This behavior of Windows in the form of a missing desktop, shortcuts and icons in Windows can be expected after: a system failure, exposure to viruses, improper handling of various cleaning programs. This problem is caused by an incorrect start of the explorer process. In such a case, you need to access the task manager, from which you can easily manage the recovery of the Windows desktop. Also, sometimes it happens that the desktop turns on, but there is nothing on it, no shortcuts, no folders, no start button and bottom panel. Windows itself is to blame for this. This instruction is relevant for Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10.
Launching Desktop from Task Manager
The Windows desktop is a regular visual folder that is idealized by the explorer.exe process. A disappeared desktop is a sign that the process is not working. So the problem can be solved very simply by running it, of course, if the path to this file or the file itself is not damaged. You can launch the explorer.exe application from the task manager; to invoke it, hold down the three Ctrl + Alt + Delete buttons simultaneously.
In the task manager, as in any other application, there is a standard File menu with a drop-down list of available commands. We need a New Task command. In the window that appears, type the command to launch - explorer.exe.
Press the "Ok" button, wait, the desktop folder should be running. The screen should appear: all folders, files and shortcuts, as well as the bottom panel and the "Start" button. What if it does not help?
Launch Windows Recovery Tool
If the previous method did not help, then the problem is more serious: the cause of the problem may be in a damaged registry or in a damaged explorer.exe file. In this case, when starting the system, quickly press the F8 button (for win 8, 8.1 and 10 - in the search we write msconfig, launch the application, go to the download tab - check the "safe mode" checkbox - after all operations are completed, uncheck the box and reboot ) until a window appears where you can choose to load the last known good configuration. You can also try to restore the system to a working state.
If you restore Windows, go back to the task manager. We select the file, a new task and enter already: rstrui.exe.
The Windows system restore application will turn on, thanks to it you can select a restore point, for example, by date. The application will restore all system files to their original state as of the specified restore point date. You can also run the recovery tool from the command line. To run the command line, write CMD in the same place. In the black window that appears, write rstrui.exe.
Fixing the registry to restore the desktop
The registry is the Windows settings database. It is possible that some of its parameter values \u200b\u200bare damaged. So, let's try to independently check the required registry values. We look at the key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / Microsoft / WindowsNT / CurrentVersion / Winlogon
The value of the "Shell" parameter should be explorer.exe, and in the "Userinit" parameter it should be like this:
C: \\ Windows \\ system32 \\ userinit.exe,
If yours is not so, then replace with these correct ones.
The best option if you saved a copy of the registry on the media before the desktop disappeared. If any problems arise with the registry, the desktop, you just need to import a previously saved copy with the correct values \u200b\u200bof the registry parameters into the faulty registry of the operating system.
Restoring desktop shortcuts
It so happens that the desktop works fine, but the shortcuts disappear somewhere. In this case, Windows itself is to blame, or rather, the computer maintenance utility. One of the tasks of which is collecting damaged desktop shortcuts. Once a week, this utility automatically collects such "garbage". Thus, it removes shortcuts from the desktop. To avoid deleting important shortcuts, you must turn off Windows Maintenance. Open the Control Panel -\u003e System and Security -\u003e Troubleshooter. On the left side, select Settings. In the tab that appears, disable the Windows servicing tool.
I hope my instructions will help you recover your desktop or missing shortcuts. If you have any questions, write them on our forum. If you have something to add, write in the comments and your method will also be added.
If you once turned on your computer or laptop, but during the usual boot of Windows XP, 7 or 8, all shortcuts, icons, even the start menu, and the taskbar disappeared on the desktop. This can happen because of viruses, or accidental deletion of system files or registry data. In this article, we have collected the main ways to solve the problem of restoring the display of shortcuts on the desktop.
Solution:
1. The explorer.exe file is missing
The fact is that the explorer.exe process is responsible for the external display in Windows, and if you press CTRL + ALT + DEL, or CTRL + SHIFT + ESC to start the Task Manager, it is absent in the Processes tab. This could have happened due to the action of viruses. In the event that you try to start the Task Manager, but no reaction occurs, try restarting your computer in Safe Mode (F8 key during Windows startup) and try again.
To solve the problem, the first step is to determine whether the explorer.exe file is still in the system so that it can be launched. This can be done without a conductor using the command line.
In the task manager, click "File -New task" and enter "cmd" there; In it, enter the command:
C: \\ Windows \\ explorer.exe
if your OS is installed on a different drive, then instead of C: \\ enter the drive on which you have installed the system).
If you do not know on which disk the system is installed, then enter into the command line:
% windir% \\ explorer.exe
in this case, the system will automatically substitute the required disk on which it is installed.
If, as a result, all the icons on the desktop and the taskbar appear, then the explorer.exe file has not been deleted from the computer and most likely you will only need to fix a few registry files.
