After weve investigated this issue thoroughly, it turns out that this problem has multiple potential causes. The desktop is a lot less useful if you can't put icons on it. Once you complete the above steps, your icons should appear on the desktop. Step 2: In the following window, switch to the View tab and click on the Restore Defaults button. Right-click any empty space on your desktop and navigate to the View tab at the top, then check the "Show desktop icons" option. Commentdocument.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "af71bf9a4de3d912dd596aa311b2bee6" );document.getElementById("c494d01588").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Get weekly Video Tutorials tips and trends via email! If you're unable to remove or unpin a program or app icon from Windows 11 or . Go to Settings > Personalization > Start > Folders. When you enter the first few letters of an email address, Outlook automatically suggests relevant contacts from your address book. You can try running a thorough scan of your PC using Windows Defender or any of your preferred anti-virus programs to verify that. If I go to . Note: You probably noticed the result you get isn't actually "Desktop Icon Settings," but rather "Themes and Related Settings.". This will force Windows to rebuild the icon cache from scratch and resolve your problem. Right-click (or press and hold) the desktop, point to View, and then select Large icons, Medium icons, or Small icons. Desktop icons disappear when I click on them [Fix], Taskbar icons not showing, missing, invisible, blank in Windows 11/10, How to remove Green Check Marks on Desktop Icons in Windows 11/10, Microsoft adds the new AI-powered Bing to the Windows 11 Taskbar, New Bing arrives on Bing and Edge Mobile apps and Skype. Click on the Desktop icon settings. Then, switch to the Customise tab. The . The path for this key is: On the right-hand side of the Explorer key, look for the NoDesktop DWORD value. Step 3: Scroll down and select Desktop icon settings. Here you can configure which ones should appear. Sometimes you see the icons. In the Group Policy Editor window, navigate or search for the following path from the left side panel:-. Incidentally, on a related note, this post will help you if your Desktop Icons not working or are unclickable. Step 1: Press Windows key + I to open Settings and go to Storage. Windows 11 can stop showing you those file thumbnails for various reasons sometimes. Instead, most people share that they receive more emails than they want or feel like they can manage well. While Windows 11 does not show any folder thumbnails by design, it still supports file thumbnails. Above, we discussed all about fixing the Windows 10 desktop icons not showing issue. Go to Windows Settings > Personalization > Themes and click on Desktop icon settings. 2. The Windows Explorer process handles the Graphical User Interface (GUI) for a number of utilities, including the desktop. File Explorer on Windows is known to run into errors at times. Select Show and Click the Hidden items option. Fix Windows 11. Step 3: Scroll down to select Thumbnails and click on the Remove files option at the top. Fix 3: Build the icon cache again. Icons may not be appearing on the desktop because you do not have the show desktop icon feature activated. The Lock icon means that you have a private item in a non-private directory. Usually, the text in the shortcut icons is of no use as the icons themselves are enough to know which app it points to. You'll see the icon and the site address drag with your mouse cursor. You will see "fsquirt" in the search results bearing the Bluetooth icon. Copyright Windows Report 2023. Select all the checkboxes for desktop icons. Then navigate to this directory path (replace with your actual folder): Select to restart the PC from Windows 11s Start menu. Ive tried everything on this article and another one like it, and they didnt work. Change the Desktop icon settings. I found the solution. Restore File Explorer default settings. If the icons were already there and suddenly disappeared, the quick fix is to restart the File Explorer. Click the Start button, type "Desktop Icon Settings" into the search bar, then hit Enter, click "Open," or click "Themes and Related Settings.". In the pop-out menu, look to see if there is a check mark next to the "Show desktop icons" setting. Under Themes, scroll down and select Desktop icon settings. If the problem is still not fixed, move down to the final potential fix below. Note that you can only access the Group Policy Editor on Windows 11 Professional, Enterprise, and Education editions. If this does not work, try unchecking the option to change your desktop icons. Now, right-click on it and choose "Restart". Click Change Icon. This will create a shortcut to the website. Windows 11 Home doesnt have Group Policy Editor. Many of us prefer using thumbnails over icons. Have the icons on your desktop disappeared in Windows 11? First, this setting is also present in Windows 10, and can be accessed using the same steps listed above. Usually, this happens if the file associations are messed up. The Windows 11 desktop is where many users stick shortcuts. Note: If you notice a checkbox next toShow desktop icons,icons should already be enabled on your Windows 11 installation. Step 3: After clicking Personalization, Scroll down the page and click on Taskbar on the right side of the window.. Rebuilding the entire icon cache will require you to build a custom BAT file that will automatically run a series of commands that will effectively rebuild the cache associated with every Windows icon. Right-click on a blank space on the desktop, and select "Display Settings" in the pop-up menu. How to Lock Desktop Icons in Place on Windows 11 Windows 11 Nov 5, 2021. 