Desktop Icons Gone

[Perryg114]

My dad was messing with his computer and said he clicked something on the bottom tool bar and made all the desktop icons go away. Well all the options to arrange desktop icons are blank. When I right click and go to desktop settings, customize the web tab is missing. The desktop folder still has all the icons in but they won't show up on the screen. I can add new icons but they are invisible as well. He must have erased a file somewhere is all I can figure.

Perry

 

[corkyg]

Step 1 is to right click on the desktop, then go to "Arrange Icons By" and then make sure that "Show Desktop Icons" is checked.

 

[Perryg114]

There is no " Show Desktop Icons" Option. There are blanked out arrange icon menus.

Perry

 

[Steve]

Sounds like the Antivirus XP 2009 infection, which would take away those rights. Scan with Malwarebytes and SUPERAntispyware to nix a lot of it.

 

[Perryg114]

The computer has just now been connected to the internet full time so I doubt there was time for it to become infected. I ran Malwarebytes and it did not find anything. I am not getting any popups or anything that would indicate an infection.

Perry

 

[techmanc]

What happens if you create a new user account? Are the icons still unavailable?

 

[Perryg114]

The icons are there when I create a new user account.

Perry

 

[corkyg]

Step 2 would be to do a System Restore to a date prior to the icon loss.

 

[techmanc]

If you goto the problem account and right click on desktop - choose properties - and click on the desktop tab then customize desktop are all the icons you wanted to see on desktop checked?

 

[Perryg114]

Yes they are checked. Maybe I could copy the desktop.ini file from the new desktop to the old one.

Perry

 

[bruceb]

I think this will fix it:

"Show Desktop icons" and other options missing in the Desktop right-click menu ?

When you right-click the Desktop and choose Arrange Icons By sub-menu, these three options may be missing:

Show Desktop icons / Lock web items on the Desktop / Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard

This happens if the policy NoActiveDesktopChanges or NoActiveDesktop is enabled via the Group Policy Editor or via the Registry. Follow the steps given below to get back the missing options:

* Click Start, Run and type REGEDIT. Navigate to the following key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer

* Double-click NoActiveDesktopChanges and set it to 0
* Double-click NoActiveDesktop and set it to 0 (if exists)
* Close Registry Editor and restart Windows

From the link below
http://www.winxptutor.com/showdesktopicons.htm

 

[Nizbot]

Originally posted by: Perryg114
Yes they are checked. Maybe I could copy the desktop.ini file from the new desktop to the old one.

Perry

Didn't see mentioned above, but have you tried a simple restart? Always solves lots of problems.

Also, make sure in the display properties nothing has been changed, such as the primary screen source. Just a thought.

 

[Perryg114]

Thanks Bruce that worked.

Click Start/Run and type GPEDIT.MSC
Navigate to this path:
User Configuration
=> Administrative Templates
==> Desktop
===> Active Desktop

I had to enable active desktop to get the icons back. Nothing was locked out so I am not sure what happened.

Perry

 

[bruceb]

Glad you fixed it.