Desktop Icons missing

[STEVEN BRANTL]

After unsucessful install of Tcpip printer, a restart was
done, and after logging on, there are no desktop icons,
completely blank. Safe mode is the same. Icons do exist
in the various Documents\settings\user folders. Tried
various solutions listed in Knowledge base. Server is up
and running, but the Desktop is not available when you
log on locally to the server or remotely from a XP
workstation. Any suggestions for restoring a desktop.

Sincerly,
Steven Brantl
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Karl Burrows]

Did you check to see if explorer.exe was running? If stopped, that could
stop the icons from showing.

After unsucessful install of Tcpip printer, a restart was
done, and after logging on, there are no desktop icons,
completely blank. Safe mode is the same. Icons do exist
in the various Documents\settings\user folders. Tried
various solutions listed in Knowledge base. Server is up
and running, but the Desktop is not available when you
log on locally to the server or remotely from a XP
workstation. Any suggestions for restoring a desktop.

Sincerly,
Steven Brantl
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Guest]

Explorer was not running, but when we started it, it did not solve the problem. Maybe it needs to be started upon logon. How is this done.

Steve

 

[Karl Burrows]

Not Internet Explorer, but explorer.exe which runs things like Active
Desktop among others.

Explorer was not running, but when we started it, it did not solve the
problem. Maybe it needs to be started upon logon. How is this done.

Steve

 

[Garry S]

I thought I did mentioned Windows explorer (explorer.exe) not Internet
explorer. I still couldn't find solution to this problem, I spent so much
time on the net and found no solution to this problem. Anybody else outhere
who can help?

Garry

 

[Karl Burrows]

Sorry, I misread your last post. When you go to Task Manager and it shows
explorer.exe running, then it loads on startup.

Try right-clicking on your desktop, go to Arrange Icons and make sure Show
Desktop Icons has a check beside it.

I thought I did mentioned Windows explorer (explorer.exe) not Internet
explorer. I still couldn't find solution to this problem, I spent so much
time on the net and found no solution to this problem. Anybody else outhere
who can help?

Garry

 

[Katherine Coombs]

Garry,

Not sure if this will help you or not , but someone here recently had an
issue with Windows 2K3 whereby two servers were running fine on Friday, both
had no desktop on monday morning. (No start bar, no icons, just a blank
screen with a mouse pointer). One had returned to normal by monday night,
the other hadn't.
The only common software between the two were the O/S (W2K3) & the AV.
There were no errors in the event log and running explorer from task manager
brought up a normal explorer window (not the desktop).

In the end, they went into the registry, into:
HKLM\software\microsoft\windows nt\current version\winlogon\shell The
shell value was set to 'shell'. Changing this value to 'explorer.exe' and
rebooting the server fixed the issue.

HTH,
Katherine