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And get a daily digest of news, geek trivia, and our feature articles. When you purchase through our links we may earn a commission. We really enjoy helping people with their tech problems to make life easier, and that’s what We’ve been doing professionally for the past decade. I really enjoy helping people with their tech problems to make life easier, and that’s what I’ve been doing professionally for the past decade. Mark Justice Hinton teaches all kinds of technology from digital photography to HTML. He maintains a blog at /help where he answers questions from his readers, and he is also the author of Digital Photography For Seniors For Dummies.
First, navigate to the desktop by right-clicking on a blank space. Next, open the shortcut menu and click on “View”. Select “Show desktop icons” from the shortcut menu.
How to Disable the Auto Search for Network Folders and Printers
Click the “Change Desktop Icons” link in the Navigation pane to get started. If you have dual monitors, you might have accidentally unchecked the “Show taskbar on all displays” setting. You can also try enabling it again by clicking the “Show desktop icons on all displays” option. Once you have done that, your desktop icons and taskbar should appear again. If they don’t appear, follow the steps above to enable them.
Dummies has always stood for taking on complex concepts and making them easy to understand. Dummies helps everyone be more knowledgeable and confident in applying what they know. Gilbert is a Microsoft MVP, a full-time blogger and technology aficionado. When away from his bike and iPad, he is busy writing technology how-to's from his home-office in Miami, Florida on the latest programs and gadgets he can get his hands on. Desktop icons you can choose to display on the Desktop. You can also right-click on the desktop, choose Personalize from the menu, and then Desktop Icons on the left-hand pane.
How to Change Windows 7 Icons?
Click OK to close the Desktop Icons Settings dialog box and then click the Close button in the upper-right corner of the Personalization window. Some of the new features, like the Downloads directory, are only accessible through your Home directory, which is why it makes sense to put an icon for it right on the desktop. One of the new changes in Windows 7 and Vista is that each user has a “Home” directory that is actually accessible and meant to be used. In XP and 2k, you had a hidden home directory that you weren’t meant to muck around in.
To fix this, you can restore your system icons to a previous point. Then, restart your computer to see if the issue has resolved. If the problem persists, you can try using a new user account or restarting the computer in Safe Mode to identify the cause of your missing system icons. Access these windows either by double-clicking the icon or by right-clicking it and then choosing Open from its shortcut menu. \nAccess these windows either by double-clicking the icon or by right-clicking it and then choosing Open from its shortcut menu. As for changing folder icons, right-click on the folder you wish to customize then select “Properties”.
How to Change Windows 7 Icons
You have more iconography options this time around compared to the barebones approach of Windows XP. Is your Windows 7 installation a bland sea of yellow folders? Are you tired of your desktop icons being that way? This Windows version is actually better at customization than its XP or Vista counterpart or even its much-maligned successor, Windows 8.
Fortunately, there are a few ways to get your desktop icons back on your computer. The second way is to use the “Windows Icon Removal Tool.” This tool can help you remove all of the Desktop Icons from your computer and replace them with new ones. However, this tool is not recommended for users who are not familiar with how to use it and who do not have a lot of files to remove. The third way is to use the “Desktop Icon Recovery” utility.
Where are My Desktop Icons Gone?#
This utility can help you recover any files that were used to create or maintain your Desktop Icons. However, this tool is not recommended for users who are not familiar with how to use it and who do not have a lot of files to recover. If you are still unable to restore desktop icons, you can try restarting File Explorer from the Task Manager. If that doesn’t fix the problem, you can use the Registry Editor to reset the missing icons. Another option is to empty the desktop icon cache.

Prior to starting How-To Geek, Lowell spent 15 years working in IT doing consulting, cybersecurity, database management, and programming work. If you want to change the icons for these shortcuts, simply click on the icon and then select a new icon from the list. You can also use a custom icon by clicking on the “Browse” button.
Besides restoring the desktop icons, you can also restore other icons on your PC. These include icons for the Recycle Bin, User’s profile, This PC, Network, and Control Panel. To do so, open the Control Panel and navigate to System Restore. To restore desktop icons to a previous time point, make sure that you have enabled “Show hidden files” in the Advanced tab. This happens occasionally or by accident, my son was playing with my laptop and after some time I saw all my desktop icons and folders disappeared. There were some important folders that I often used.
If you’re a Windows 7 user, you may have noticed that your desktop icons are missing. This is because Windows 7 doesn’t support the use of desktop icons. If you’re using an older version of Windows, or if your computer is not up to date with the latest security patches, then you may be at risk of losing your icons.
To enable desktop icons again, open the Settings app on your computer. On the next page, click Desktop icon settings. If you see your desktop icons back, you’re all set. And if they were missing when you first installed Windows 7, you can restore them by following the standard Windows 7 fixes.
The first thing you should do is check the Control Panel for any missing files. This will allow you to find them and delete them. If they are still missing, you can also check the add/remove programs. You don’t need to do anything to recover these files, but it would be best if you can find where they are and report them. If you are not able to find these files, you can report them using a tool that is available in Windows. Once you’ve selected your custom icons, click “OK” to save your changes.