Recover missing folders and shortcuts from the Windows desktop. The desktop and shortcuts disappeared. Where did everything disappear from the desktop?

The main area that is involved when using a computer. Here users can place folders, shortcuts and program icons. Some services are also displayed on the desktop. For example, "My Computer" and "Trash". But what if you don't see any icons on your desktop? How to fix the situation?

Removing shortcuts

Let's start from the very beginning simple option- this is a banal deletion of previously placed folders and shortcuts on the desktop. This often happens when multiple people use a PC.

To verify this scenario, the user will need:

1. Right-click on any free space on the desktop.
2. Select the "Create" line.
3. Create a shortcut or folder.

If the resulting object is located on the computer, it’s okay. Icons are not showing on the desktop because someone has deleted them.

You can correct the situation in different ways:

• create shortcuts and folders again;
• restore them from the trash.

In the second case, you will have to open the "Trash", and then select the necessary objects and click on the "Restore" button.

Viruses

The second option, in which icons do not appear on the desktop, is a virus infection. Ideally, the user needs to conduct a complete computer diagnostic using different antiviruses. After that operating system it is necessary to treat, and documents that are not amenable to the procedure must be removed.

1. Call "Task Manager". For example, using hotkeys. In Windows it is Ctrl, Alt, Del.
2. Switch to the "File" tab.
3. Click on the parameter " New task".
4. In the line that appears, type explorer.exe.
5. Press the control called "Enter" on the keyboard or click on the inscription "OK" on the screen.

After the actions taken, the user will restore the shortcuts. It did not help? Then you will have to act differently.

Absent on PC

The thing is that viruses can sometimes damage or completely delete files on your computer. This is a fairly common occurrence.

If the steps above for restoring your desktop did not help, it is likely that explorer.exe is missing from your PC.

1. Find a user with a similar system or find a trusted data source on the Internet.
2. Download document explorer.exe to your computer.
3. Upload document to system folder"Windows".
4. Launch it following the instructions above.

If everything is done correctly, the computer's functionality will be restored. Fast, simple and very convenient.

Registry and its values

Why aren't my desktop icons showing? Maybe the system registry is to blame. It is necessary to make adjustments to its values.

In order to cope with the task, you need:

1. Press Win + R.
2. In the line that appears, type the command regedit.
3. Confirm the operation.
4. Look along the path indicated in point a.
5. In the Shell value set "explorer.ese" (to English language).
6. In the Userinit block, indicate the inscription specified in point b.
7. Travel to the section - see point c below.
8. Remove subitems that have the word explorer in their names. There must be 2 documents.

Here are the sections and addresses you need to go to:

Now everything should work. All that remains is to send the computer to reboot. We found out what to do if work icons are not displayed Windows desktop 7 and more.

Disabling shortcuts

But that is not all. Starting with Windows XP, new add-ons for the desktop were available to users. With their help, users can hide and change the size of shortcuts. System errors may cause related settings to fail.

The user will need to act like this to correct the situation:

1. Right-click on the desktop.
2. Open the "View" menu item. The screen will appear additional list.
3. Place a check mark next to the "Display icons..." item. It is advisable to check the box next to the "Display gadgets..." section.

If everything is done correctly, the shortcuts will appear. As practice shows, the problem under study causes a minimum of trouble. Especially if you follow the suggested instructions.

Service shortcuts

Sometimes users complain that their desktop icons "My Computer" and "Trash" do not appear. Most likely, the reasons lie in broken system settings.

Shortcut Recovery Guide system services as follows:

1. Press RMB on the desktop.
2. Select the "Personalization" option.
3. Follow the hyperlink "Customize shortcuts...". She's on the left top corner.
4. Check the boxes of the services whose shortcuts you want to see on your desktop.
5. Click on "Ok".

Many PC users are once faced with the fact that shortcuts disappear from the Windows 7 desktop. Many immediately fall into a stupor and do not understand what to do, but nothing terrible happened and now you will understand that in reality this problem easily solved.

Fixing the problem with Windows 7 shortcuts disappearing

There are few reasons why this happened: perhaps the shortcut display function was deactivated, or perhaps the explorer.exe process crashed. You should also not forget about viruses.

