lost icons on main screen

[Kathy]

A friend of mine has windows XP on her computer. Her main screen has no icons
she can't get anywhere. She isn't able to get on-line. She will restart her
computer and the icons will be there, but, when it gets loaded they
disappear. Can you help?

 

[Don Phillipson]

A friend of mine has windows XP on her computer. Her main screen has no icons
she can't get anywhere. She isn't able to get on-line. She will restart her
computer and the icons will be there, but, when it gets loaded they
disappear. Can you help?

Obvious remedies to try.
1. Scan for viruses etc.
2. If some change or addition precipitated this change,
uninstal it. Then use System Restore to turn the clock
back to a date before the trouble started (reboot with
Registry the way it was that date.)

 

[Malke]

A friend of mine has windows XP on her computer. Her main screen has no
icons she can't get anywhere. She isn't able to get on-line. She will
restart her computer and the icons will be there, but, when it gets loaded
they disappear. Can you help?

The First Question Of Troubleshooting: If the problem is new, what changed
between the time things worked and the time they didn't?

The Second Question of Windows Troubleshooting: what is the malware/virus
status of the machine? If you think it is clean, what programs (and
versions) did you use to determine this?

Be sure the computer is clean:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

Have your friend answer the Second Question first. If she can't do the work
herself (and there is no shame in admitting this isn't your cup of tea),
your friend should take the machine to a professional computer repair shop
(not your local equivalent of BigComputerStore/GeekSquad). If possible, she
should have all her data backed up first. Data can be retrieved from
outside of Windows if necessary.

Malke

 

[Twayne]

Obvious remedies to try.
1. Scan for viruses etc.
2. If some change or addition precipitated this change,
uninstal it. Then use System Restore to turn the clock
back to a date before the trouble started (reboot with
Registry the way it was that date.)

Try this, just to be sure they didn't get turned off somehow:

right click on Desktop.
Choose Arrrange Icons By
Make sure there is a checkmark by Show Desktop Icons

HTH,

Twayne

 

[Guest]

I have a similar problem. I have all my desktop icons except "My Computer".
I have done searches but nothing comes up. I have Windows XP/home with sp2
(sp3 downloaded but not installed)
Is there a way to rebuild a shortcut?
Thanks
Joni

Obvious remedies to try.
1. Scan for viruses etc.
2. If some change or addition precipitated this change,
uninstal it. Then use System Restore to turn the clock
back to a date before the trouble started (reboot with
Registry the way it was that date.)

Try this, just to be sure they didn't get turned off somehow:

right click on Desktop.
Choose Arrrange Icons By
Make sure there is a checkmark by Show Desktop Icons

HTH,

Twayne