Windows 8 Desktop Icons Have disappeared

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Colonel Biggs

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May 24, 2013
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I have an elderly lady next door that just purchased a laptop with Windows 8. For some reason, she has lost the few icons that were on her desktop (i.e., desktop view as opposed to tiles). Using File Manager, I went to the Desktop folder, right-clicked on the few files there and selected Send to Desktop. Instead of placing an icon on the desktop, it created a copy of the file within the same folder. How does one create a desktop icon using this approach?

Thanks in advance.

Gordon
 
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Hi Gordon,

1. press [windows key] + [pause]... are we talking 8 or 8.1?

2. does this system have a home group?
3. is she using a Microsoft account to log in or a local one?
 
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Hello, Norway....Greetings from Texas.

The lady is using Windows 8.1; the assigned workgroup is the standard "Workgroup."

I right-clicked the taskbar and clicked-on Show Taskbar, but I'm not sure what that proved.

I've never run into this, which is why I am so dumbfounded. Thanks for any assistance.

Regards,

Le Colonel




 
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P.S. I forgot to note that she uses a gmail account.
 
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Colonel Biggs said:
The lady is using Windows 8.1; the assigned workgroup is the standard "Workgroup."
Click to expand...
I asked about "home groups" which is not the same thing as a "work group" however I think she does have one and that would be why you can't place things on her desktop from the file manager... the fact that she now has 8.1 instead of 8 is a possible cause of the missing desktop icons.

Colonel Biggs said:
I right-clicked the taskbar and clicked-on Show Taskbar, but I'm not sure what that proved.
Click to expand...

I don't know why you did this but it would not have hurt any thing so don't stress about it.

Colonel Biggs said:
P.S. I forgot to note that she uses a gmail account.
Click to expand...

I assume you mean for her Microsoft account and that adds up.

Ok what I think has happened is this;
The young lady has purchased a Windows machine that came with Windows 8 and that has then gone to Microsoft and downloaded the free upgrade to 8.1... yes it does this without asking by default and thats another issue... then as part of that upgrade it makes a new desktop (dropping older 8 icons because they don't meet 8.1 standard).

At this point I recommend grabbing the Microsoft patches because 8.1 NEEDS them to work correctly and running some sort of mal-ware sniffer over the system wouldn't go astray.
 
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Madame --

It seems that I pulled some terms out of the air without running them against your response. My apologies. I also learned yesterday that this lady (aged 84) had used a "Geek Squad" from Best Buy to set up her computer for her. They were no doubt the ones who installed Windows 8.1. On this subject, I had installed 8.1 on my Toshiba laptop (she is using a Dell) last year without any problems, desktop or otherwise.

My reference to "Show Taskbar" should have read "Show Desktop." I didn't believe that it would impact anything, which it didn't. Sorry for the confusion.

"Grabbing the Microsoft patches." I am not familiar with this approach, unless you are referring to running a check with Windows Update to see if she has all of the necessary updates for 8.1. I would have thought that the Geek crowd would have performed this step, but possibly not. (They also told her that she needed a new printer when she has a perfectly functional, three-year old HP.)

Thanks for your time and patience..

Gordon



 
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Hi

Just a thought...

Go to the C:\Users folder and see it there is more than one User listed.
If there are look in the Desktop folders and see it one of them shows the links that disappeared.

It's possible that she is logging in as a different user than she was when she first fired up the computer.

Mike
 
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Colonel Biggs said:
My reference to "Show Taskbar" should have read "Show Desktop." I didn't believe that it would impact anything, which it didn't.
Click to expand...
Show 'desktop' from taskbar will just shrink any programs running and show the desktop... its a temp thing

See what Trouble posted above as that is a "all the time" setting but once again, some kind of mal-ware sniffer like spybot is always worth the time.
 
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Trouble --

The lady wasn't available to contact until yesterday. Sorry for the delay.

Walked her through your comments. Your "shot in the dark" was on the money, because she now has icons on the desktop -- very large ones, says she, but they are there. When I see her next I should be able to remedy that.

Many thanks for your post!


Trouble said:
Just a shot in the dark here, but try....
Right clicking any blank area of the existing desktop and in the context menu that is produced, select "View" / "Show Desktop Icons"
Click to expand...
 
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Hi, Mike --

I'm going to guess that as an 84-year old she is the only User, but I will verify that when I am next there.

Thanks for your thoughts!




 
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Madame --

Thanks for the Show Desktop explanation.

Sometimes I look for the most complex of answers when it is simplicity staring me in the face. Trouble was correct, and I never thought to look for the obvious solution.

Your posts have been helpful, regardless, and I appreciate your inputs. I hate to think how users would fare without forums like this.



 
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