Desktop Icons Missing? Here Are The Most Practical Solutions

All icons missing from desktop

Why are desktop icons missing on Windows 10?

Since some commonly used programs can be displayed on the desktop, it provides convenience for the users. If they want to quickly access the items, they can put the items on the desktop and arrange them in order.

However, on the Internet, some users complained about the ”Windows 10 desktop icons missing“ problem. Why did this happen? Here are the potential reasons:

♥ If the users perform the wrong operations or accidentally hide the files, the icon will disappear from the desktop.
♥ When the tablet mode is turned on, some icons will be compressed.
♥ The current icon cache files are corrupted.
♥ The desktop icons are disabled on the Group Policy Editor.
♥ There‘re some errors caused by the Update.

How to fix desktop icons missing issue on Windows

The loss of desktop icon may bring the trouble in opening the programs, so you may want to fix this issue. In the following content, you can get 9 methods to display the programs on the desktop.

✿ Method 1. Restart the PC

Usually, when there’s something wrong with the PC, you can try to restart it. Restarting the PC will forcefully end up the hanging programs, clean up the RAM space, regain the system information, etc. So if the icons disappear from the desktop, you can restart the PC first.

✿ Method 2. Show desktop icons

Sometimes, the icons' disappearance is caused by the accidental clicks. You can show the desktop icons with the following steps.

Right-click the desktop, then click "View" and "Show desktop icons" in order.

✿ Method 3. Turn off Tablet mode

The tablet mode can make some touchable PC work well, but it may also malfunction the PC, such as removing the icons from the desktop. Here is the operation to disable the tablet mode.

Step 1. Click "Windows" and select "Settings", then click "System" in the Settings window.

Step 2. Click "Tablet", then select "Never use tablet mode" when I sign in.

Step 3. In the "Change additional table settings", turn off the "Tablet mode" and "Hide app icons on the taskbar" buttons.

✿ Method 4. Automatically set the desktop icons

In the Windows Settings, you can set the displayed icons by yourselves.

Step 1. Press "Win + I" to open the Settings and click "Personalization".

Step 2. In the new interface, click "Themes".

Step 3. Click "Desktop icon settings" under "Related Settings".

Step 4. In the new popped window, tick the target icons and then click "Apply".

✿ Method 5. Rebuild icon cache via CMD

The damaged icon cache may be a possible cause for the desktop icons missing, you can rebuild the icon cache with CMD commands.

Step 1. Press "Windows+ S" and input "cmd", then click "Run as administrator".

Step 2. The User Account Control prompt will appear, select "Yes".

Step 3. Input the following commands, then hit "Enter" each time.

• cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer (To locate the directory to store the icon cache.)
• taskkill /f /im explorer.exe (To end up the process of File Explore.)
• del iconcache* (To delete the icon cache files.)
• Explorer. exe (To restart the Explorer.)

✿ Method 6. Run the System Restore

If you don't know how to recover the missing desktop icons, the System Restore can return the PC condition without this problem.

Step 1. Press and hold the Power button, forcefully turning off the PC for 3 times, then you’ll get into the Windows Recovery Environment. Next, click "Troubleshoot", "Advanced" and "System Restore" in turn.

Step 2. In the new popup window, click “Next”. You need to choose one system restore point, then click "Next". A warning will poop out, click "Yes".

✿ Method 7. Restart Windows Explorer

Windows Explorer is another name of the File Explorer, when there’re some problems on the PC, you can restart the Windows Explorer to fix them.

Step 1. Press "Ctrl + Shift + Esc" to open the Task Manager, then right-click "Windows Explorer" and click "End task".

Step 2. In the new window, click "File" and then select the "Run new task" option.

Step 3. In the small window, input "Explorer. exe" and then click "OK" to restart the Windows Explorer.

✿ Method 8. Check the Group Policy Settings

The Group Policy Editor supports the changes in the system, but if the icon is hidden with this utility, you cannot see it on the desktop. Here is the process to fix desktop icons missing issue.

Step 1. Click the "magnifying" option., then type "gpedit.msc" and press "Enter" to open this tool.

Step 2. Locate "User Configuration", "Administrative Templates" and "Desktop". Then double-click "Hide and disable all items on the desktop policy".

Step 3. Click "Not configured" or "Disabled". Click "Apply" and "OK".

✿ Method 9. Uninstall the malfunctioned update

The Windows update option can fresh the Windows and upgrade it to the latest version, but sometimes, the malfunctioned update may cause some problems. Then you can uninstall the malfunctioned update.

Step 1. Open the Settings, then click "Update & Security".

Step 2. Click "Windows Update" and "View update history".

Step 3. In the new window, click "Uninstall updates".

Step 4. Find out the latest installed update, then right-click on it and click "Uninstall".

How to retrieve the deleted files on the PC?

With the above methods, you can easily find out the missing icon on desktop. But when you lose the files by accidentally deleting them, these methods would be useless. If you want to recover the deleted files, you can try the powerful AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional.

Depending on the following advantages, it can be regarded as your top 1 option:

✌ It can recover data loss caused by different reasons, including system crashes, formatting, deleting, attacking of the virus, etc.
✌ It can restore all kinds of data, such as pictures, photos, texts, videos and even the deleted emails.
✌ It can be used on Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP.It can provide you with a bright and clean GUI.
✌ It can manage the hard drive with other functions, like Allocate Free Space, Delete Large Files, Move Applications to another drive, Migrate OS to SSD, etc.

Step 1. Install and run this data retriever, click "Recover" > "Recover Data".

Step 2. In the new window, choose the partition that stored the lost files before, click "Start Scan".

Step 3. After the scan, you can see all deleted files on the interface. Tick the target files and click "Recover".

Step 4. Choose a folder path to store the recovered data, then click "Select Folder".

Step 5. When it prompt you the task is completed, click "OK".

Note: If you unexpectedly lost some important data on Windows Server, the Server Edition can help you easily recover it.

Final word

In this post, we shared 9 solutions to deal with desktop icons missing issue. As the additional content, a useful data recovery tool is shared to regain the lost data. If you are busy seeking a way to retrieve the deleted items, you can try this functional software.