Windows 10 cannot Show desktop
If your Windows 10 desktop icons are missing, there may be an issue with either your icon settings or your core Windows system. Issues like these often dont have an apparent reason and that makes it difficult to troubleshoot them. Show
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. Ensure The Desktop Icons Arent DisabledThe first and the most basic thing youll want to do before you perform any other methods is to check if the option that displays your desktop icons is enabled. If you or someone else turned off the option for some reason, thats why your Windows 10 desktop icons have gone missing. You can bring them all back in a couple of clicks, though.
Re-Configure Your Desktop Icons SettingsYou also want to check the settings for your desktop icons and ensure the ones you want are selected and enabled. If youve customized your icon settings, it might have caused your icons to disappear from your desktop. You can head into the Settings and configure the options there to fix the issue.
Relaunch The Windows ExplorerYour desktop icons are part of the explorer.exe process that runs on your computer. If theres an issue with the process, it can cause issues like Windows 10 desktop icons missing or disappearing on your Windows PC. The good thing is that you can easily fix the issue by relaunching the process on your machine.
Toggle The Tablet Mode In Windows SettingsTablet mode changes how the icons and other elements appear on your system, and its worth toggling it to see if it helps fix the Windows 10 desktop icons missing issue on your computer.
Scan For & Fix Corrupt Files On Your SystemCorrupt files are often the reason why some functions dont work on your computer. Your files can get corrupted due to various reasons but you can actually fix them pretty easily with a built-in tool. Microsoft has included a command in the Windows operating system to let you search for and fix corrupt files on your computer.
Toggle The Start Menu Full-Screen OptionSince theres no apparent reason why your Windows 10 desktop icons are missing, you can try enabling and disabling the options related to your user interface and it can hopefully fix the issue for you. One of the things you can do is toggle the full-screen option for your Windows Start Menu.
Rebuild The Icon Cache For Your ComputerYour computer uses the icon cache file to display icons on your desktop. If theres an issue with this file, it can cause your desktop icons to disappear. Fortunately, you can rebuild this cache file by following a few steps on your computer.
Roll Back To a Previous Restore PointIf the issue has arisen after installing software or making changes to your computer configuration, you can resolve it by rolling your machine back to a system restore point. Itll get your configurations back to what they were when the icons displayed perfectly fine on your desktop.
Reset Your ComputerLastly, if nothing works, you can try resetting your PC to the factory settings and see if it resolves the issue for you. It most likely should fix it as thats what its been built for.
Your Windows 10 desktop icons can go missing for any reason but you can always try out some of the standard fixes to see if they help bring your icons back to your desktop. If the above guide helped you fix the desktop icons disappeared issue on your PC, please let us know what method worked for you in the comments below, so others can benefit from it. |