/ Disappearing Icons and Desktop

Disappearing Icons and Desktop

I have an old Sony Vaio computer with the XP operating system. When I turn it on my background page comes up, a few seconds later my icons come up, and then after a few more seconds, the icons disappear and all I have left is the background page. Next, a small (5×3) “personal settings” screen appears in the top left corner. That will then go away and the icons return. This repeats over and over. I cannot click on any of the icons and bring them up. Any suggestions? Celeste Stewart

Mysterious Desktop Icon Behaviors

What you are describing is a classic symptom that your Windows interface is having problems. The interface of Windows is the graphical element consisting of the Start button and menu, desktop and icons, Taskbar, and the Windows Explorer file menu. Something is going on with a file called explorer.exe, which is the executable program responsible for displaying the graphical interface. It sounds as if it is caught in an endless loop where it starts and restarts.

Windows Explorer Errors

Many explorer.exe errors are fixed by manually restarting the explorer.exe process. Now, since you can’t click the icons, you’ll need to bear with me and try a few different things. First, what happens if you right-click a blank area of the Taskbar? Does a small menu appear? If so, click on Task Manager.

If you can’t get into Task Manager by right-clicking, try pressing Control + Alt + Delete and choosing Task Manager from that menu. One of these two techniques should launch the Task Manager.

Once inside the Task Manager, go to File> New Task (Run). Type explorer.exe in the field and click OK. Your screen background should briefly disappear and then reappear with icons intact. Is it stable? I hope so. This technique works for many explorer.exe failures, so hopefully it will solve your current problem.

Using System Restore from a Command Prompt

The next step is to try a System Restore. Since your graphical interface is acting up, your best bet is to try this from either Task Manager or from a command prompt. Obviously, this will only work if you have System Restore activated and a restore point from before the problem began. If you think your computer has a valid restore point, then open Task Manager once again and choose File> New Task (Run). Type rstrui.exe and click OK or press the Enter key. Pick a restore point from before the problems began and follow the prompts.

If you cannot get into Task Manager, reboot your computer and press the F8 key to enter the Safe Mode choices screen. Pick Safe Mode with Command Prompt. This loads a DOS-like screen rather than your familiar desktop interface.

Type in the following at the command prompt (and then press the Enter key):

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

For example, if you have Windows loaded on your C drive, the command will look like this:

C:\Windows\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

Follow the prompts to restore your system.

Using the System File Checker

If the above techniques have not worked, try using the System File Checker utility. This utility scans your computer’s system files and replaces bad ones with clean copies found on your original Windows installation CD. You must have your CD inserted in order for this to work and you will need to update your operating system once the process is complete.

Whether from Task Manager’s New Task (Run) or a command prompt, enter: sfc \scannow.

Delete Icon Cache

Another common problem with disappearing and reappearing icons involves the icon cache file. Let’s try deleting the IconCache.db file as once it’s deleted, Windows automatically creates a new one. The icon cache is generally located in:

Documents and Settings\User Name\Local Settings\Application Data

Hopefully one of these fixes will stop your icons from pulling a disappearing act. If not, let us know. There are a few more tricks, mostly dealing with the registry, that we can try.