If you see an error message that such a file does not exist, then you will need to copy the explorer.exe file to the Windows system folder yourself. If the error was generated by explorer.exe itself, then delete it:
DEL C: \\ Windows \\ explorer.exe
2. Check the icon display function
Let's start with the simplest. You need to check the option that disables the display of icons on the desktop:
For Windows 2000
- In the menu that opens, select the item "Active Desktop";
For Windows XP
- Right click on the desktop;
- In the menu that opens, select the item "Arrange icons";
- In the expanded submenu, there should be a check mark next to the item "Display desktop icons". If there is no check mark, then click on this item.
For Windows Vista and 7
- Right click on the desktop;
- In the menu that opens, select the "View" item;
- In the expanded submenu, there should be a check mark next to the item "Display desktop icons". If there is no check mark, then click on this item.
3. The explorer.exe file is on the computer
To start the registry editor again click "file-\u003e new task" in the task manager and enter the command "regedit". Next, you need to do the following:
- In Registry Editor, select: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \\ SOFTWARE \\ Microsoft \\ Windows NT \\ CurrentVersion \\ Winlogon. Then look at the right pane. The Shell parameter must be Explorer.exe. If it isn't, change it to Explorer.exe.
- We are trying to find: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \\ SOFTWARE \\ Microsoft \\ Windows NT \\ CurrentVersion \\ Image File Execution Options. If there is a subsection explorer.exe, or iexplorer.exe, delete it (right-click -\u003e Delete).
Then restart your computer. If this still does not help, then perhaps explorer.exe is corrupted and should still be replaced.
4. The explorer.exe file was not found on the computer
If you have your Windows installation disc, you can find the explorer.ex_ file in the i386 folder right there, rename it to explorer.exe and use it. You can rename it in any file manager, or you can go to the control panel, select the folder properties -\u003e view, and uncheck the box next to "hide file extensions". If not, then you will have to find a computer with the same Windows as yours and copy the file from there from the Windows folder.
We copy the resulting file, for example, to the root directory of your flash drive and paste it into a broken computer. Run the cmd command line on it again. We consider what kind of media the inserted flash drive is (this will be the last available disk). We enter there the command "E:", or "F:", or another ... (depending on which disk is the flash drive). Further, if explorer.exe is in the root folder, enter the command:
copy explorer.exe C: \\ Windows
copy explorer.exe% WINDIR%
As a result, it should be written that 1 file was copied successfully.
Restart your computer - everything should work.
These are the most basic simple ways to solve this problem. If it does not work, then you can also try to restore the system, but the most effective way is of course to reinstall Windows.
5. System recovery
If in method number 2 an error appears that the explorer.exe file was not found or after the restart the problem remains, then you must try to do a system restore:
- In the "Start" menu, open in sequence: "Programs" - "Accessories" - "System Tools"
- In the "System" menu, click on "System Restore". Note. If there is no such item, then follow these steps: in the "Start" menu, select "Run". In the open field, type the command% SystemRoot% \\ system32 \\ restore \\ rstrui.exe and click the "OK" button;
- In the "System Restore" window on the right side of the window, select "Restore an earlier state of the computer" and click the "Next" button;
- In the calendar, select a day that has a breakpoint, such days are in bold. Choose a day on which your computer worked normally, i.e. if you remember that the computer started normally three days ago, then choose the point three days ago. If there are no control points, then most likely you have disabled the option of creating control points and you will have to go to method number 4.
- After choosing the day, click the "Next" button;
- We listen to the advice written in the window (written in red) and click the "Next" button;
- We are waiting for the completion of the process;
6. Registry fix
If system restore did not help, then you will have to go into the system registry:
- On the keyboard, press and hold the Ctrl + Alt + Delete buttons;
- In the Windows Task Manager window, go to the Applications tab;
- On this tab, click the "New task ..." button;
- In the "Create a new task" window in the "Open" field, type the command regedit and click the "OK" button;
- In the "Registry Editor" window on the left side of it, sequentially expand the registry keys to the "Image File Execution Options" section: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / Microsoft / WindowsNT / CurrentVersion / Image File Execution Options /
- Expand the section "Image File Execution Options" and look for subsections "explorer.exe" and "iexplorer.exe". If any of the subsections is found, then it must be deleted.
