PCTech Forums

My sister upgraded her pc from W98SE to ME and all the icons on the desktop disappeared. All the shortcuts are still in the c:\windows\desktop folder, they just don't appear on the desktop.

I've poked around the display properties and other somewhat obvious places without finding any setting that's keeping them hidden. I can enable 'desktop' on the taskbar and all application shortcuts are there but it'd be nice to have them physically appear on the desktop.

Usually you have to put them back yourself. Do the shortcuts still work? If not you have to reinstall everything.

Not in the last 8 years of upgrading windows have I had to 'put them back on myself'!

oh... I always had to

None of the 3 pcs in my home nor one at the office lost any icons in the upgrade from 98 to ME so I don't know what you or my sister did that resulted the problem but it's not supposed to happen that way.

win XP has a feature if you right click the desktop - arrange icons by - show desktop items. I don't know if this is also a feature in ME or not. I never ran ME due to it's extremely lousy reviews.

Anyways check to see if that option in there.

ps.. also, I remember in win95 if you deleted or renamed the windows/desktop folder at a command promt the whole screen would freak out, you'd loose the start menu and everything.. it was a cool way to freak out your friends. not that this has any relavance since you said your windows/desktop folder is still there and still has your shortcuts in it

oh, one more thing... are there ANY icons on the desktop at all? no my compuer or anything? or just not your customized ones

just thought of one more thing... isn't winME supposed to be multi-user... therefore the desktop folder might be at another place. Win2x/xp put them in C:\documents and settings\%username%\desktop

ME is simply an upgrade to 98, nothing really new with it other than some enhanced multimedia features and internet sharing. XP is considerably different. ME is no more multiuser than 98, NT and I think 2000 are more multiuser, but that's not really important here.

ME as well as 98 has the desktop apps and shortcuts under c:\windows, which in my sister's case are all still there. There's either some environment variable that is preventing them from being displayed on the desktop that I can't find, or according to some other forums, some worm that must have been activated during the upgrade that's interferring with their display.

pdeinc.... Is the Desktop viewed as a "Web Page"? In the Display Properties Window / Effects tab is the box next to "Hide Desktop Icons when viewed as a web page" checked? brad

Brad, are you sure that's a WinME setting. I don't show that on my home computer (ME) and I assume the display properties options are consistant with my sister's.

In "Display Properties" / "Web" tab. Are you saying you don't have "Active Desktop" as an option?
Also check your Windowsc Explorer / Tools / Folder Options / View tab / Under "Visual Settings" see if "Hide icons when desktop is viewed as Web page" is checked.
brad

I think you should try brads idea first, but to follow on from what testrips mentioned above, what happens if you right-click on the desktop & create a new shortcut - does the new shortcut appear & stay there? If it does, it sounds as though your desktop icons are being stored elsewhere. To find where, you can now do a search for that new shortcut you justr created