Windows 10: why do software icons keep disappearing?

every now and then this sort of thing happens. There shouldn't be anything wrong with the software. So what is causing this? and how can I fix it?

:)

 

Tray icon disappears

I've been experiencing since the installation of Windows XP SP2 on multiple machines with the ATITool Tray Icon disappearing upon load at system startup. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not. Enabling or Disabling the "Hide Inactive (tray) Icons" WinXP menu option doesn't have any effect. The only way to open ATITool after it has loaded is to go through the start menu to open it again. I have "minimize on close" selected in ATITool. When closing ATITool, you see it make the motions of minimizing to the tray area but no icon is displayed. Any ideas?

 

Icons have disappeared

Hi Robert,

Missing icons after a recent Windows update can be due to the changes made in your PC Settings while updating.
Before we proceed with any troubleshooting steps, we suggest that you make sure that
Show Desktop icons is enabled. Here's how:

• Right-click on the empty area on your desktop.
• Choose View and you should see Show Desktop icons option.
• Try checking and unchecking Show Desktop icons option a few times but remember to leave this option checked.

Should the issue persists, you can turn off tablet mode. Windows 10 is designed to work with touchscreen devices and touchscreen monitors and it comes with tablet mode that optimizes Windows 10 for touchscreen devices. apparently using tablet mode can sometimes
cause your icons to disappear so let’s see how we can turn off tablet mode. Follow the steps below to turn off tablet mode:

• Open Settings > System and choose Tablet mode from the left.
• Locate the Make Windows more touch-friendly when using your device as a tablet and set it to off.
  
• Your desktop icons should now appear. If that doesn’t work, try turning on and off Tablet mode a few times.

Keep us posted on how it goes.

 

Icons disappeared and theme changed.

Hi Roland,

Corrupted system files may be one of the possible causes why the icons on your desktop disappeared. To assist you better, kindly answer the following questions:

• Have you made any recent changes prior to this issue?
• Which build and version of Windows 10 are you using?
• Have you tried creating a new user profile and check if the problem is in the current profile or also with the new profile?

Meanwhile, I suggest that you follow the steps shared by Meliton Dec on this
thread.
The given troubleshooting steps will help repair or reset not only missing apps but also lost icon.

Additionally, You can reset the Icon Cache. Kindly follow the steps provided below:

• Open File Explorer and navigate to the following folder:
  
  C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer
• In the Explorer folder, you will see a lot of files with the
  iconcache name. Delete all of them.

Once you have deleted all the iconcache files, a folder names IconCacheToDelete
will appear. Simply restart your PC and this folder will disappear.

In the event that you are unable to delete some of the files, see the steps below:

• Open elevated Command Prompt. (Win+X > Command Prompt (Admin))
• Type the following command, and then press Enter:
  
  cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer attrib –h iconcache_*.db del iconcache_*.db start explorer

If the issue still persists, I recommend you try the suggestion provided by
kpeW9 on this thread or the steps shared by
Guru Khan G on this thread
to troubleshoot your concern. This will also help you scan for corruption and restore corrupted files/Windows corruptions error.

Keep us posted if you need additional help.