- We click on the subsection with the right mouse button and in the menu that opens, select the "Delete" item;
- When asked to confirm the deletion, press the "Yes" button;
- Now let's check the explorer.exe launch parameters by expanding the registry keys to the "Winlogon" section: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / Microsoft / WindowsNT / CurrentVersion / Winlogon /
- Left-click on the "Winlogon" section and find the "Shell" parameter in the right part of the registry editor window;
- Right-click on this parameter and select the "Change" menu item;
- In the window "Changing the string parameter" in the field the value should be written explorer.exe and nothing else, if this is not the case, then fix it;
- Click the "OK" button, close all windows and restart your computer
7. Recover hidden shortcuts on the desktop
The "hidden" attribute may have been set to all folders and files on the desktop. To check whether this is true or not, go to "Start -\u003e Control Panel -\u003e Folder Options", open the "View" tab, go to the end of the list of options and put the "Hidden files and folders" switch to "Show hidden files and folders" ...
If after that the contents of the desktop began to be displayed, then to restore the display of your shortcuts, files and folders, you need to remove the "hidden" attribute from them. This can be done as follows:
Go to "Start -\u003e Run", write "cmd" there and click "Ok" - the command line should start.
Remove the "hidden" attribute from all files and folders on a common desktop for all users with this command (this may require administrator rights):
attrib / D / S -h "% \u200b\u200bALLUSERSPROFILE% / Desktop / *"
Now make all files and folders on your desktop unhidden with this command:
attrib / D / S -h "% \u200b\u200bUSERPROFILE% / Desktop / *"
Just in case, click on an empty spot on the desktop and press F5 to refresh the desktop.
If the previously missing icons, files and folders from the desktop are no longer faint, then they are no longer hidden and you can set “Do not show hidden files and folders” in the “Folder Options” window.
Faced a problem that the desktop freezes or does not start at all. How it looks: the mouse cursor turns into a clock and nothing can be launched from the desktop. There is a problem in Windows 7 and Windows XP, no difference. Let's figure out how to solve this issue without resorting to heavy artillery.
One-time solution to the problem
The desktop can be closed like any program. Only now there is no such application in the task manager. But the process "explorer.exe" is responsible for it. We just need to restart this process. For this:
- using the hot keys "Ctrl + Shift + Esc" or "Ctrl + Alt + Delete" and select "Start Task Manager"
- In the Task Manager window, go to the "Processes" tab and find the "explorer.exe" process there. If there is a lot there, then just press the letter "e" until you get to it.
- Right-click on the process and select "End Process".
After this action, the desktop will completely disappear along with the taskbar. Only the background image and the task manager window will remain. If after a few seconds the desktop does not automatically restart, then you need to start it manually. Go to the menu "File -\u003e New Task"
In the input field, write: explorer
And press "Enter". With these simple steps, you can bring the Windows operating system back to life without having to restart. This whole process is demonstrated in the video below the article. This method works for Windows 10 too, but if it does not help, then you need to complete the "Desktop Window Manager".
If the desktop freezes too often
This usually happens after installing a new program. Remember after what actions it started and try to remove the last installed programs. If it doesn't help, then roll back to. It may well be to blame. In this case, we will try to cure the desktop, and for this we need:
- Download the AVZ program. I talked about this program
- Go to "File -\u003e System Restore", There check the boxes №" 5. Restoring the desktop "," 16. Restore the Explorer launch key "and" 9. Removing system process debuggers "
- Press the button "Perform marked operations" and reboot.
If the desktop does not start
In cases where the desktop does not load at all and even the "Start" button does not appear, you need to do what is described above, and if it does not help, then something else. Try starting the desktop through the task manager in the above way. If the AVZ program is not at hand, then you have to go into the registry. But I have simplified your task and prepared a ready-made solution.
Repair explorer.exe
If, when you try to launch "explorer.exe", a message appears that such a file was not found, you will have to restore it. This can be done in three ways.
First way: enter the command in the New Task window of the Task Manager:
Sfc / scannow
Most likely, the program will ask you to insert the Windows installation disc. If not, then the second method may suit you. The program restores damaged and replaced files to the original ones. Reboot at the end of the program. By the way, this method can help if the desktop freezes, and the previous tips did not help.
Second way: rewrite the file "C: \\ Windows \\ explorer.exe" from a working machine with the same operating system, or download and unpack my versions:
To put the correct files in the Windows folder without Explorer, enter the command in the New Task window:
copy C: \\ Downloads \\ explorer.exe c: \\ windows
where C: \\ Downloads is the file path and C: \\ Windows is the OS installation path.
Before that, you may need to "explorer.exe" as described above.
Third way also requires an installation disk, only we will manually extract the required file from there. If the drive has the letter "E:" and the operating system folder is "C: \\ Windows", then the procedure is as follows:
- Installing the disc in the tray
- In the already known input field, write:
E: \\ i386 \\ expand.exe E: \\ i386 \\ explorer.ex_ C: \\ windows \\ explorer.exe
Reboot!
Another way you can use Kerish Doctor.
After solving the problem, you can.
In the video you can see how to restart the desktop. True, it is not visible there how I start the task manager using "Ctrl + Alt + Delete", because Windows blocks video recording in this mode, but I think everything is clear.
