Missing icons on desktop

[Guest]

Hello everyone,

I just purchased a new HP computer with XP this week. I have applied a
number of basic programs to this and after doing so, the icons were removed
from the desktop and the computer needs a "hard" reset to turn off the
computer. I don't know how to resolve this problem.

Thanks for your help.

 

[roboco302]

Hello everyone,

I just purchased a new HP computer with XP this week. I have
applied a
number of basic programs to this and after doing so, the icons
were removed
from the desktop and the computer needs a "hard" reset to turn
off the
computer. I don't know how to resolve this problem.

Thanks for your help.

What icons are missing? There are reasons that icons can be go
missing... Try going to Start / Control Panel / Display then click the
tab "Desktop", on the bottom you should have a button labeled
Customize Desktop. Click that and see if your missing icons are not
checked. If your icons are for installed programs you can easily drag
them from your start menu onto your desktop. When you say you have to
do a hard reset does that mean that the Start / Shutdown does not
work?

Rob
MCP+I, MCSE
A+, I-NET+, Network+

 

[Guest]

Rob,

What has happened is, after loading these programs into the computer, I did
the normal "shut down" that is required to turn off the computer. When
turning the computer back on, all of the desktop shows for about a couple of
seconds and then disappears completely. There is nothing but the XP
background picture and no icons or bottom toolbar. I then proceed to the
"CTRL-ALT-DEL" combination to get the computer to do anything. It has a
screen to be able to see what is running at that time, which is usually
nothing. In that program, there is a pull down menu to be able to shut off
the computer. Without that, there would be only the physical on/off button
on the computer to shut it off. I don't have the availability to get to the
control panel to monkey with the icons at all. I have go through the program
for reseting the system in the back up hard drive for all the basic programs
now two times to get this thing to work, but, it died now for the third time
I am looking to take this thing back and get a different one. Realistically,
I think that it is the opperator and not the computer at the moment, but, I
have not been able to conceive what this thing keeps on doing to have the
desktop completely be not useable. Can you help?

 

[Sharon F]

Rob,

What has happened is, after loading these programs into the computer, I did
the normal "shut down" that is required to turn off the computer. When
turning the computer back on, all of the desktop shows for about a couple of
seconds and then disappears completely. There is nothing but the XP
background picture and no icons or bottom toolbar. I then proceed to the
"CTRL-ALT-DEL" combination to get the computer to do anything. It has a
screen to be able to see what is running at that time, which is usually
nothing. In that program, there is a pull down menu to be able to shut off
the computer. Without that, there would be only the physical on/off button
on the computer to shut it off. I don't have the availability to get to the
control panel to monkey with the icons at all. I have go through the program
for reseting the system in the back up hard drive for all the basic programs
now two times to get this thing to work, but, it died now for the third time
I am looking to take this thing back and get a different one. Realistically,
I think that it is the opperator and not the computer at the moment, but, I
have not been able to conceive what this thing keeps on doing to have the
desktop completely be not useable. Can you help?

My initial reaction was that (right click on desktop) Arrange Icons By...>
Show Desktop Icons was disabled. However the taskbar is disappearing too.
This is a sign that Explorer is unloading for some reason. Perhaps a crash
due to an error in one of the startup programs or a problem with a driver.
Troubleshooting startup is very similar to troubleshooting shutdown
problems. A good reference site for that is:
http:/www.aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm

 

[roboco302]

My initial reaction was that (right click on desktop) Arrange
Icons By...>
Show Desktop Icons was disabled. However the taskbar is
disappearing too.
This is a sign that Explorer is unloading for some reason.
Perhaps a crash
due to an error in one of the startup programs or a problem
with a driver.
Troubleshooting startup is very similar to troubleshooting
shutdown
problems. A good reference site for that is:
http:/www.aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.htm

You can also try...

Once your desktop vanishes, hit ctrl+alt+delete and then click the
Task Manager button. On the next screen select the applications tab
and on the bottom click New Task. When that window pops up type in
explorer and hit OK. I have had the disappearing desktop before and
when I loaded explorer this way I was able to get into windows and
reboot properly. This fixed my problem but may not fix yours (mine
happened after loading an application). If this does get you into
Windows then maybe you can do a restore from the help menu. Go back
far enough past when you loaded the apps and hopefully you will be
fine... Let me know if you still need more help.

Rob

 

[Guest]

Rob,

I have now resorted to calling the tech support line for HP and see if they
can help. I was on the phone for the equivalency of about an hour and a half
going round and round and it is still not fixed.

It seems that the problem stems when I upload the program for the SBC DSL
modem into the computer. The computer seems to work fine UNTIL is properly
shut down the computer and restart it. Now, I am getting the "Sorry for the
inconvience" message with its saying something that one of the
software/hardware installations that has occured is making the computer not
work.

