Solved Desktop Icons removed

Windowz7

New member
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5
Hi,

All of my desktop shortcuts and programs (excluding the defaults like Recycle Bin) were removed from the desktop after I uninstalled the Medal of Honor PC Demo from my computer. My brother actually installed the game on his User, and used my User as an Admin account without me knowing. During the un-installation, it asked, "Save Game data?" or something close to that. I pressed "No" and saw my desktop shortcuts and programs disappear one by one. My desktop looked as if I just made a new User. I have no idea what happened and I have been looking through the internet for solutions. I didn't think that by "Game Data," it meant EVERYTHING. So what I'm asking is,

How do I resolve this issue?

Thanks!

P.S. My "Show Desktop Icons" is checked.
 
Last edited:

My Computer My Computer

OS
Windows 7 Home Premium
Have you been through the standard procedure?
Right clcik the desktop and select "personalise"
Up in the left, select "Change desktop icons"
 

My Computer My Computer

Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Three desktops and one laptop with good specs..
OS
Vista and now 7 in 32 and 64 bit.
I have tried that. But again, my "default icons" are still on the desktop. The Computer, Network, Recycle Bin, etc. are still there. Everything else is gone. Thanks anyways.
 

My Computer My Computer

OS
Windows 7 Home Premium
Hello Windowz7, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You might see if right clicking on the Desktop and clicking on Refresh, or restarting the computer may return them if it was just a glitch.

What were the shortcuts of?

Are you able to create or move any other shortcut to the desktop and have it stay displayed?
 

My Computer My Computer

Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Self built custom
OS
64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
CPU
Intel i7-8700K OC'd to 5 GHz
Motherboard
ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
Memory
64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz
Graphics Card(s)
ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
Sound Card
Integrated
Monitor(s) Displays
2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
Screen Resolution
2560x1440
Hard Drives
1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
TerraMaster F8 SSD Plus NAS
PSU
Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
Case
Thermaltake Core P3
Cooling
Corsair Hydro H115i
Keyboard
Logitech wireless K800
Mouse
Logitech MX Master 4
Internet Speed
2 Gb/s Download and 100 Mb/s Upload
Antivirus
Malwarebyte Anti-Malware Premium
Browser
Google Chrome
Other Info
Logitech Z625 speaker system,
Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
Galaxy S23 Plus phone
Sorry, I didn't see that bit in your post "excluding the defaults like Recycle Bin"
 

My Computer My Computer

Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Three desktops and one laptop with good specs..
OS
Vista and now 7 in 32 and 64 bit.
Just out of curiosity have you looked in the Recycle Bin to see if the shortcuts were somehow moved to there?
 

My Computer My Computer

Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Compaq Desktop
OS
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
CPU
AMD Sempron Dual Core
Memory
3GB
Graphics Card(s)
NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
Screen Resolution
1024x768
Hard Drives
150GB Sata
Sorry for the late reply :P

Hello Windowz7, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You might see if right clicking on the Desktop and clicking on Refresh, or restarting the computer may return them if it was just a glitch.

What were the shortcuts of?

Are you able to create or move any other shortcut to the desktop and have it stay displayed?

Thank you for the welcome, and I have done both of those,finding no success. The shortcuts were various files placed on the Desktop for easy access, such as Game shortcuts, Text files, Zip files, and programs to do certain things on the computer (like Hamachi and Steam). I am able to create shortcuts and place them on the desktop, which is confusing to me.

Just out of curiosity have you looked in the Recycle Bin to see if the shortcuts were somehow moved to there?

Yes, I have checked my Recycle Bin. And no, I did not empty it beforehand.


Oh, I am sorry for my first post. When I said Desktop Icons, I meant the Programs and various files I placed on the Desktop. I am sorry if I confused any of you. It should be changed as of now.
 

My Computer My Computer

OS
Windows 7 Home Premium
The only thing I can think of is that program had a buggy uninstaller.

Other than manually recreating all of your missing shortcuts, you might try the free program ShadowExplorer or Recuva on your C:\Users\(user-name)\Desktop folder to see if one of them may be able to recover the shortcuts.
 

My Computer My Computer

Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Self built custom
OS
64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
CPU
Intel i7-8700K OC'd to 5 GHz
Motherboard
ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
Memory
64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz
Graphics Card(s)
ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
Sound Card
Integrated
Monitor(s) Displays
2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
Screen Resolution
2560x1440
Hard Drives
1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
TerraMaster F8 SSD Plus NAS
PSU
Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
Case
Thermaltake Core P3
Cooling
Corsair Hydro H115i
Keyboard
Logitech wireless K800
Mouse
Logitech MX Master 4
Internet Speed
2 Gb/s Download and 100 Mb/s Upload
Antivirus
Malwarebyte Anti-Malware Premium
Browser
Google Chrome
Other Info
Logitech Z625 speaker system,
Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
Galaxy S23 Plus phone
Brink, you are amazing. And so is Shadow Explorer. With your help, Shadow Explorer has just recovered everything that was removed from my Desktop. Luckily I read your post before I was about to remember and find every program I placed on there. I commend you.

Thanks a lot!
 

My Computer My Computer

OS
Windows 7 Home Premium
You're most welcome. That's great news. :)
 

My Computer My Computer

Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Self built custom
OS
64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
CPU
Intel i7-8700K OC'd to 5 GHz
Motherboard
ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
Memory
64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz
Graphics Card(s)
ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
Sound Card
Integrated
Monitor(s) Displays
2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
Screen Resolution
2560x1440
Hard Drives
1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
TerraMaster F8 SSD Plus NAS
PSU
Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
Case
Thermaltake Core P3
Cooling
Corsair Hydro H115i
Keyboard
Logitech wireless K800
Mouse
Logitech MX Master 4
Internet Speed
2 Gb/s Download and 100 Mb/s Upload
Antivirus
Malwarebyte Anti-Malware Premium
Browser
Google Chrome
Other Info
Logitech Z625 speaker system,
Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
Galaxy S23 Plus phone
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