Fix: Desktop Icons are Missing in Windows 10

Windows 10 was launched months ago and it was a major change in UI over time. In Windows 10, Microsoft eliminated a number of GUI bugs present in Windows 8. The start menu was a major change that was desperately requested by the users. Keeping the start menu aside, there were also a bunch of modifications in GUI as well as performance. This major change in GUI confused a lot of users as it took a while for them to understand what was going on.

Some of the users have experienced a problem i.e. Desktop icons are missing in Windows 10. It is pretty annoying for the users who have a lot of stuff on their desktop and suddenly, they find it disappeared. Keeping that frustration in mind, I am going to try in order to fix this issue.

Reasons Behind the “Desktop Icons are Missing in Windows 10” Problem:

A majority of people are considering it a bug inside Windows 10 but it is not. It can happen accidentally and you may have modified some settings unknowingly. Windows 10 has two types of Modes built-in for the users’ facilitation i.e. Desktop and Tablet. Somehow, you might have enabled the Tablet mode leading towards the disappearing of Desktop icons.

Solutions to Fix the “Desktop Icons are Missing in Windows 10” Problem:

There are a number of solutions based on the type of issue you are experiencing with your Desktop icons. You can try these methods to check which one works for you. Before you go ahead with the methods below, Download and run Restoro to scan for corrupt files from here, if files are found to be corrupt and missing repair them and then see if the icons are now back, if not then proceed with Manual steps below.

Method # 1: Checking for Visibility of Desktop Icons

If all of your Desktop icons are missing, then you might have triggered an option to hide desktop icons. You can enable this option to get your Desktop icons back. Follow the steps below.

1. Right-click inside an empty space on your desktop and navigate to View tab at the top.
2. Inside the View tab, check for the Show desktop icons at the bottom. In your case, it might be unmarked. So, mark it as checked by clicking over it. See the image below for illustration.

Method # 2: Enabling the Desktop icons Visibility

If your default desktop icons are missing, you can make them visible inside the Settings. Follow the steps below.

1. Search for Settings window using Cortana and open it from the search results.
2. Inside Settings, click on Personalization. From the next window, select the Themes tab from the left pane.
3. On the right pane of the Themes tab, click on Desktop icon settings to open the settings in order to enable the Desktop icon visibility.
4. Select the icons you want to show on the desktop and click on Apply and OK buttons afterward.

Method # 3: Disabling the Tablet Mode

As tablet mode is integrated inside Windows 10 to have a better touch experience for the Windows Tablet users, you might have accidentally enabled that mode resulting in the disappearing of icons.

1. Open the Settings again and click on the System to open the system settings. On the left pane, click on Tablet mode and turn-off the tablet mode (if it is turned on) from the right pane.
2. Close the Settings window and check if your desktop icons are visible or not.

Method # 4: Initiating SFC scan

An SFC scan checks your whole computer for bad drivers or corrupted files and automatically fixes the issues. Therefore, in this step, we will be initiating an SFC scan. For that:

1. Press “Windows” + “R” keys simultaneously to open the RUN prompt.
2. Type in “cmd” and press “Shift” + “ctrl” + “Enter” keys simultaneously. Typing cmd in the Run Prompt and pressing Shift + Alt + Enter to open an elevated Command Prompt
3. Click on “yes” in the prompt to provide administrative privileges.
4. Type in “SFC /scannow” and press “Enter“. Typing “sfc/scannow” in the command prompt.

Method #5: Recovering icons from OneDrive

In some cases, Windows might try to tidy up your desktop and move the files into a folder named “Desktop!” in One Drive. Therefore, you can copy the files from that folder and paste them onto your desktop to get rid of this issue.

1. Launch Onedrive and look for a folder named “Dekstop”.Desktop folder Onedrive
2. Open the folder and copy all the icons present inside it.
3. Paste these icons on your desktop.

