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Fixed: Missing Desktop Icons

Sep 22, 2022

Computer desktop icon is a picture and text displayed on the computer screen to help end users quickly access the common programs in an easiest way. You may found them disappearing all of a sudden. Now you are going to learn how to fix it in this tutorial.

Case 1 Wrong Operation

Sometimes, desktop icons don’t show themselves even after restarting the PC. Luckily, this usually is the simplest case to solve. They may be hidden by a mistake.

Step 1 Select View on the desktop.

Right-click the desktop and select View to open its second menu.

Step 2 Show desktop icons.

Select Show desktop icons and wait seconds. To add more icons or to change the icons, click here to view Customize the Icons on the Desktop.

Case 2 Crashed Explorer

If both the icons and taskbar are missing, and Show desktop icons in Case 1 is not working, the Windows Explorer may have crashed.

Step 1 Open Task Manager.

Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.

Step 2 Create a new task.

Click File on the top and select Run new task.

Step 3 Finish the new task.

Type “explorer” in the dialog box and click OK.

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