A strange thing happened the other day on a Windows 7 Professional test system. All of the desktop icons that had been placed on the computer desktop were not visible anymore. No application or feature was changed to hide the visibility of the desktop icons manually and it is still not clear why it happened.
The missing desktop icons can however be displayed again easily. Some users might think that they have lost all of their desktop icons, they should however be visible in Windows Explorer for instance in the Desktop directory that is by default listed under Favorites in the left quick navigation menu in Windows Explorer.
The missing desktop icons can be displayed again by right-clicking the computer desktop and selecting View > Show Desktop Icons. They should appear immediately after making the change in the menu. A checkmark should be visible after selecting the entry.
The same menu contains additional options like displaying or hiding gadgets, aligning icons or changing the size of the desktop icons. It would be nice to hear if someone else has noticed that problem in Windows 7.
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We have two computers running W7. The disappearing desktop icons occurs occasionally on both of them.
I run W7 64bit and have had that problem as well. The fix in the article does fix it, for a time, until it happens again.
I am embarressed to say this happened to me the other day with Win7 x64 took me ages to figure out where the bin was.
Running W7 x64, icons disappear temporarily on desktop whenever renamed. Another solution to this trivial yet unpleasant problem is clicking the desktop first (give it focus) and pressing F5.
Works fine for me.
:-)
This usually happens after hibernation or sleep, and with multiple monitors.
Interesting. Didn’t know a multi-monitor setup had anything to do with it.
Happens to me, too, with WIN7 64. New files saved to the desktop do not show up on the desktop (all of my old icons still show up on the desktop_. Clicking the desktop and then pressing F5 made the new ones appear. I have dual monitors.
Anyone else want a real IE icon back on the desk? Taskbar icon is good, but you cannot right-click to get to properties. Only Control Panel or opening IE itself gives you that access. :(
Hi guys,
I found the cause of the misteriously disappearing Windows 7 desktop icons and the reaon why Show desktop icons now and then gets unchecked.
It’s INFRARECORDER !! Try for yourselves, when you start Infrarecorder and close it again, go have a look at “Show desktop icons”, it is unchecked (but the icons are still there). Check it on again and start Infrarecorder…. it is unchecked again.
This Windows 7 “bug” is irritating me since the beginning and now I found the cause: It’s Infrarecorder which is causing this problem.
Test it and please let me know and spread the news :-)
I lost my desktop icons and I have Infrarecord installed. Just tested and it is like you said =)
thanks… ;)
@Plaza You are the man! Thanks for the tip. I’ve just uninstalled Infrarecorder. I’ll look for another small and nice cd/dvd software. Thanks again.
cheers, infrarecorder was the culprit!
me too – so bye bye infra ! – shame as well, it’s good.
Thanks for your replies, I sent an email to the creator of infrarecorder and got a reply back he will fix this :-)
win 7 newcomer.
i opened a new folder on desktop, plugged in a 500 mb thumb and dragged it to the new folder and cliked,move here.
it took a few minutes and i was looking at other stuff.,actually deleting the files on the other comp.that i had put in the thumb.
when it finished i found only three of hundreds of the files and apx 20k size,,not 500mb.
i had deleted the data on the other comp.
now its gone. when i moved a folder and lost it i found help here and found the recent folder,,but not the missing 500 mb.
i wonder where it went.
i guess i should have copied it first instead of moving it.
any help?
tnx
tom
Try data recovery to recover the files
I have Win764 and Infrarecorder installed, icons and files lost as well, “Show desktop icons” menu worked fine but not F5.
Wow exactly what I needed!! Thanx a lot!!
I think I have a similar problem which baffled me for a while. Running W7 on an acer latop.
Occasionally on startup a dialog balloon would randomly pop up and claim that ‘changes will require a restart – choose now/later’. Either way I would eventually shutdown the laptop. On a restart I would seemingly lose all desktop icons, taskbar AND taskmanager! But the laptop seemed to work perfectly – the background picture would still change and right click mouse still worked. Right click ‘show desktop icons’ was also on but to no effect.
Since I couldn’t get taskmanager up, the first few times this happened I forced shutdown (held power button for a few seconds) and restarted in safe mode. I simply did a system restore – annoying but I thought no other way around. This did fix it but didn’t stop the same issue arising again later.
However, this morning I had the same issue but found out why I couldn’t acccess taskmanager etc. W7 decided to switch to second monitor in extend mode! Don’t know why this keeps on happening but to bring everything back was simple: right-click –> screen resolution –> choose monitor 1 —> change ‘extend these displays’ to ‘show desktop only on 1′ –> apply. Done.
Why this happens I’m not sure. No shortcuts that I know of and no hotkeys on my laptop. But at least I don’t have to do a system restore in safe mode every time it happens.
Not sure if my issue is relevent but felt I should share my frustrating experience in case someone else has the same issue.
I don’t have Infrarecorder installed, but every tie I start up my laptop, the desktop icons are missing. I foud the ‘Show desktop icons’ option the first time it happened, and it was stillt icked even though I couldn’t see any of them. So I unchecked it and rechecked and they came beck. But then the next time I strated my computer, they were gone again.
This has happened every single time and I’m getting so annoyed with having to uncheck and recheck the ‘Show’ option every time I need to use my laptop.
Thank you sooo Much. saved me lot of work lol. it happened to me, “Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit” :>}
Just installed Infrarecorder the other day – turned on the laptop this afternoon and no icons. So apparently no fix yet, disappointing.
Same thing happened to me. Thanks for the solution.
wow thanks it worked i thought im going to reformat my laptop
thnx a lot !!!!