Vista desktop items disappear

Half my desktop icons are missing, searched out the above, everything is fine in that area. Any other ideas?

If so, it could have been one of the current crop of bogus antimalware infections that has hidden the files. Actually upon every restart they breifly appear for about half a second before they disappear.

Which made me suspect a Service or Startup program. Disable Service and all is good. I am working on a older gentlemans laptop that i know was not infected cause laptop had not been connected to the interenet since being purchased. My mother's computer had this problem today. Telephonically, I tried everything above Ed's solution and nothing.

I see that Stirech had a similar solution, but Ed's solution worked first time and was SO much easier than walking my mother through regedit from miles away. I've been searching the web and kept finding people talking about malware and complicated changes to user profiles.

That one simple trick fixed my problem. I appreciate finding the simple, "first thing to check" answer. It is rare. Most people want you to rewrite your operating system from scratch as their first solution. You should see drivers loading, and then Please wait. You should then be at the Welcome Screen. Logon to your computer using an account with Administrator privileges.

Click Continue , or provide Administrator credentials if prompted. Click the General tab, and click Selective startup. Under Selective startup uncheck Load startup items. Click the Services tab, check the Hide all Microsoft services box, and then click Disable all.

Click the Apply , then OK , and then Restart. Was this reply helpful? All Microsoft's PowerToys for Windows. Take Screenshot by Tapping Back of iPhone. Windows 11 Default Browser. Browse All Windows Articles. Windows 10 Annual Updates. OneDrive Windows 7 and 8. Copy and Paste Between Android and Windows. Protect Windows 10 From Internet Explorer.

Mozilla Fights Double Standard. Connect to a Hidden Wi-Fi Network. Change the Size of the Touch Keyboard. Reader Favorites Take Screenshot on Windows. Mount an ISO image in Windows. Boot Into Safe Mode. If your Windows 10 desktop icons are missing, there may be an issue with either your icon settings or your core Windows system. However, for the desktop icons missing issue, there are a few standard fixes you can try and hopefully resolve the issue on your computer.

Also, if you prefer to watch a video, check out our YouTube tutorial below that goes through a couple of the options. However, if none of those work, make sure to read the rest of the article as we have more steps and solutions listed here. You can bring them all back in a couple of clicks, though. You also want to check the settings for your desktop icons and ensure the ones you want are selected and enabled.