Missing Icons / Cannot Get My Desktop To Accept Any Shortcuts
Jan 24, 2006
Was using computer all day yesterday and all was well, but when I stepped away for only a moment I returned to find that ALL my icons are gone and my display picture was reset to blue. I have cleaned the computer to see if I had picked up a virus/worm but all is well or is now. But the problem is.....I cannot get my desktop to accept any shortcuts and it won't allow me to pick a desktop picture. I can access all of my programs/files etc. through my start menu but when I try to create a shortcut it won't. Don't know what to do from here, it seems like it must be just an easy fix but darn if I can figure out what that fix would be.
I went to log in the other day, using normal login and password.upon completing log-in process, I noticed my desktop looked completely different than normal (we normally stash dozens of icons right on desktop for quick access) - there were no icons there except for a couple standard shortcuts..Fearing all was lost, I quickly checked hard drive and saw that all our files were still there and functional (even in the desktop folder), but for some reason the desktop was not loading.Tried to open Outlook Express to check mail and could not access mail files or the internet It seems even though I used my normal login info, I was logged in as a different user and I suspect that's why desktop wasn't loading and I couldn't access email....I checked Documents and Settings - there is a new user folder (appeared out of nowhere as far as I can tell) with syntax of mynormalusername.L600-myfirstname.
After a malware infection (Inet2 and SpySherriff - which took over my desktop) I cleaned up some files, directories and registry-entries. Now, after the cleaning activity as explained by techguys, everything seems going well. All programs do start without problems (through the start-menu or the quick-start taskbar), but there is a small drawback: my desktop screen shows only my wallpaper, there are no icons. The right-mouse click on the desktop also doesn't work (although the desktopsettings are accessible through the control panel). I use WinXP pro. what is wrong and how do I get the icons back on the screen?
I'm looking for a way to create click-able Icons/shortcuts for various keyboard shortcuts (ctrl+..., etc.). [My mouse is very acessable, but my keyboard is not. I know about various on-screen keyboards; but I would prefer clickable Icons that I could put in my quick launch toolbar, for example.]
Is this possible to do within XP, or with some program I can install
All my desktop icons are missing ,start menu missing, only thing i could see is wallpaper on desktop right click is laso not working,i could only use ctrl+ alt+del to open task mgr and run a program what should i do to take them back.
I just turned my computer on today and my taskbar is magically gone. I can't right click where it is on the screen and I know it's not hidden etc (i'm not a moron). I can hit the windows key to bring upt he start menu but I cannot see the bar, clock, etc on my screen. I've tried a bunch of things and nothing has worked. I thought it was just that explorer.exe wasnt on, but my icons and such are working just fine, and when I control+alt+delete it shows explorer.exe as running.
I have perplexing problem. Dell Dimension 4600 running Windows Xp Home. SP2. I have no icons on desktop and cannot load any background wallpaper through display properties. They background choices are listed but cannot be selected. I do have icons when running in safe mode. This system was infected with several viruses and lots of spy/adware. Had alot of trouble removing Startpagedu.dll and New Poly Win32 trojans. I am wondering if I missed something. Ran Spybot, Adaware, Webroot Spysweeper, eScan Antivirus Toolkit, Norton Antivirus, Hijack This, CWShredder, AboutBuster, Ewido Security Suite. All of these were ran in safe mode. I also deleted all tempfiles and made sure no rogue services were running. I am lost about what to do next.
A friend gave me his daughters computer to fix and I've been working on it for a week now and I'm more or less stuck on what to do, although I have a pretty good idea what the problem is. This system is a Dell with XP Home SP1,Initially it was infested with virus's, trojans, adware and spyware. you know the usual teenage stuff and the symptoms were pretty much the same as now after selecting the user name from the list you'd get a black screen (no matter who logged on) and that would be it. I could bring up the task manager with Alt-Ctrl-Del and run programs from there and so I was able to Run the add / remove programs applet and get rid of the Norton Anti-Virus and install NOD32, updated and cleaned the hard drive.(internet connectivity works find) Install the latest Adaware 1.06 and do a full system scan, remove all the various garbage.