4 . Now you need to pin the shortcut to the taskbar. Run the following command to terminate the Explorer process: Finally, type in the following text and hit, Right-click on your graphics driver and select. All thumbnail data on Windows gets stored in the form of cache. Several affected users that were also dealing with this issue on Windows 11 have reported that theyve been able to fix the problem by creating a custom .reg file to ensure that the registry database related to icon management is not corrupted. To rebuild icon cache on Windows 11: Press Win + S to open the search menu. This should fix the issue if youre only dealing with a minor display glitch but wont work if youre dealing with some type of corruption that is affecting the icon cache. 2023 Guiding Tech Media. Refer to our guide on how to fix corrupt drivers on Windows for more instructions on how to fix this. Pankil is a freelance tech writer from India who enjoys writing how-tos, guides, and troubleshooting tips for Windows, Android, and Internet. . Since there are no icons on the desktop, it should not matter where you right-click. If the refresh doesnt happen automatically, right-click on a free space on your desktop again and click on Refresh from the context menu. My training enabled me to fully use the various Microsoft Applications while also allowing to work around problems. How to fix white or blank Icons on the Windows 10 and 11 Desktop or Taskbar. You may follow the fixes shared in this article to get the icons back on the desktop. DEL %userprofile%\AppData\Local\IconCache.db /a. Note: An issue with the icon cache is much more likely if youre noticing that taskbar icons and File Explorer icons also fail to display. Help, please! Click User Configuration in Group Policy Editors sidebar. Here, under the "Processes" section, scroll down and look for " Windows Explorer ". To show desktop icons, ensure that the setting is Not Configured. The Accessibility Checker uses the same axe-windows engine as Accessibility Insights, which is the same accessibility testing tool the Visual Studio team uses for our own accessibility testing. Heres a shortlist of potential culprits that might be triggering this error code: Now that we went over every potential cause that might cause this issue, lets go over all the actual fixes that other affected users have successfully used to fix this problem: If youre experiencing this issue immediately after installing a pending update for Windows 11, chances are youre no longer seeing the desktop icons because the update has flicked the visibility of the icons to disabled. If you notice an application icon or system icon with a blue and yellow shield (Icon overlay) at the corner, it means that the applications need to run with administrator privileges. Follow these steps to perform a system restore on Windows: Wait for Windows to reboot and revert to the specified restore point. After weve investigated this issue thoroughly, it turns out that this problem has multiple potential causes. function gennr(){var n=480678,t=new Date,e=t.getMonth()+1,r=t.getDay(),a=parseFloat("0. Choose View and select Show desktop icons. Unfortunately, Windows 11 still lacks the "Show all icons" option from Windows 10. Rebuilding the entire icon cache will require you to build a custom BAT file that will automatically run a series of commands that will effectively rebuild the cache associated with every Windows icon. A couple of things worth nothing about this issue. Disable Windows 10 Tablet mode. Next, type 'notepad' inside the text box, then press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open up Notepad with admin access. 2. Under Related settings, locate and click on Desktop icon settings. Before that, a Registry backup is recommended. TheWindowsClub covers authentic Windows 11, Windows 10 tips, tutorials, how-to's, features, freeware. . Double-click the Hide and disable all items on the desktop policy. Step 2: Click on More details to expand Task Manager. Step 1: Open Windows Explorer and click on the View tab on top of your screen. (see screenshot below) 3 If the refresh doesn't sort the icons, you can try Option Two or Option Three. Required fields are marked *. Note: If the icons are still not showing on your Windows 11 installation, follow the next sub-guide directly below. This is because the icons on the desktop have not been removed, they are simply in a state of not being displayed. Change a Hide and disable all items on the desktop policy setting. Note: If you notice a checkbox next to Show desktop icons, icons should already be enabled on your Windows 11 installation. Credit to the author. For those who did experience this, it was alarming to find everything missing. Some PC issues are hard to tackle, especially when it comes to corrupted repositories or missing Windows files. You can download Restoro by clicking the Download button below. WRs guide to factory resetting Windows 11 includes instructions for how to do that with the built-in tool and other methods. 2. Press OK to exit and close Group Policy Editor. To hide the desktop icons, use these steps: Right-click on the desktop area. