aagh! Desktop icons don't come up

[dellzeqq]

I log on fine, and the desktop background comes up, but no icons. I can still close it by going the alt-control-delete route, and taskmanager tells me there's nothing happening. Any thoughts?

 

[ian turner]

[I think there's no point in answering your question without knowing what Operating system this is.

 

[moggsy100]

when its on and you got your background on.. ...try pressing and holding the off button until it completely shuts down and you hear it turn off then turn it on again as normal..

 

[dellzeqq]

sorry - it's XP professional.

I have shut it down by holding the button in for ten seconds, and started up again, but same result - no icons

 

[moggsy100]

sorry - it's XP professional.

I have shut it down by holding the button in for ten seconds, and started up again, but same result - no icons

try this ...... press control+alt+delete enter new task(run) type explorer.exe there..


that's on a website...

or After you get the wallpaper, bring up the task manager by pressing CTRL+ALT+Delete. Then select the 'New Task' button and type 'cmd' to bring up command prompt. At the command prompt type 'explorer' to bring up windows explorer and voila! the icons should appear.

 

[2Loose]

Ctrl-Alt-Del - does that bring up task manager?

If so, kill anything in the list called explorer.exe and then goto the File, Run menu (of task manager) and type 'explorer.exe' and click ok.

Clutching at straws, but it may give you some mileage.

 

[dellzeqq]

try this ...... press control+alt+delete enter new task(run) type explorer.exe there..


that's on a website...

or After you get the wallpaper, bring up the task manager by pressing CTRL+ALT+Delete. Then select the 'New Task' button and type 'cmd' to bring up command prompt. At the command prompt type 'explorer' to bring up windows explorer and voila! the icons should appear.

typed explorer, as you suggested, and the desktop icons flicker on and off (more off than on)

 

[Gerry Attrick]

I understand Microsoft are aware of this problem but they don't appear to have fixed it yet. The workaround they suggest is right clicking the desktop and then left clicking "Refresh".

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I understand Microsoft are aware of this problem but they don't appear to have fixed it yet. The workaround they suggest is right clicking the desktop and then left clicking "Refresh".

I noticed yesterday that some of mine, at work, had gone. Just tried your method, GA and it's brought them all back!

 

[Gerry Attrick]

I noticed yesterday that some of mine, at work, had gone. Just tried your method, GA and it's brought them all back!

Glad to be of assistance TBM.

 

[rh100]

Could this be related to the trojan problem you have???

You could try system restore via safe mode.

To get to safe mode, hold the F8 key just after switching on, select safe mode from the menu that appears, it gives you a very basic desktop display.

When logged in go to start, all programs, system tools and system restore, follow the prompts to 'roll back' the PC to a few days ago or any relevant checkpoint on the list, it will then reboot and should be good as when it was a few days ago.

However, things can go wrong when messing with this stuff, hope you have your files backed up.

The problem is, whatever caused it could reoccur, either a virus or a dodgy system update from microsoft, but restore could get you out of the poop for now.

 

[Over The Hill]

Take a photo of someone else's computer screen and use that as a desktop picture. Then have lots of fun when some geek tries to get it to work and wonders why the buttons dont work.

 

[mcshroom]

Is it the task-bar disappearing (at the bottom)?

It could be that the auto-hide has turned on somehow. Try moving your mouse down to the very bottom of the screen. If the auto-hide is on then the bar should slide up from the bottom. If so then right click on an empty bit of the blue bar, click "properties" and uncheck the "Auto-hide taskbar" option.

Just another thought.

 

[rh100]

Ah ha - just remembered I had a job like this the other day and totally forgot about it -

right click the desktop - select 'arrange icon's by' > 'show desktop icons' ( a tick next to it shows it is selected - if already ticked deselect then reselect)

that might do it

 

[rh100]

Take a photo of someone else's computer screen and use that as a desktop picture. Then have lots of fun when some geek tries to get it to work and wonders why the buttons dont work.

It's a good one, and it's easier than taking a pic, on said pc just hit the print screen button and paste into the paint program and save as a bitmap, use that file and it fits perfect. Then hide the real icons dont delete them though as thats just cruel