Activate the function

If your desktop icons are not displayed, do the following:

• Right-click on a free area of ​​the desktop.
• A context menu will appear, where you should hover your mouse over the “View” section and select “Display desktop icons” and “Display desktop gadgets” from the drop-down list.

• Next, icons and folders should appear on the desktop, if this does not help, use another method.

Starting the explorer.exe process

If icons have disappeared from the Windows 7 desktop, the explorer.exe process that is responsible for them may be to blame. To fix this:

1. Press the Win+R key combination to launch the command interpreter.
2. In its window, specify the command explorer.exe and press Enter.

The icons should appear, if not, proceed to the next method.

Registry Editor

Perhaps the reason that all the icons on the desktop have disappeared is a problem with system registry. To restore shortcuts on your desktop you need to:

1. Launch Windows Registry Editor. To do this, press the Win+R key combination and enter the regedit command in the window that appears.
2. In the editor that opens, you need to expand the main branch “Computer” and then go to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE” - “SOFTWARE” -"Microsoft" - "WindowsNT" - "CurrentVersion" - "Image File Execution Options".
3. There you need to look for subsections iexplorer.exe or explorer.exe.
4. If they are found, you should select them, right-click and select delete.

The bottom line is that these subsections should not exist in this thread, so if they are present, you need to make them disappear. Then restart your computer and the problem should be resolved.

If it didn't work:

1. In the Registry Editor, go to"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" - "SOFTWARE" -"Microsoft" - "WindowsNT" - "CurrentVersion".
2. We find the “Winlogon” section there, and in the right window select “Shell” and open the parameter.
3. Check that the value in the field is explorer.exe; if not, write it that way.

Conclusion

Now you know how to restore desktop icons. Use the methods we present and the problem will be solved.

As a rule, on our desk we place the most frequently used documents, telephone, and other accessories. It’s the same when working with a computer - for the convenience of opening the most frequently used programs, labels, icons and badges are on the desktop. They make our life easier by eliminating the need to rummage through disk directories in search of the desired program. Our actions are sometimes brought to the point of automaticity and it’s scary to imagine what to do when the desktop icons suddenly disappear. Unfortunately, this does happen. The main thing in this situation is not to panic, but to perform a series of simple actions.

Instructions:

• To begin with, let's consider the option when you yourself accidentally deleted one or more shortcuts. Right-click on empty space on the desktop. Since it is already empty, it will be difficult to miss. From the menu that appears, select the command "Cancel deletion". If several icons were deleted at once, then open "Basket", select the desired icons and, after clicking right click mice one of them, from context menu select team "Restore" (of course, this is only possible if the “Trash” has not yet been emptied).
  If the standard Desktop icon (“Network Neighborhood”, “My Documents”, “My Computer”) has disappeared and they are not in the “Trash” - in the menu, after clicking on the empty area, select the command "Properties" . In the window that appears, find the “Desktop” section and click: “Desktop Customization” - “General”", mark the icons required for the desktop and click "OK".
• If the first method does not bring results, then the problem is deeper or you have become the butt of someone's joke. You may have been cheated on desktop settings . To return to the original view, click on the empty space again and select menu items - “Arrange icons” - “Display desktop icons”. If there is no checkmark next to this item, check it.
• The second method didn’t help and the shortcuts didn’t appear? Do not despair. There may have been a glitch in the process explorer.exe , which is also responsible for desktop icons. All that is required is to run it again. To do this, simultaneously press the keys on the keyboard "Ctrl", "Delete" and "Alt" . In the window that appears, we are interested in the “Applications” tab. Click the “New task” button, enter explorer.exe in the “Open” line and click “OK”. You may need to restart your computer.
• But how to restore desktop icons if The taskbar and the Start button disappeared ? This often happens after installing malware (virus infection) and is corrected through the registry. Naturally, you need to perform the following steps only after removing the virus. So, press “Alt” + “Ctrl” + “Delete” again to call the “Dispatcher” Windows tasks", and follow the 3rd step until a window with the line "Open" appears. We type in the field regedit and confirm the command (Enter). In a new window "Registry Editor", move through the folders (they are correctly called - Keys) until we find “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE”. In this folder select: "SOFTWARE" - "Microsoft" - "WindowsNT" - "CurrentVersion" and the last key - "Image File Execution Options" . If there are sections “explorer.exe” or “iexplorer.exe” in this folder, delete them. Continuing to navigate through the registry keys, select the folder "Winlogon" . Find the line “Shell” in the row on the right and look at the rightmost column. If it says something other than “explorer.exe”, right-click on this line, select “Change” and erase the excess in the “Value” line.
• Reboot the computer and admire the result.

