Many desktop icons gone and wallpaper no longer displaying?


  1. Mr Davo
    Posts : 173
    Windows 7 (XP, by Virtualization)
       New #1

    Many desktop icons gone and wallpaper no longer displaying?


    Hi All,

    I am facing a strange issue in Windows 7. This morning when I turned my computer on the background wallpaper was missing, and most (but not all) desktop icons were missing.

    The desktop icons in question include recent Excel and Word documents that I have not backed up elsewhere!

    I first performed a System Restore in the hope of getting everything back to normal. However unfortunately this did not help.

    After this I checked the Recycle Bin and found a number of files which had originally come from the desktop. I clicked on these and selected 'Restore', doing so presented a message to the affect of "The Desktop already has this file, do you want to replace it''; to which I responded with 'Do not copy' (or similar) - in essence cancelling the Restore operation.

    Strangely now when I look at the desktop I see the files that I restored from the Recycle Bin. But I am still not seeing many of the files that seemed to have 'disappeared' (which primarily consists of more recent files that I never sent to the Recycle Bin).

    I have removed the hard drive and connected it to a second computer in order to scan for viruses; so far AVG Ultimate has found none, and MalwareBytes is a fair way through scanning without yet detecting any threats.

    Assuming that the issue I am presented with is not being caused by a virus can anybody offer any other possible causes and / or ways to fix the issue?

    Kind Regards,

    Davo
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  3. MilesAhead
    Posts : 5,092
    Windows 7 32 bit
       New #2

    This free utility may be worth a try. The UI is similar to an undelete program, but it looks through your Restore Points and presents a tree of the files. There is a chance you may be able to dig out some copies of the files that were on the desktop.

    ShadowExplorer.com - About
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  4. Megahertz07
    Posts : 7,351
    Windows 7 HP 64
       New #3

    Are you logged to the same user? As your wall paper and some icons are missing, it seems that you are logged as a different user.
    On Windows, you have two Desktop folders. One is a All Users (C:\Users\Public\Desktop) and the other is the user (private) desktop C:\Users\<user name>\Desktop. They are combined to show as one.
    Go to Control Panel - Folder option - View
    - Hidden files and folders = Show hidden files and folders
    - Uncheck Hide extensions for know file types (for security it SHOULD always be unchecked)

    Reopen Explorer and look at C:\Users to see the tree. Is there a new user?
      My Computers
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  6. MoxieMomma
    Posts : 1,102
    OEM Windows 7 Ult (x64) SP1
       New #4

    Megahertz07 said:
    Are you logged to the same user? As your wall paper and some icons are missing, it seems that you are logged as a different user.
    I had the same idea (or a corrupt user profile).

    This free utility may be worth a try.
    Good tip - I had not heard of that utility. :)

    Cheers,
    MM
      My Computer
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