Windows 10: Loss of Desktop shortcuts

I'm running Windows 10 Professional WinVer 1607 and use Classic Shell.
Some time ago I added the folder called Desktop (which contained all my Desktop shortcuts) to my "My Drive" folder.
When I recently deleted it from there, all my desktop shortcuts bar two disappeared.
I tried all the internet suggestions to recover them, but none worked.
Even copying the original Desktop folder back into My Drive had no effect.
Finally I was forced into doing a recovery from a system image.
I would like to know where the "official" location for all the Desktop information / shortcuts is and why in my case win 10 seems to be using an "unofficial" location I created myself.

:)

 

My computer just upgraded to microsoft 10, lost all my files, photos ect on my dest top.

Were these files, photos and folders on your desktop, or were shortcuts to them on your desktop?

Assuming the latter, do a search for some of them. It may be that just the shortcuts were lost and the files are still on your drive.

If the files themselves were on your desktop, you're probably out of luck. But for the future, two points:

1. You should never put files on the desktop. Put nothing but shortcuts there. It's easy to recreate a shortcut if you lose it.

2. You apparently don't do regular backups of your data to external media. If that's the case, you've been playing with fire.
Almost everyone should be backing up regularly. It is always possible that a hard drive crash, user error, nearby lightning strike, virus attack, even theft of the computer, can cause the loss of everything on your drive. As has often been said,
it's not a matter of whether you will have such a problem, but when.

 

e-mail shortcut stopped working

No matter where I try, my shortcut on the desktop or e-mail on the start page it does not connect.

It worked for 3 weeks, then today would not connect nor did Google Chrome. Everything else is fine. Outlook e-mail will not let me put in my Verizon accounts. I am at a loss.

 

By default, your desktop would be
C:\Users\<your user id>\Desktop

You can relocate it thus: (rt click on Desktop)




(I prefer mine on a non-system disk - if I happen to have anything on it of interest and I need to restore an image of the OS, the data is preserved).

As a rule of thumb, don't keep important stuff on your desktop.

If you've just lost shortcuts, most shortcuts can be recreated relatively easily. But there are far better ways than keeping loads of shortcuts on your desktop.

Note: for imaging, we recommend Macrium Reflect (free) e.g. rather than the built-in Backup and Restore.