Windows 7 Lost desktop icons?

If this is truly a recent issue "all of a sudden", have you considered trying a system restore to an earlier point in time before the problem occurred.
Does the problem occur for all users on your computer, you may try creating a new user to see if the issue persists.
The problem can be a result several different causes, like;
1. Registry corruption at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
the values for "Shell" and "Userinit" may be a problem, you can check them and see, I've included an image of their respective correct values.
2. File corruption of explorer.exe
Both of which can be a result of malware infections, download, install, update and run Spybot Search and Destroy as well as Malwarebyte AntiMalware and see if they find any issues.
You may also want to run the built in system file checker. Run a command prompt with administrative privledges and type sfc /scannow see if that produces any information.
As well as from an administrative command prompt chkdsk /r to check for any issues with the hard drive.