What would cause some of my icons to dissapear? This has happened on my account, and on 2 others that are on my computer?? My daughter recently got an iPod and had to put on that software, could that have done something to the system?
I just recently set up my grandmother's new computer. XP Home came preinstalled of course, and I just installed SBC Yahoo DSL. McAfee also came preinstalled however i had to update it. I also had to disable it in order to install the DSL. Shortly after i finished installing the DSL, I got an error message saying Windows had to shutdown to prevent further damage to itself. Now booting up I am missing my taskbar and desktop icons.
I cannot access any file on the system, as it tells me that the file cannot be found and to make sure the path is right
I'm pretty sure the title is self explainatory. I went to sleep last night with the computer on and when I woke up this morning the blue screen was there. I restarted and when Windows loaded the taskbar and the desktop icons were missing. It's been like this all day. I've done System Restores and uninstalled recent things that I've installed.
First the customer told me that all his desktop icons disappeared. I thought maybe he accidentally hid them. He also says that when he goes to google and searches for something, when he clicks on the search results, he is directed somewhere else. Ok, so we know his browser is being hi-jacked. But this I didn't expect. Look at the screen shot below when I remoted into his PC. No icons, no start button. Customer has XP Home Edition. Right-clicking on the desktop does absolutely nothing. I can bring up the task manager and select New Task, but I cannot run explorer.exe. I just get a permissions error. I was able to install Malwarebyte's, but after scanning for 8 seconds, the program just closes. Now I am trying an online scan to see if that works. I can't access My Computer at all. I really can't even run most programs. After Malwarebyte's closes, I cannot open it again. Not even by typing the exact path in the New Task window. I can open IE, but it won't let me access his hard drive or anything. I just keep getting an error about permissions. Obviously not all his permissions are gone since I am able to install software. But his PC is definitely in bad shape. Unfortunately he lives in CA, and I live in NJ, so I have to do this all remotely.
the start menu and Icons are missing from my desktop, how can I getthem back. There is a pop-up "Privacy center" that won't let me do anything, I can't get to the control panel either?
Ever since I installed XP SP2 my Trash Can Icon is missing and the network places icon was never ever there from when I installed XP (few days ago). I miss my icons! Why aren't they there and why do they refuse to come back?
I have two computers, both running XP Home SP 1. On the desktop at home, I use a JPG image as my Desktop Background. On the laptop at school, I can't use a JPG. I have to use a BMP. The BMP file is about 7 times larger than the JPG file. Question: How do I tweak the laptop to let me use a JPG file as a Desktop background?
I start my pc and when I reach the desktop, I just see a black screen with the mouse pointer appearing. The taskbar and the desktop icons (in both safe mode and normal) mode are missing.When I try to have new task 'explorer.exe', it says that 'can't find explorer.exe'I surfed the net for solutions but it seems that I need to reinstall or repair windows.
Whenever I start up my computer, I can no longer see the Start button, the Taskbar or any of my Desktop icons. I have tried system restore but there were no valid restore points, and re-installing Windows from the CD has not solved the problem.Has anybody got any ideas about how to fix this? The system also seems to be running more slowly, and on some occasions it will automatically restart about 10 minutes after I have turned it on. I've run a virus update (with updated virus definitions) but it has not found anything.