Forget about the ctrl-alt-del combonation. The "new task" button comes up
with nothing. There is no program that it recognizes. (This is the problem
with the desktop and toolbar becoming missing.)

I will be going for round three in the next day or so after the holidays.
Maybe the computer Gods will be able to help me get this problem to go away.

Thanks for the advice.

Darrel

 

[Guest]

New laptop. On my other computer I am able to move icons to the taskbar
instead of keeping them on the desktop. Is this new? Any way to move the
shortcuts to the taskbar at the bottom of the screen?

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

New laptop. On my other computer I am able to move icons to the
taskbar instead of keeping them on the desktop. Is this new? Any
way to move the shortcuts to the taskbar at the bottom of the screen?

You're mixing up the Quick Launch Bar with the Task Bar. The Quick Launch
Bar is a separate toolbar which, by default, sits *on* the Task Bar, but it
doesn't have to, and can even be dragged off and moved to another side of
the screen.

Shortcut icons can be moved (or copied) from the desktop to the Quick
Launch Bar, but not to the Task Bar itself (the Task Bar shows running
programs, not shortcuts).

You apparently don't have the Quick Launch Bar.showing. To get it,
right-click a blank part of the Task Bar, click Toolbars, then Quick Launch.

 

[newtechie]

Hi Ken,

How do you move the quick launch to another part of the screen?

newtechie

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

How do you move the quick launch to another part of the screen?

Simply click and drag it to whichever side you like, just as you can with
the entire Task Bar. Make sure it's unlocked first.

One configuration that I like is the Task Bar at the bottom of the screen,
and the Quick Launch Bar on the left. This allows lots of room for Quick
Launch icons without taking up much space on the Task Bar, or even on the
desktop.

 

[newtechie]

Oh ok - Thank you

Simply click and drag it to whichever side you like, just as you can with
the entire Task Bar. Make sure it's unlocked first.

One configuration that I like is the Task Bar at the bottom of the screen,
and the Quick Launch Bar on the left. This allows lots of room for Quick
Launch icons without taking up much space on the Task Bar, or even on the
desktop.

 

[Guest]

Thanks Ken.....happy day for me from you. Now, any chance you know how to
increase the size of the font on aol...ive tried the settings, high contrast
and other fixes...nothing works.

 

[Sharon F]

Thanks Ken.....happy day for me from you. Now, any chance you know how to
increase the size of the font on aol...ive tried the settings, high contrast
and other fixes...nothing works.

Using the AOL software? There are font settings within that program. At
least there used to be - haven't used AOL in ages. Anyhow, check their
Preferences menu for settings or their help files for more info.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Oh ok - Thank you

You're welcome. Glad to help.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Thanks Ken.....happy day for me from you.

You're welcome, Suzy. Glad to help.

Now, any chance you know
how to increase the size of the font on aol...ive tried the settings,
high contrast and other fixes...nothing works.

Sorry, Suzy, I know next to nothing about AOL.


--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup
..

 

[Guest]

Hi Ken, maybe you can help me. I just got Windows XP, and I used to have
(using an older windows program) a shortcut to the desktop button on my
taskbar or maybe it was my quick launch bar. But now it's gone.

The problem is that when I want to quickly go from several open windows (I
often run Excel and a few online internet windows at the same time) I have to
minimize each window to get to my desktop. It would be so much nicer to just
click an icon at the bottom (taskbar? quick launch? I blame my blonde
japanese roots!) than to go through all that clicking and drop windowing.
Like my mom's housekeeper kept reminding her when I was little...I don't like
closing all those windows!

Can you help?
Sincerely,
Nadja Dee
Seattle

 

[Malke]

Hi Ken, maybe you can help me. I just got Windows XP, and I used to have
(using an older windows program) a shortcut to the desktop button on my
taskbar or maybe it was my quick launch bar. But now it's gone.

The problem is that when I want to quickly go from several open windows (I
often run Excel and a few online internet windows at the same time) I have
to
minimize each window to get to my desktop. It would be so much nicer to
just click an icon at the bottom (taskbar? quick launch? I blame my blonde
japanese roots!) than to go through all that clicking and drop windowing.
Like my mom's housekeeper kept reminding her when I was little...I don't
like closing all those windows!

I don't know what Ken you are addressing, but if you are talking about the
Show Desktop icon:

Restore "Show Desktop" from MVP Rick Rogers:

Copy/paste the below into notepad, then click file/"save as" and call it
"show desktop.scf" and drop it on the desktop. You can drag it from there
to the quicklaunch bar.

[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=EXPLORER.EXE,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

Malke

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hi Ken, maybe you can help me. I just got Windows XP, and I used to
have (using an older windows program) a shortcut to the desktop
button on my taskbar or maybe it was my quick launch bar. But now
it's gone.

I don't know if I'm the Ken you were addressing, but I see that Malke has
already answered your question. I'll just add that you can also use the
WindowsKey + D or WindowsKey + M keyboard shortcut to do what you want.