Labels usually appear after a short delay. But sometimes, even after a while, there is nothing on the screen except the splash screen. Why did the Windows 7 desktop disappear? What to do? Let's try to identify and solve the problem.
Disabled display of icons
In all new versions of the OS, the personalization settings allow you to completely disable the display of shortcuts. If you are not the only person using the computer, chances are that someone accidentally did it. This is the simplest and most harmless reason why the Windows 7 desktop disappeared. What should I do?
Right-click anywhere on the screen. Find the "View" tab on the context menu. Make sure that the display of labels is turned on - there should be a check mark next to the corresponding item.
Labels have been marked as hidden
It's almost impossible to do this by chance, so in this case, most likely, someone decided to play a trick on you. Icons and folders marked as hidden are still in place, but not visible by default. If you have lost shortcuts and icons in Windows 7 for this very reason, first of all you need to enable the display of hidden items. To do this, go to "Control Panel" and open "Folder Options". In the list on the "View" tab, scroll through the list of parameters and enable the display of hidden files and folders (there should be a check mark next to the corresponding item). If the shortcuts appear, it remains only to remove the "hidden" attribute in the properties.
The system moved the items to the "Unused Shortcuts" folder
This is another possible reason why the desktop went missing. Windows 7 can automatically clean up the desktop and, at regular intervals, remove from the workspace those icons that you are not using.
By default, the "Unused shortcuts" folder should be displayed on the desktop (if not, you can find it through the search). If this is your case, it will be enough just to move the desired shortcuts back. After that, you should disable cleaning. To do this, open Display Properties, find the "Desktop" tab and click "Settings ...". You just need to uncheck the box next to "Clean every 60 days" and save the changes. Although the advice to check the "Trash" may seem silly to many, we recommend that you do it. In practice, it often happens that labels have been trite removed.
The explorer.exe file is missing
Now let's talk about more complex options, when it becomes unclear why the Windows 7 desktop disappeared. What if the above tips did not help? Most likely, when the system boots, explorer.exe, the process responsible for the external display of the system, does not start. To check this, go to Task Manager\u003e Processes (Ctrl + Shift + Del) and try to find explorer. Sometimes nothing happens when you try to open the dispatcher. In this case, start Windows in Safe Mode by pressing the F8 key during boot and try again.
In the manager menu, select "File", click "New task" and in the window that appears, enter the path to the file in the window that opens (by default, it lies in the Windows folder located on the C :) drive. If after that the shortcuts appear, then the file is on the computer, and you just need to fix a few registry errors.
What to do if explorer.exe is missing on the computer and cannot be launched? In this case, you will need your Windows installation disc.
- Open the disk from another PC and find the file explorer.ex_ in the i386 directory.
- Copy it anywhere and then change the extension to .EXE (you just need to rename it for that).
- Write the finished file to a USB flash drive and connect it to your computer.
- Run the command line cmd through the "Task Manager".
- Go to the files on the flash drive. To do this, you need to enter the name of the drive (E :, D: or other).
- Copy the file to the system folder using the copy explorer.exe C: \\\\ Windows command. If everything is done correctly, a message will appear stating that the operation was successful.
- Reboot your PC.
If there is no installation disc, you can copy explorer.exe from another computer to Windows 7.
Explorer.exe disappeared from the registry
Let's talk in more detail about what to do if the Windows 7 desktop disappears due to registry errors. In this case, when the process is started through the "Task Manager", the shortcuts appear, but after restarting the computer they disappear again. This means that the conditions for launching explorer.exe are incorrectly registered in the registry. Launch the Run application and type regedit. The Registry Editor will open. Find the following directory:
The Shell line should contain explorer.exe. If some other file is registered instead, or nothing at all, change the parameter value. Is it done? Move on. Now we need to open another folder from the same directory.
If there is an item explorer.exe (or iexplorer.exe), you need to remove it, and then restart the PC. If the icons still do not appear, the file is most likely damaged and will need to be replaced.
System settings have failed
Sometimes, even after adding a file to the registry, the problem persists. This may indicate a failure in the system settings. Fortunately, the "seven" has a special application - "System Restore", which returns the computer to an earlier state. You can run it using the same Run program. To do this, you need to enter the command shown in the screenshot below.
The computer was infected with viruses
A trivial option is when exactly because of malware your Windows 7 desktop disappeared. You probably know what to do in this case. To open the antivirus, you can enter the full address of its executable file (for example, C: \\\\ Programs \\ Antivirus \\ antivirus.exe) in the "Run" window. It is recommended to scan your PC in Safe Mode. After scanning, delete all infected files and restart your computer.
Even if this does not help, the best solution is to simply reinstall Windows. The necessary files can be copied to a USB flash drive via the command line (of course, if you can remember their location).
