# Solved: Windows 7 desktop icons disappear



## roghud (Jan 18, 2010)

Some, but not all of my desktop icons were gone this morning. The taks bar is still there. There may have been a restart during the night after automatic download, but I am not sure about that. However, nothing different happened last night that has not gone on for the past two weeks. And no new software or hardware was installed.

I have gone to desktop View and the proper options are enabled. Google presents many entries on this topic and it seems that my software is set up properly.


Anyone have some ideas.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Right-click?

Go to Start > Run, and type:

C:\Users\<yourusername>\Desktop

Do your shortcuts appear in that folder?


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## Emtronics (Jan 20, 2000)

Does Win7 have the Desktop Icon Cleanup feature found in XP? After awhile it will delete desktop shortcuts not used in XX amount of days. Also, as one who leaves my computer on, there was an IE8 update and I had a reboot at 3am for that update. You can check to see if that is what happened.


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## roghud (Jan 18, 2010)

Yes, the Desktop directory shows the icons. From Start I also did: sleep, restart, and turned off computer. Each time the icons were there as Windows booted up. We has a second new computer, both HP, and the problem has not shown up on that computer.

Thanks very much for the tip.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

And "Show Desktop Icons" is checked in the context menu?

Try F5 to refresh.


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## roghud (Jan 18, 2010)

Thanks for the feedback. In checking my Restore Points, there was not one last night - hopefully there would have been with the auto install and reboot. I will see if I can find some kind of auto function that cleans the desktop.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Even the desktop cleanup just puts all the shortcuts in a folder still on the desktop.


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## roghud (Jan 18, 2010)

Yup, show icons was enabled. Hopefully this was a one-time event, but I am not confident. Thanks


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

You can mark your own threads "solved" using the button above.


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## roghud (Jan 18, 2010)

I did that. Hopefully that is true. Thank you


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

It can be undone. Better scan for the bad guys that were probably responsible.


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