On Windows systems, be it Windows 7, 8 and 10, there is often a problem with the desktop icon missing or not appearing. For example, the wireless icon, battery icon, or other icons that do not appear on laptops and computers.
If you are having the same issue, you can follow this guide to solve it. In this post, you will find some solutions that you can try to fix the desktop icons disappearing problem like in the above case.
How to show missing Windows icons?
Here are some solutions that you can do to fix the icon not showing issue in Windows 10.
Solution 1: Bring Windows icons with Show desktop icons
The first thing you should do is check if the desktop icons are disabled.
The way to do this is
Solution 2: Recover missing icons by Restarting Windows Explorer
# Method 1
1. Right-click the Taskbar area and click Task Manager.
2. In the Processes section, search for and select Windows Explorer.
Note: If you don’t see the Processes or other tab, click More details in the lower left corner of the Task Manager window.
3. Right-click the Process Windows Explorer, and then click Restart.
1. Right-click the Taskbar, then click Task Manager.
2. Search for Windows Explorer in the Processes tab.
Note: If you don’t see the Processes or other tab, click More details in the lower left corner of the Task Manager window.
3. Once you are familiar with the Windows Explorer process, right-click on End task.
4. Then click on File located in the upper left corner and then click Run new task.
5. Type explorer.exe in the Open column.
6. press button [Enter] on your keyboard or click the OK button.
Solution 3: How to fix missing Wi-Fi, Computer, Control Panel and Recycle Bin icons?
If your laptop or PC has problems with the Recycle Bin, Computer, Control Panel and Wireless or Network icons that are not on the desktop, you can follow the below to fix the problem.
1. Right-click on an empty area of the desktop > then select Personalize.
2. Select Themes in the left menu.
3. On the right, under Related Settings, please click Desktop icon settings.
The “Desktop icon settings” window will appear.
4. Check the boxes next to the items you want to appear on the desktop.
5. Then click the Apply button at the bottom of the “Desktop Icon Settings” window.
6. Then click the OK button.
Solution 4: Recover missing icons by deleting IconCache.db
The IconCache.db file is a cache of computer desktop icons stored on Windows systems. Deleting the file can recover some icon states that don’t usually appear on the computer. The method is as follows.
1. Open File Explorer (Windows Explorer).
2. Open the drive (C:).
3. Open the Users folder.
4. Open the folder with your user account name.
5. Open the AppData folder.
Note: If you don’t see the AppData folder, click View at the top and check the box next to Hidden items.
In Windows 7, if AppData is not visible, select Menu Bar > Tools > Views > Folder options > Applications > OK on the taskbar.
6. Open the local folder.
7. Delete the IconCache.db files.
8. Finally restart your laptop or PC.
Solution 5: Bring missing Desktop icon with System File Checker Tool
1. Open Windows Command Prompt as administrator.
There are three ways to open Windows Command Prompt as administrator:
2. When the User Account Control (UAC) window appears, please click Yes.
Note: If your computer uses a password, it usually asks for password authentication.
The next window will appear Command Prompt.
3. Type the following command: (sfc [spasi] /scan now)
4. Then press the button [Enter] on your keyboard.
System File Checker then scans all protected system files and replaces all error files using a cached copy.
This process may take a few minutes.
5. Wait until the process is complete.
Note: If the System File Checker tool is not able to repair corrupt files, go to the following page: How to Fix “SFC Cannot Repair Corrupted Files” Issue in Windows 10.
6. Then close the Command Prompt window.
7. Final step Restart the computer You.
These are the various methods that you can do to fix the missing icon issue in Windows 10. The above solutions can also be applied to Windows 7 and 8 versions, although there are some slightly different steps.
Hopefully one of the solutions in the guide above can fix your Windows computer problem.