How do I recover lost desktop icons?

Do you know those moments when someone calls you when you come home, and when you are busy talking, you leave your keys elsewhere, only to spend the rest of the day trying to find them again? You may feel the same way if you discover all the desktop icons on your Windows computer missing.

Windows Desktop is often the one stop destination for the files and folders that we use on a regular basis.We keep many files and software shortcut on Desktop so that we can easily spot them right on the Desktop.However, when moving files and folders on the desktop, we often find that the copied folders are invisible, that is, the icons can no longer be found on the desktop.

If you start your Windows 10 computer and find all desktop icons in your Windows 10 computer are disappeared, and dont know how to fix it, check these 8 ways below to restore desktop icons Windows 10 and show desktop Windows 10 icons. An ultimatedata recovery guide is also attached to help you recover possible lost files on Windows 10 PC for free.

Method 1. Turn on Show Desktop Icons to Unhide All Desktop Icons Windows 10

Windows 10 desktop icons missing issue may be caused by accidentally hiding desktop icons. You can restore desktop icons Windows 10 by enablingShow desktop icons.

Step 1.Right-click the empty space on Windows 10 computer screen and clickViewoption.

Step 2.After you clickViewtab, you can see several options for managing desktop icons. Navigate and check if the optionShow desktop iconsare ticked, if not, make it ticked. Then check if you get all missing desktop icons back.

If you even cant right-click the desktop, you can continue to check other ways below.

Method 2. Fix Windows Desktop Icons Missing by Checking Desktop Icon Settings

Your Windows 10 icons may be hidden, the second step you can take is to show desktop icons in Windows 10 through Settings.

Step 1.You can right-click the computer screen and clickPersonalize. If you cant right-click the desktop screen, you can clickStart -> Settings -> Personalization.

Step 2.Then chooseThemes, and clickDesktop icon settings.

Step 3.Then you can select which kinds of desktop icons youd like to show on Windows computer, and clickApplyandOK.

Check if Windows 10 desktop icons are shown now, it not, continue to try other ways.

Method 3. Turn off the Tablet Mode to Show Desktop Icons

If you have a touch screen, the computer may have two screen modes:Desktop ModeandTablet Mode. If your Windows 10 computer is in Tablet mode, the desktop icons may not be shown properly. You can turn off Tablet mode to see if Windows 10 desktop icons disappeared problem can be solved.

Step 1.You can clickStartandSettingsto open Windows 10 settings.

Step 2.ClickSystemto open system settings window, and selectTablet modein the left panel.

Step 3.Make sure the status of Table mode isOff, to turn off tablet mode.

Method 4. Run SFC Scannow to Fix Windows 10 Desktop Icons Missing Issue

SFC [File System Checker] is a Windows built-in command line tool mainly designed for helping users to scan andrepair corrupted system files . If the Windows 10 icons missing issue is caused by system corruption, you can try SFC Scannow to show desktop Windows 10.

Step 1.Open Windows Command Prompt. You can pressWindows logoandRkeys on the keyboard at the same time. Then typecmdin the box, and hitEnter. When a window pops up asking you if you want to run it as Administrator, clickYes. You can also pressCtrl + Shift + Enterat 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 hitEnter.

Wait patiently to let the SFC scan process finish. After that, you can check if the desktop not showing in Windows 10 issue is fixed.

How to Recover Missing Desktop Files in Windows 10

If you Windows 10 desktop icons are disappeared, some of files you stored in computer may also get lost. Dont worry, you can easily recover lost data and files with the help of the professionalbest data recovery software .

MiniTool Power Data Recovery is a clean and free data recovery program, helping you to recover any deleted/lost files from computer hard drive, external hard drive, SSD, USB flash drive,SD card and more.

You can use this tool to recover lost data from almost any data loss situations, incl. system crash, virus attack, hard drive error, etc.

Step 1 Launch the Windows 10 File Recovery Software

Open MiniTool Power Data Recovery software to enter into its main UI. And clickThis PCin the left column. Then you can choose a PC drive or partition, and clickScanbutton to start scanning the chosen partition for lost and deleted files.

Step 2 Preview and Find Lost Files

When the scan process is finished, you can browse, preview and find the lost files and folder in the scan result window.

