
So, it is possible that not only all icons disappear, but also the taskbar and the Start button. This is due to the disappearance of the “explorer.exe” system file from the boot, which in turn is responsible for launching all desktop elements! In order to fix or check this version, you will have to perform a number of actions:
- To begin, having discovered the problem described above, launch the “Task Manager” (in Windows Xp with the combination Ctrl keys+Alt+Delete; in Windows 7 using the combination Ctrl + Shift + Esc).
- Now in the “Task Manager” window, click “File” at the top.
- Select "New Task" to try to run "explorer.exe".
- In the window that appears, enter:
explorer.exe
and press the Enter key. - After which you should resume displaying your desktop. The launch may not fail if the above system file missing due to deletion or renaming by virus infection!
- If launching the desktop and taskbar was successful, be sure to correct the infection if possible!
- If the system file - explorer is missing for some reason, you should copy it from another working system (to the directory with the operating system), and then try to launch it, as shown in step 4.
Checking Registry Values
If the above series of actions did not produce results, or after an anti-virus scan there are still problems with the automatic start of explorer.exe, then try changing the values in the system registry.
Note!
Please do not make changes to system registry, if you don’t have at least a basic understanding of this section of the operating system and how to edit it!
- Open “Task Manager” (see point 1 above).
- Click File and select New Task.
- On the line enter:
regedit
and press "Enter" key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon Check the following settings:- Shell- must be the value “explorer.exe”.
- Userinit- the value should be “C:\Windows\system32\userinit.exe,”.
- If your values differ from the above, correct them.
- Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options
- If you find the “explorer.exe” or “iexplorer.exe” subkey here, delete them. Note! The subsection is the one in the left column, in this case in the Image File Execution Options attachment.
- After the manipulations have been completed, you need to restart the computer for the changes to take effect.
Instead of an afterword
Well, regarding the disappearance of desktop icons. Hope. That you will not have any difficulties in restoring functionality, most likely your problem will be contained in the first two options, which is much more harmless and easier to fix.
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