XP Home - desktop icons disappear

ErnieB · #1 10-17-2003, 10:04 AM

I'm using XP Home, with two user accounts. I've noticed a few times now, that occasionally some of the desktop icons disappear. The first time it happened, my PC crashed while I was logged into AOL. When I rebooted the AOL icon (shortcut) was gone. Today, I was burning some DVDs and when I closed Roxio, several (not just one) of my desktop icons were gone. (Roxio, incidentally, was still there!)

Has anyone else had problems with XP Home just deleting icons? It's not a huge issue but it's a bit unnerving...

westomatic · #2 10-18-2003, 05:35 AM

ive heard of icon deleting viruses..

yxsean380 · #3 04-03-2005, 04:18 AM

right-click on the desktop and make sure there is a check mark next to show desktop icons, if there isnt click on it, this should solve ur problem

vagabond21 · #4 10-10-2006, 07:40 AM

i need help im not to good with computers so forgive my ignorance. first of all i have windows xp on my computer and only one account when i sign on my destop icons and start menu are no where to be found i tried the control alt delete to bring up task manager and run my explorer but it pops the up and then quickly goes away please help im desperate

DaveC2003 · #5 10-10-2006, 08:46 AM

Refer to the URL below to get your icons and start menu back.

http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/w...rum/85915.html

DaveC2003

Soonyow · #6 06-16-2008, 02:39 AM

I spent 6 hours trying to figure out how to get my files icons back after they disppeared from the desktop and start menu of my XP laptop. System restore icon was not even available anymore. After searching the internet, downloading and trying fix tools, and fearing I lost my most prescious files, I finally figured it out. It's really amazingly simple. Here it is: I clicked on the "My Computer" icon (one of the very few icons left of the desktop), then I clicked on the Local Disk (C) and opened it. On the top left side of this screen is "System Tasks" box and in it it said "show or Unhide (I forget which) the contents of the drive". I clicked on that and the "Documents and Settings" folder suddenly appeared (among other previously hidden folders). I right clicked on that folder, clicked on its "Properties". I saw that the "hidden" box of Attributes was Checked! I unchecked it and it went into a file tranfer mode restoring all the files that were previously hidden. Voila! all my start menu and desktop icons re-appeared again. whew! For some really stupid reason, I had previously check marked the "hidden" box in the properties of the Documents and Settings folder - it's SO important - I'll never do that again. I hope this will help someone.

♥..Aayah..♥ · #7 08-24-2008, 06:05 PM

omg thankyou so much yxsean380!
i'm normally such a computer geek!
i can't believe i didn't think of that.
'cause i've been using my sisters account [my laptop is down...]
and all the icons just disappeared but thanks, they're back now :]
X

Cribrad · #8 08-25-2008, 05:40 AM

Be really careful with that Windows security stuff.

When you make a folder private so that other users can't access it you also bugger around with the mediagraphic memory. I didn't know about this until it was too late. When my PC completely messed up and I had to reinstall windows all the files that were secure under these means were not there and I was unable to recover them.

I strongly advise anyone here to make sure they don't unshare their files from other users.

If you don't know about whether or not they are unshared, then try opening them with another account. If you can't, you should log on as the admin or the person who did it and share them again so that they are not screwed up.