This is how you work, work, and at one point, the icons from the taskbar disappear. In general, the taskbar is a rather insidious thing. Something happens to it all the time, especially for novice users. Sometimes it goes somewhere upward, sometimes to the side, or even disappears altogether. It disappears from it, and today all your icons have disappeared from the taskbar. What to do? The main thing is not to panic, otherwise you will mess up even more. Gather your thoughts and let's begin to correct the situation.

There are different icons on the taskbar, and they are all located differently. They can be located on the right, left or in the middle.

If the icons on the right side of the taskbar are missing

Right-click on an empty space on the Taskbar. In the drop-down menu, select the entry - Properties .

The window “ Taskbar and Start menu properties " Click the button " Tune… ».

The following window will open “ Setting up notifications ».

First way

Next to each icon, click on the entry in the column Behavior and manually install the required function " Hide if not active », « Always hide " or " Always display " After you have set your own parameters for each icon, do not forget to save everything. Click on the button OK“, otherwise all your work will go to waste, and you will have to start everything over again.

Second way

Just click on the big button below " Restore defaults " And " OK ».

If the icons on the left side of the taskbar are missing

In this case, everything is even simpler. Right-click on the empty space of the Taskbar and select from the drop-down list - Toolbars – and check the box “ Quick start ».

The disappearance of shortcuts on the Windows 7 desktop is one of the signs of a computer being infected with malware, in which the system file responsible for the functioning of the graphical shell of the OS has become damaged or is not launched correctly. To correct this situation, you must either restore the damaged data or correctly specify the path to it in the registry.

Ways to restore desktop icons

In Windows 7, the program explorer.exe, located on drive C in Windows folder. If you change its parameters, the executable file will be read incorrectly, which can lead to the loss of not only all icons on the desktop, but also the taskbar.

You can restore all shortcuts using both standard applications built into the OS and additional software. The choice of one method or another depends on the criticality of the damage and the availability on the computer of the data required for resuscitation.

Activating the icon display feature

If all the icons on the Windows 7 desktop have disappeared, but the taskbar works normally, this may indicate that the shortcut display function has been disabled. If this is indeed the case, then in the “Desktop” or Desktop folder, which is located on system disk, all icons must be present.

To restart this function you must:

If there are no icons in the Desktop catalog, it means that they were removed from the system due to the operation of malware or rash user actions. In this case, the recovery method described above will not work.

Manually launching explorer.exe

If icons disappear from the desktop Windows desktop 7 is not associated with damage to the explorer.exe application, you can launch it manually from the Start menu or Task Manager. In the first case, you need to go to “Start” and in the “Run” tab type explorer.exe.

If the taskbar has disappeared along with all the icons, then to launch the above file you need to:

If, when you try to enter the “Task Manager”, the system blocks your actions, which can be observed when the computer is infected with a virus, then you will not be able to restore icons using this method.

Using the Registry

The file responsible for displaying shortcuts and visualizing the desktop is activated through a specific registry branch. When your computer is infected, it may happen that instead of launching explorer.exe, it opens virus program. To fix this problem and, accordingly, restore the missing icons, you need to do the following:

After exiting the registry and restarting the PC, all desktop icons should be restored.

Applications of additional software

If shortcuts have disappeared on your PC, and for some reason you can’t enter the registry or run the explorer.exe command, you can try to restore your desktop using special software.

Such a program is the universal antivirus program AVZ. His positive quality is that it can not only calculate and clean the system from viruses, but also restore system Windows files, unlock access to the Task Manager, revive desktop icons and much more.

The procedure for working with this utility will be as follows:

After completing these steps, all icons on the desktop should be restored.