Lately i've having issues with my computer (Windows XP Professional SP 2, Sony VAIO). The startup is normal until I log into my account, computer slows down and in the end nothing shows up, no desktop icons and even the task bar at the bottom disappears. However, I can ctrl-alt-del and log out of my account and when I log in a second time, everything is back up and running. Then, I go to start menu and for example I click on my pictures, the computer freezes again and I have to reboot. (if i dont click on start menu and instead go on the internet, everything is normal)I did some research and im not sure if it has anything to do with explorer.exe error or just my hard drive is not working properly,
When I log in to my XP home laptop (in regular and safe mode), I am unable to see start menu, desktop icons (however, wallpaper is there and mouse arrow is active) and task bar is missing. Also, pop up the message: wininet.dll is missing (twice).Now I am able to log in safe mode and can see all desktop icons start button and task bar but still I am unable to get all those in regular mode. Meanwhile, my Norton told me that computer has Bloodhound.W32.EP virus but unable to fix it.
You helped me fix my work PC today and one of my coworkers asked me to post this for him regarding his home PC.He has Win2000 and lost all his desktop icons, start menu and task bar. He has to do a ctrl-alt-delete to do anything.All of the previous fixes here appear to be for XP machines.
my computer got infected with a malware or two. I honestly forgot what they're called but one of them was called rogue. something. A few of my desktop icons got deleted and sometimes I wouldnt c the start button or the computer wouldnt detect the main harddrive and various other errors. It also gave me fake anti virus ads I installed many different programs to remove it but none were successful, except Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware.Now, my computer has been so unstable that I dont even feel like it's a new computer.
When my computer was turned on this morning the desktop shortcuts on my desktop will not open any programs. Non shortcuts such as my computer or outlook express open normally. I have recreated all shortcuts and the new shortcuts still won't open. I have tried the obvious of restarting the computer and I have run my antivirus programs (symantec,spy bot and adaware) w/o anything being found. Can any one give me any ideas of what may fix this issue?
i guess they short cut icons, when you click Start All Programs. Just wounding can you put a new heading in there. Like i got games so i just drag and drop all my games in there and i have Accessories/System tool and i drag all my PC scans and maintenance programs. I want to create a few headings like burning and chat.
Recently reinstalled Windows. When I did the restore it but back all of my desktop shortcuts and items that were on the Start/Programs menus even though many of them are no longer on the machine. Is there a program that will hunt for those "dead end" shortcuts and menu items & delete them?
when i click on a short cut on my desk top a box apears with the message choose a program to open this file this didnt use to happen it use to go straight to the web page have i deleted somthing that i shouldnt have.
I got moved and settled in but this computer won't allow new shortcuts that I create on the desktop to function. I just get an empty IE window with nothing there and source code is empty too so it's not getting out though the IE shortcut to yahoo does function properly but that is also the home page for this puter.Got DSl hooked up too so I haven't figured if that may have some influence on this issue. I called them, they know nothing about it so in the mean time I'm saving addies in notepad.
I have placed shortcuts to several web sites on my desktop, such as Google.com but none of them work. I have tried both double clicking and right clicking and selecting open. Nothing happens.I have checked via properties and the Internet addresses are all correct.I'm running XP Pro on a Dell laptop using a WiFi connection.
I am an older "newbie" and find some issues considerably frustrating. I am running Windows XP Pro on a Compaq laptop. I have installed all Windows XP and IE service pack updates and try to keep my McAfee virus checker and firewall up to date.I have a number of desktop shortcuts pointing to web pages that up until a few days ago worked fine with IE. When I booted up the other day, none of the shortcuts worked. In researching my problem on the Microsoft site I tumbled to this resource. So as not to waste your time, I have been through most if not all of the threads dealing with shortcuts and tried every recommended action before I posted my problem. I have also reinstalled IE from the XP disk, but the shortcuts still do not work. I have not reinstalled XP Pro.
As soon as I put an internet shortcut on my desktop, sometimes I can open the website from the icon & sometimes it starts to open & then just hangs.Sometimes when I put a shortcut on the desktop I can open it a few times with no problem & then it will never work again. I can open all other shortcuts on my desktop, its just internet shortcuts that I have a problem with. I am running windows XP & useing IE on a Dell laptop. I have no other problems at all with anything & this has been going on for years. It almost seems like it is just a setting, but I just can not find a solution.
