Desktop icons unclickable

[herschen]

I am running Windows 7 Home Almost every other day, the icons on my desktop become unclickable. There is no harm done to the computer, but the only way to get the icons clickable again is to end "explorer.exe" process and restart it. I have no idea what is causing this. Shot in the dark, does anyone else know of this problem...and the solution? Thanks.

 

[Petey7]

My first reaction would be to download and run the free version of MalwareBytes. Make sure to update it, then do a quick scan. Let us know what happens.

 

[A Guy]

When this happens, does it remain that way or does it eventually correct itself? Next time it happens, open task manager and see if anything is using most of your CPU cycles. Does anything else become unresponsive? Taskbar, Start menu, etc? What happens when you right click an icon while this is happening?

A Guy

 

[Francis93]

Have you tried doing a System File Check (SFC) Scan?

If not, then click the Start Orb, type cmd, as soon as it appears, right click cmd, and select Run As Administrator.
Type sfc/scannow and hit Enter. Wait until it's finished verifying.
If it detects problems with your system files, it should be able to fix those automatically.

If I were you, I would also do what Petey7 suggested.

 

[Delphin]

+1 to a guy

And also check the event viewer for any information related to that

 

[1uk3]

I'm having the same issue - cannot find any malware. If I can't find a solution I guess I'll try a system restore. It's quite puzzling!

 

[Layback Bear]

All those ideas are very good. If it was my computer I get worried when something changes and I didn't tell it to change or installed a new program. The first thing I would do is scan with my security programs and I use 4 of them. Next would be sfc /scannow. Please put a space between the c and /. I had a while back the same problem and that fixed it for me. I would not use a restore point until all my security scans passed. My understanding is that some bad things will also infect your restore points. After running your scans and sfc and everything is working properly I removed all my restore points and create a new one. This has worked for me.
Please not! Update you security programs before scanning.

 

[1uk3]

UPDATE: I couldn't find any malware or any issues on my machine... I then ran sfc/scannow and although it told me there were no issues after it had completed it's scan, the desktop issue seems to be fixed.

I'm quite puzzled but also revealed that it's all okay again.

Thanks for the tips

 

[Recage]

I had the same issue. It started right after installation of Switcher (an Exposé like tool for Windows 7 http://insentient.net/ ).
Shutting down of Switcher removed the problem again.

 

[Imperfect1]

I've solved this same problem this way: Go into Task Manager and into Processes. See how many iexplore.exe*32 processes are running and shut them all down. That should do it.

 

[Layback Bear]

1uk3 I recommend running sfc /scannow 2 more time with a reboot after each.
Sometimes all problems can't be fixed with one pass. All it cost is a little time.

 

[Infinite]

In addition to the above, you may see if these two tutorials help:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/49819-icon-cache-rebuild.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3606-shortcut-arrow-change-remove-restore.html

I would then run a MSE or an avast! Scan

 

[cym]

Tanks to Imperfect1
shuting down all redundant explorer.exe tasks made me get back my fully functional desktop icons.