Member Avatar for Dani
Dani 5,664 The Queen of DaniWeb

I found this in a few different places around the 'net - hopefully it's helpful:

Add Familiar Icons Back to Your Desktop

It's the case of the missing icons. Many of you may be wondering where all the icons from your desktop are in Windows XP - can place at least My Computer, My Network Places, and My Documents on the desktop.

  • Right-click on the desktop, and then click Properties.
  • Click the Desktop tab and then click on Customize Desktop.
  • Put a check mark in the box next to My Document, My Computer, My Network Places, or Internet Explorer, to add those familiar icons to your desktop.
  • 1 Contributor
  • 0 Replies
  • 189 Views

Dani AI

Generated

Good, practical tip from . If the Desktop Properties route doesn't bring the system icons back, the next things to check are common XP behaviors that move or hide icons rather than delete them — for example, the Desktop Cleanup Wizard can move shortcuts into an "Unused Desktop Shortcuts" folder. (en.wikipedia.org)

Try these quick follow-ups: look for an "Unused Desktop Shortcuts" folder on the desktop and drag items back; restart the shell (end explorer.exe in Task Manager and run a new task named explorer.exe) to force a refresh; and, if icons look wrong or are swapped, rebuild the icon cache (Windows XP icon-cache fixes and the MaxCachedIcons guidance are documented by Microsoft). These three steps fix the majority of "icons missing" symptoms without deeper changes. (learn.microsoft.com)

If the normal dialogs or menu options are missing (no "Arrange Icons" choices, or the Customize Desktop UI is not available), an administrator policy or a registry value may be hiding desktop items. As an alternative to the GUI you can create special-shell shortcuts manually — for example a My Computer shortcut target like: 

%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

Create a New → Shortcut on the desktop and paste that as the location to restore the object directly. (trishtech.com)

If you must edit the registry or change policy, back up the registry or create a restore point first and follow documented registry/gpedit steps for values such as NoActiveDesktop/NoDesktop under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. Registry edits and icon-cache repairs are documented in Microsoft resources; proceed carefully. (learn.microsoft.com)

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.