Method #6: Using a Workaround

In some cases, the situation can be remedied by employing a workaround that was discovered by a user. Basically, you initiate the “Auto Arrange Icons” function on the desktop and the icons are returned. For that:

1. Right-click anywhere on your desktop.
2. Click on the “View” button and select the “Auto Arrange Icons” option. Selecting “Auto Arrange Icons” option
3. Check to see if the issue is fixed.

How to fix Desktop icons are missing on Windows 10?

Issue: How to fix Desktop icons are missing on Windows 10?

Hello, something happened to my desktop icons – they simply vanished. I assume that I might have clicked something wrong, or maybe there is something else that caused this? Could you please tell me what is the reason for hit deadly irritating issue and how to fix it? Many thanks!!

Desktop icons are missing on Windows 10 is one of many issues on the latest version of the operating system. When Windows 10 came out, it caused a lot of dissatisfaction due to bugs and stability issues. [1] Most of the OS update issues were fixed with further Windows updates released in 2018. However, this particular issue with the Start Menu creates frustration among many users [2] up until recently even.

Windows icons are often an important part of many users’ daily computer usage routine. Shortcuts allow them to access the desired application or a document with just a click of a mouse, without having to dig inside various folders on the system. Essentially, these tiny desktop helpers did not change much since the very beginning of Windows development – or at least it may seem so for most users.

The desktop icons are missing issue can be extremely frustrating to many users, as it takes so much longer for them to find files/apps via File Explorer or other navigation apps. Nevertheless, there are several different methods that can help users fix missing Desktop icons on Windows 10, most of which are not difficult to execute.

The start menu was changed because of the user complaints and requests, but this error with Desktop icons missing on Windows 10 is pretty annoying and can appear due to a few different reasons. Firstly, when users have many icons on the sudden desktop, change is not pleasant.

The primary reason for this issue on the device is modified settings, Desktop and Tablet mode settings, for example. People tend to blame operating system bugs from the start too. Fortunately, due to the bug fixes in Windows, the issue when Desktop icons are missing on Windows 10 can be fixed.

Fix missing desktop icons

Windows 10 is a great OS, which has been developed with respect to Windows OS users and their preferences, as well we taking into account the best and the worst features of previous Windows versions. Consequently, Windows enthusiasts must have noticed how many Windows 8 errors and inconveniences have been fixed. Yet, issues like Desktop icons are missing on Windows 10 prevail.

On top of that, those who were complaining about Windows design or Graphic User Interface (GUI) and Start menu were presented with the major changes. Unfortunately, but some of the changes have been treated as bugs by some of the users. Missing desktop icons is one of them.

Methods to fix missing Desktop icons on Windows 10

The problem of missing desktop icons is not universal – sometimes, users see the underlying names of apps or files without icons, while in other cases, all the shortcuts are invisible completely. Some reported the desktop wallpaper removal following the missing icons issue.

While in some of the cases missing desktop icons may be caused by virus infection [3] , in most of the cases it happens due to incorrect settings, accidentally hidden, or the wrong mode. Although most of the cases happen due to the accidentally set Tablet mode instead of Desktop mode, there are some other causes. Luckily, this “bug” may be fixed quite easily, but you should check the system first using the PC security/repair tool Reimage Mac Washing Machine X9 – it might also fix the missing desktop icons issue automatically for you as well.

Restart File Explorer

File Explorer is an integral part of any Windows 10 operating system. If you have issues with interface or such as icons went missing, you should restart the process as follows:

1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open the Task manager
2. Scroll down to locate Windows Explorer
3. Right-click on the entry, and select Restart Restart File Explorer
4. Your desktop will blink and the process will be restarted for you

Run Search and Indexing troubleshooter

Built-in troubleshooters are great solutions that can help you fix various Windows issues. If anything, it can at least pinpoint in the right direction. Thus, run the Search and Indexing troubleshooter as follows:

1. Right-click on Start button and select Settings
2. Go to Update & Security section
3. On the left side, select Troubleshoot
4. Scroll down and click on Search and Indexing
5. Select Run the troubleshooter Run Search and Indexing Troubleshooter

Rebuild icon cache

1. Type in cmd into Windows Search
2. Right-click on Command Prompt result and select Run as administrator (note: in case Windows search is not working for you as well, tap Win + R on your keyboard, enter cmd.exe and then hit Ctrl+Shift+Enter)
3. As soon as the new window opens, type in these commands, pressing Enter after each:

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

Check the visibility of desktop icons

In case you have accidentally hidden desktop icons, you should follow these steps:

1. Right-click on desktop (it does not matte where, as long as it is a blank space)
2. Hover your mouse pointer on View
3. Ensure that Show desktop icons option is ticked Check Icon visibility

Additionally, some users reported that selecting Auto arrange icons option helped them to fix missing icons issue.

Turn off Tablet Mode

As we have already pointed out, missing desktop icons may be the result of incorrectly set Mode. Therefore, the last thing that you should try is to disable Tablet Mode and switch to Desktop mode. This can be done by following these steps:

1. Click on the notification prompt at the bottom-right of your screen
2. In the bottom section of the new window, you will see many options
3. Click on Tablet mode to ensure that the mode is disabled Turn off tablet mode

Run SFC scan

Corrupted Windows system files may cause various malfunctions. To fix this, run a System File Checker via Command Prompt:

1. Access Command Prompt as explained in the previous fix
2. Type in the following command and press Enter:

Use System Restore point

If none of the above solutions helped you fix the missing desktop icons issue, you could try using System Restore function to return your computer configuration to a point when your icons were still working fine. Note that this will not affect your personal files, although programs and updates installed after the restore point you are going back to will be removed.

How to Fix Broken or Missing Icons and Thumbnails in Windows 10

One of the common “it’s still Windows” chores we have to do every now and then is reset the icon and thumbnail cache. If your icons are corrupted in some way—blank, taken over by another app or not displaying as they normally do—then resetting the icon cache can fix the problem.

The same goes for the thumbnail cache, which keeps a preview of images, videos, and documents. There are several ways to do this. The most common involves using the command line. Or you can use a free third party utility. We’ll look at both options.

Reset the Icon and Thumbnail Caches

If your icons are corrupted or not displaying properly, you can reset the Windows 10 icon cache to fix them.

The easiest way to do it is by using the free Winaero Tweaker utility. This free utility provides an assortment of options for fixing common problems users will experience in Windows 10 from time to time. It’s just a 2 MB download, too. After downloading, extract the winaerotweaker.zip file, then launch the Winaero Tweaker setup file, click Next, choose Normal mode and accept the license agreement.

After completing setup, launch Winaero Tweaker, scroll down to Tools group, select Reset Icon Cache then click Reset Icon Cache. That’s it; your icons should return to normal.

Fix Icons and Thumbnails from Run or Command Prompt

If you don’t want to go through a third-party app, you can try resetting a number of ways. From the run command, type: ie4uinit -show then hit Enter.

Still not seeing those icons? Then let’s jump into the command line and get our hands dirty. First, you will need to disable Explorer.exe. Press Windows key + X then click Task Manager (or press Control + Shift + Esc). FRom the Processes tab, select Windows Explorer, right-click it then click End task.

Click File > Run new task, type: CMD, hold down the Shift key then click OK. This will open the command prompt with administrator privileges.

Type each command then hit Enter.

Type explorer.exe to restart Windows Explorer.

Exit the command prompt then verify your icons are working again.

Reset Your Thumbnail Cache

A similar issue can happen when your thumbnail previews. Instead of seeing a preview of your actual image, video or document, you may only see a generic icon.

Fixing this one should be a lot easier. Press Windows key + R, type: cleanmgr.exe then hit Enter. Scroll down then check the box next to Thumbnails then click OK.

So, those are your options if your icons ever start misbehaving. Let us know which method you prefer using.