You can clickFindto search the lost file or folder by name, or clickFilterto find the files by file extension, file size range, create date, etc. You can also clickShow Lost Filesicon to only show lost files in the scan result, to quickly find needed files.

Step 3 Recover Lost Files and Folders in Windows 10 PC

Check all you needed files and clickSavebutton to choose a destination folder to store the recovered lost files. Please remember to choose a different partition to save the recovered files to prevent data overwriting.

With thisfree file undelete software for Windows 10 , you can easily restore lost desktop files or any other lost or deleted files in your Windows 10 computer.

Method 5. Run CHKDSK to Fix Windows 10 Desktop Icons Missing

Another Windows built-in command line utility CHKDSK can also help diagnose and fix some computer issues. It can verify the file system integrity of a partition andrepair hard disk logical file system errors.

Since your Windows 10 desktop icons are disappeared, you can also try CHKDSK to see if it can get back lost Windows 10 icons.

Step 1.PressWindows+Rkey on the keyboard, typecmd, and hitEnterto open Command Prompt.

Step 2.Then you can type this command line:chkdsk c: /f /r, and hitEnter. You can replace c with the drive letter of another partition or volume, to check and repair errors on other partitions or drives.

Method 6. Rebuild Icon Cache Windows 10

If nothing helps with the above methods, you can continue to try to rebuild icon cache in Windows 10 to fix Windows 10 desktop icons disappeared error. Check below forhow to rebuild icon cache in Windows 10 .

Step 1.Still, you should open Command Prompt window. You can pressWindowsandRkey on the keyboard, typecmd, hitEnterand run command prompt as administrator.

Step 2.Then you can type the commands below to rebuild icon cache. Please hitEnterto execute the operation after typing each command line.

• taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe
• cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
• attrib h IconCache.db
• del IconCache.db
• start explorer.exe

Method 7. Reset this PC to Fix Windows 10 Icons Missing

You can also try to reset your Windows 10 PC to see if the Windows 10 desktop icons missing problem can be fixed.

Step 1.You can also clickStartand clickSettings. Then clickUpdate & Securityand chooseRecoveryoption.

Step 2.Next you can clickGet startedunderReset this PCto carry out the resetting process.

Step 3.In the pop-up window, you can chooseKeep my filesand proceed to reinstall Windows while keeping all your personal files.

Method 8. Perform a System Restore to Show Desktop Windows 10

You can also try to conduct asystem restore to see if it can restore desktop icons in Windows 10.

Step 1.ClickStart -> Settings -> Update & Security -> Recovery -> Restart now, to enter into Windows recovery environment.

Step 2.Next you can clickTroubleshoot -> Advanced options -> System Restore.

Step 3.Then you can click your computer account and enter the password, and select a restore point to restore your Windows 10 computer to a previous state.

If the 8 ways introduced in this post dont help you fix Windows 10 desktop icons missing issue, then you may try the last draw: reinstall Windows 10.

Icons Disappeared from Taskbar Windows 10 Solved

If icons are missing from Taskbar in Windows 10, you can try to use SFC or DISM to fix this issue.

• At first, you can pressWindows+Rkey on the keyboard, typecmdin the Run box, open and run command prompt as administrator. Then typesfc /scannowand hitEnterto let the File System Checker scan and fix Windows 10 issues.
• If SFC doesnt fix Icons disappeared from Taskbar Windows 10 issue, you can type this command:DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth, and hitEnter.

After that, you can reboot your Windows 10 PC to see if Windows 10 taskbar icons invisible problem has been fixed. [Windows 10 Taskbar Not Working? 6 Fast Fixes ]

Fix Cant Move Desktop Icons on Windows 10

Still, if some of you encounter this issue: cant move desktop icons on Windows 10, you may try these methods below to fix this problem.

• PressEsckey on the keyboard three times.
• Change icons arrangement configuration. You can right-click the blank space on desktop and clickView-> uncheckAuto arrange icons.
• You can also change icon size after you right-click the desktop and clickView
• You can follow the guide above to turn off Tablet mode
• You can also follow the guide above to go toTroubleshootand perform a system restore, etc.

In conclusion

You can try the 8 methods in this post to fix Windows 10 desktop icons missing problem. If you also suffer some data loss because of this error or any other errors on Windows 10 computer, you can also follow the data recovery guide in this post to easily recover lost data and files in Windows 10 withMiniTool Power Data Recovery .