Windows 10: Icons Gone on destop and taskbar

I have just switched on my Win10 and all the icons have gone on the desktop and task bar. I need serious help urgently. The icon images in my task bar have also disappeared and replaced with identical icons. Screen shot attached.

Having just gone into the file system there are no icons or images there either

I have not downloaded anything new recently

David

:)

 

How to set up 2 Chrome icons on taskbar?

Right click on the google Chrome icon>Properties>copy the target line command.

On the Destop right click>new>shortcut>paste the target line command>add name for example Google Chrome1>Finish.

Right click on the new Google Chrome1 icon>Pin to Taskbar.

Regards.

 

update firmware problemb

I'm updating FW for nokia n95 8gb But but fone power. I open fone agian. but destop not show icon, destop white. you can help me? thank you

 

Try an system restore to return your system to a previous time when all was OK.

 

You could also try to clear and rebuild Icon cache. Tutorial by Brink

If that don work, check permissions on ...User\Appdata\Local folder

 

Tried restart several times no luck. Tried going back to a restore point but that failed, apparently there was an error. So what next?

David

 

Hi David!

Didi you try to rebuild the icon cache, as proposed in post above?

 

As someone having the same issue, it did not unfortunately. My PC was fine last night, started this morning and it's the same as the OP, except I also noticed it tells me to 'Connect to the internet to activate Windows'. When I tell it to activate it tells me it can't reach the Windows activation servers.





I see no recent updates that were done, and rolling back the OS to a week ago with the restore option did not fix the issue. I do not see anything running in the background or starting with Windows. About to start a Malwarebytes search just in case it might be something like that.

EDIT

After a full scan Malwarebytes found nothing.

When I try to right-click and go to Properties on any folder or file, including the Local folder in that location, it does not open any windows for me.

 

There are some solutions for this issue, but for Windows 7 systems. Parts of registry could be changed.

Any system tweaking programs updated recently?

I would suggest inplace upgrade Dolwnload latest ISO from MS, mount it and run install. All of the settings and files should remain unchanged. Backup is recommended, thou. There are some other possibilities, but this should be quickest.

 

I haven't installed or changed any programs recently, and based on the update history neither has MS.

Is that downloading the ISO via the Windows installation media tool?

 

Yes. You can follow tutorials, but is quite obvious. Option 3 should do it (direct download from MS)

This problem is still a mystery (at least for Windows 10), there are some same problems described, but no straight solutions...

Edit: download the same type ISO as you're running now (language and 32 or 64 bit). Only if you didn't upgraded to Creative build, you could do an upgrade.

 

Okay, I did the upgrade (remoted in from work) and it looks like it fixed the icon issues, but Windows still wants me to connect to the internet to activate:





I was actually half hoping I would have to do a full restore so I could find a way to block the Creator's Update, but now I worry if I do that I might not be able to activate Windows normally.

 

Okay, new development. I was using Ultimate Windows Tweaker because I like to remove the shortcut arrows on my icons, which were back after the upgrade. As soon as I check the option to remove the arrows my icons disappeared again, when I clicked to show the shortcut arrows my icons came back.

Not sure what changed in Windows to have this suddenly cause an issue.

 

So there was system tweaker involved after all. It is useful info you provided now, some other user can really benefit from it.

Windows activation is another problem. If everything was in order with first activation, Windows should activate. Nobody else can mess with your computer while you are away?

 

As far as System Tweakers go, I hadn't used this one for two months. I installed Windows, used the program to remove the shortcut arrows, uninstalled the program, used Windows for months with no issues, started it this morning and my icons were gone.

That's why I didn't consider it to be any sort of issue, I didn't even remember that I'd ever used it until I saw the shortcut arrows again.

Nah, private computer at home, but I haven't looked at the activation screen for a long time, so for all I know it's been like this for a while. I'm now getting tempted to just reinstalled Windows fresh this afternoon, as it doesn't take long to do. I think I might have actually even made an image after I installed it the first time.