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. Thank you for mentioning OneDrive. These were all the solutions you need to fix the missing Desktop icons. Make sure to click and drag the icon, not the address itself. Image: MSpoweruser. Click "Show desktop icons" if the checkmark is missing which will toggle all of the icons back onto your desktop. Then, click Next followed by Finish. Select a restore point before the issue first appeared and hit. Onceyou fix the Desktop Icons and File Associations, it should be working again. The updated File Explorer in Windows 11 features a tabbed interface that lets you open multiple File Explorer tabs within a single window and switch between them as necessary. Now knowing all the time I have spent over the past year trying to resolve the problem and it too was OneDrive really (_(*)W(*E#. Image: MSpoweruser. Step 1: Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc on your keyboard to quickly launch the Task Manager. Press Win + R to open the Run Command. 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While we all love to keep icons and files on the Desktop for quick access . Therefore, below is how to check and fix these settings. This will force Windows to rebuild the icon cache from scratch and resolve your problem. Make sure there is a check-mark next to the Show desktop icons option. Fix 6: Perform computer reset. This is the first guide I found that actually repaired the issue; most of them only suggest the File Explorer Options method to only view thumbnails. Click OK to save the changes. It also keeps you away from critical file loss, hardware failure, and repairs damages made by malware and viruses. Now some users have reported that the desktop icons do not show when they place them on their Windows 11 or Windows 10 desktop. Luckily, if you are part of the group that recently had this happen, it's quite possible nothing on the desktop is lost, but rather that the icons simply are not being displayed. I spent my high school years working as a campus writer and researcher, as I get older, I want to broaden my horizons and live life to the fullest. Right-click the shortcut and select Show More Options. 1. Follow the instructions below to create and run a .reg file that fixes the potential registry corruption: Fix: White Boxes/Squares on Desktop ShortcutsUplay Logs Out Multiple Users After Showing Concerning MessageHow To Fix VLC Shortcuts or Hotkeys not Working Problem?How to Restore Windows 10 Administrative Tools Shortcuts, How To Fix Usb Error Digital Signature Code 52 Error, How To Fix Windows Update Store Error 0X80D05001. Desktop icons on Windows 11 give you quick access to your favorite apps, files, folders, and more. Try checking and unchecking Show Desktop icons option a few times, but remember to leave this option checked. The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. Also Read: [Solved] USB Drive Not Showing Up on Windows 10. The thumbnails not showing issues can also occur due to that. The icons usually appear when there is activity, but if you want to keep an icon visible, you can do so using the Taskbar Settings. However, before jumping to the solutions, it is always a good idea to take a look at the problems causes. Open File Explorer > Folder Options > Views to show Hidden System Files. Up until September 14, 1995 domain registration was free. So, you need to delete it. If desktop icons are still not showing after applying all the aforementioned potential solutions, a more drastic fix might be needed. After this, you can follow the steps mentioned below: First of all, open the Registry Editor window. From there, select an icon that you can easily identify and then click on 'OK'. Step 2: Click on Temporary Files. Guiding you with how-to advice, news and tips to upgrade your tech life. Step 2. You may check and fix the .Ink file association to solve this problem. Another reason why desktop icons on Windows may appear broken or go missing is if the existing icon cache data is corrupt. If the refresh doesnt happen automatically, right-click on a free space on your desktop again and click on Refresh from the context menu. Refresh Icons using Command. First, right-click on the blank icon from your desktop and select 'Properties'. If the first method does not work. 2 Copy and paste the ie4uinit.exe -show command into Windows Terminal, and press Enter. We recommend installing Restoro, a tool that will scan your machine and identify what the fault is.Click hereto download and start repairing. Deleting a corrupted icon cache is among the confirmed solutions for this issue. There is no reason uninstalling it should have done anything, but I guess that is the story of Microsoft products. Project Name Stars Downloads Repos Using This Packages Using This Most Recent Commit Total Releases Latest Release Open Issues License Language; Sharpshell: 1,277: 73: 1: In that case, you'll need to reinstall the graphics driver on your PC. 5. If a similar issue is bugging you on your Windows 11 computer, you can troubleshoot and fix it. Select Choose a different restore point, and click Next . Right-click on the empty area on your desktop. Top 5 Ways to Fix YouTube Thumbnails Not Showing. In that case, you can use the following steps to re-enable those desktop icons. Its possible that youve been logged in with a temporary profile, or you need to fix corrupted values for icon spacing in Registry Editor. Remove Lock Overlay Icon on Encrypted Files. Copyright 2023 www.techpout.com. They didnt work is a check mark next to the Taskbar usually, this happens if refresh... Or blank icons on the blank icon from your address book when enter! 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