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How Can I Recover Files When Windows 10 Desktop Icons Are Missing?
How can you recover files when Windows 10 desktop icons are missing? You can’t even enter your File Explorer! Don’ panic, you can quickly recover missing files and solve icon issue with the help from this post.
By Lucas / Updated on March 19, 2024
Some users report that after they turn on their computer, there are no icons on the screen. And they can’t even access “This PC” or “Recycle Bin” to check it out.
The desktop of a Windows 10 computer initially has icons for Trash, This PC, Network, Control Panel, etc. Users prefer to create shortcuts to the applications they use frequently. On the other hand, we are used to saving files like Word documents, Excel sheets, PowerPoint presentations, etc. to the desktop for quick access.
While using a computer, some or all of the desktop icons and files may be lost due to accidental deletion or misconfiguration. However, these icons and files must be returned for easier use.
Why desktop icons are missing in Windows 10 computer?
Why did my desktop icons suddenly disappear? Of course, the icons won’t disappear without any reason. Here we find some possible issues that will cause the problem.
1. Explorer.exe not running: Explorer.exe manages the Windows desktop, taskbar, and file browsing. If Explorer crashes or does not start properly, the desktop icon may disappear.
2. Auto-hide desktop icons: Sometimes, users accidentally enable the auto-hide feature for desktop icons, or some mistaken operation hide icons on the PC. This causes the icons to disappear when not in use.
3. Third-party software interference: Certain third-party software, such as antivirus programs or system optimization tools, may conflict with Windows processes and cause desktop icons to disappear.
4. File system corruption: File system corruption can lead to various issues on a computer, including missing desktop icons. Running the built-in Windows utilities such as CHKDSK to scan and repair the file system may help.
5. Incorrect settings: Changes to desktop icon settings or customization options can result in the icons disappearing. Resetting these settings to default or adjusting them appropriately can restore the icons.
6. Windows Update issues: Certain Windows updates may introduce bugs or compatibility issues that affect the display of desktop icons.
7. System file corruption: Critical system files essential for displaying desktop icons may become corrupted, leading to their disappearance.
Quickly recover files when Windows 10 desktop icons are missing
If you also confront file missing when desktop icons disappear on your computer, then, before we try to restore icons, we should quickly recover lost files. This is because extra operations will overwrite your missing data drives and disks, if we don’t retrieve lost files now, we might never have them back.
No matter what causes your file loss, you can always seek help from AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional which enables you to recover more than 200+ file types from HDD, SSD, USB flash drive, pen drive, external hard drive, etc. If your files disappear due to sudden computer problems, accidental deletion, hard drive formatting, virus attack, or partition loss, you can easily and quickly restore them.
AOMEI Partition AssistantThe Best Windows Disk Partition Manager and PC Optimizer
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.
How to fix Windows 10 desktop icons are missing/disappeared
When you’re sure your files are safe now, from this part, you can try to restore your missing icon on your Windows. Well first, we suggest you restart your PC. Some wrong exe. may get rid of glitches after reboot PC. If this isn’t help, then, follow our solutions to solve the problems.
Way 1. Turn on show desktop icons
The missing desktop icons issue in Windows 10 may be caused by accidentally hiding the desktop icons. To restore desktop icons Windows 10, enable the display of desktop icons.
Step 1. Right-click any free space on your Windows 10 computer screen and click View option.
Step 2. Click on the Display tab and you will see several options to manage your desktop icons. Make sure the Show desktop icons option is checked. After that, check if all the disappeared desktop icons return.
Way 2. Checking desktop icon settings
Windows 10 icons may be hidden. The second step is to display Windows 10 desktop icons from Settings.
Step 1. Right-click on your computer screen and click "Personalize". If you cannot right-click on your desktop screen, click Start → Settings → Personalization.
Step 2: Select a theme and click Set Desktop Icons.
Next, select the type of desktop icons you want to display on your Windows computer and click "Apply" and "OK".
Way 3. Turn off Tablet Mode to restore lost icon
If you have a touch screen, your computer has two screen modes: desktop mode and tablet mode. When your Windows 10 computer is in tablet mode, desktop icons may not display correctly. You can turn off tablet mode and check if the “Windows 10 desktop icons disappeared” issue can be resolved.
Step 1. Click Start and Settings to open Windows 10 Settings.
Step 2. Click "System" to open the system settings window and select "Tablet Mode" on the left panel.
Step 3. Make sure the table mode status is off and turn off tablet mode.
Way 4. Run SFC scannow
If the Windows 10 icons missing issue is caused by system files corruption, you can try SFC Scannow to restore missing icons on Windows 10.
Step 1. You can press Windows logo and R keys on the keyboard at the same time to open CMD. Then type cmd in the box, and hit Enter. When a window pops up asking you if you want to run it as Administrator, click Yes.
You can also press Ctrl + Shift + Enter at the same time after typing cmd, to run Command Prompt as Administrator.
Step 2. Then in the Command Prompt window, you can type this command line: sfc /scannow, and hit Enter.
Way 5. Run CHKDSK
CHKDSK, another Windows built-in command line utility, can also help you diagnose and fix some problems on your computer. It can check the integrity of partition file system and repair hard disk logical file system errors.
Since your Windows 10 desktop icons are gone, you can also try CHKDSK to see if you can get back your lost Windows 10 icons.
Step 1. Press Windows + R key on the keyboard, type cmd, and hit Enter to open Command Prompt.
Step 2. Then you can type this command line: chkdsk c: /f /r, and hit Enter. You can replace “c” with the drive letter of another partition or volume, to check and repair errors on other partitions or drives.
Way 6. Rebuild icon cache
If none of the above methods work, you can try rebuilding the Windows 10 icon cache to resolve the Windows 10 desktop icons disappeared error. See below for instructions on how to rebuild the icon cache in Windows 10.
Step 1. Open a command prompt window. Press the Windows and R keys on your keyboard, type cmd, press Enter, and run Command Prompt as administrator.
Step 2. Enter the below command to rebuild the icon cache. After typing each command line, press Enter to operate:
taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe
cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
attrib –h IconCache.db
del IconCache.db
start explorer.exe
Way 7. Uninstall update
If icons are missing on desktop Windows 10 after you update your Windows, then you can directly 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".
Verdict
In this article, we show you how to recover files when windows 10 desktop icons are missing, and why desktop icons are missing. You can also follow the data recovery guide to easily recover lost data and files in Windows 10 with AOMEI Partition Assistant if there are missing files. Besides, this tool can also perform surface tests and S.M.A.R.T test for your computer to further check the problem.
