Windows 10: Explorer not showing Desktop icons?

Hey all,

I noticed that when opening Desktop in Windows Explorer, it doesn't show any of the icons of This PC, My Documents, Network and Recycle Bin. I have enabled these icons to be shown on the Desktop through the "Desktop Icons Settings" option. However, Explorer ignores them and only shows icons that are manually put on the Desktop.

Is this "by design"? Any fix for this?

:)

 

App Icons not appearing properly.

What you are showing is not the desktop but File Explorer folder.

To show the Desktop you must get ouy of all programs

Right click on the windows icon on the taskbar then on Desktop.

Then what do you see?

 

desktop

How do I show the desktop on wnidows10? It shows play and explore and life at glance on the screen.

 

Hello Johnny,

Which desktop location are you opening?

If from "C:\Users\(user-name)\Desktop" or Desktop folder in This PC/Quick access, it won't show them.

If from shell:desktop, it will.

If you have "Show all folders" for navigation pane, and click on Desktop, it will.

Hope this helps. *Smile

 

Hey Brink!

Typing shell:desktop indeed shows the icons. I tried changing the path of the Desktop button in the Quick Acces pane to that path but it gives me an error saying the path is invalid.

Choosing to "Show all folders" for the navigation pane gives way too much clutter in my opinion. Windows 8.1 showed all the icons through the Desktop in the Quick Acces pane just fine.

Isn't there any other way to add a Desktop showing all the icons to the navigation pane?

 

Not that I know of yet.

 

Thanks for your help nonetheless!

One other question, is it possible to change the name of a folder in the Quick Access pane? Linking My Documents folder to the Quick Access pane gives me another name than when the folder is shown on the Desktop.

 

Odd. What name does it have instead?

You don't want to rename that folder.

Did you move your Documents folder to a different location?

 

It's not that very much different but I'm too OCD about this to let it go *Tongue. Instead of having my full name like it's shown on the Desktop (for example Bill Gates), it gives me a shortened version without capitals (billg) .

I didn't move the folder. Isn't this supposed to happen?

 

So this is not your "C:\Users\(user-name)\Documents" folder that you pinned to Quick access?

 

Sorry for the confusion, I was talking about the User Folder itself, not the Documents folder in it. The User Folder on the Desktop shows my full name but when I go to that path you're mentioning C:\Users\(user-name) it shows me that shortened name version (billg instead of Bill Gates). Linking the User Folder to the Quick Acces pane gives that shortened name version.

 

Ah, ok. That makes sense now then.

In Quick access, it'll show the same name it shows as your "C:\Users\(user-name)" profile folder.

 

I take it I can't change that name then. So it's normal that it shows this shortened version of your full User Folder name? I recall Windows 8.1 showing the same full name in that directory.

 

Sorry for the late reply.

I'm not aware of any safe way to change it other than to create a new account with the name you wanted instead.

It's normal for it to use the same name as your "C:\Users\(user-name)" folder.

The separate one in the navigation pane as a separate group uses your full account name instead. This is only when you have "Show all folders" set for the navigation pane though.

 

In that case creating a new account with another name would still not fix this since Windows 10 changes the way the name is displayed in C:\Users\(user-name) folder in its own way (billg instead of BIll Gates). The User folder on my Desktop however does show my full name.