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How to retrieve missing desktop icons in Windows 10

Latest update on December 5, 2019 at 10:32 AM by Aoife McCambridge .

You’ve just turned on your computer and realise that all your desktop icons are missing? Don’t panic, there’s a simple technique that will help you find them again.

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Step 2

Step 1

Right click on your desktop, select ‘View’, then ‘Show desktop items’

If after this step your icons still haven’t reappeared, continue on to step 2.

Step 2

Click Ctri+Alt+Del to open the task manager, then right click on Windows Explorer and click "End task" :

Still in task manager, click "File" then "create a new task". In the box that opens up type "cmd":

The command prompt will open, type the following command then click “Enter”:

cd /d userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

Type the following line of text, which will remove the hidden file attribute on some cache files and validate again with “Enter”:

attrib –h iconcache_*.db

Then enter this last text which will delete the caches files so that they can be regenerated, finally press “Enter” again:

del iconcache_*.db

Close everything and restart your PC, your desktop icons should be back in their usual location.

This document, titled « How to retrieve missing desktop icons in Windows 10 », is available under the Creative Commons license. Any copy, reuse, or modification of the content should be sufficiently credited to CCM (ccm.net).

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