Desktop icons disappeared

[sandy99]

XP I am trying to help elderly neighbours. He has done something and all the icons on his desktop vanished. I have since found them as a list he can get from the task bar at bottom of screen. I looked up Help to find out how to restore them to the desktop. I found the answer BUT the option it gives is not on the drop down list! I checked on my own computor ( also XP) with the same result.

Ctrl panel - Desktop icons - Arrange your disktop icons.

 

It shows this panel (see ahead) but the one we seem to want is the LAST one (SHOW DESKTOP ICONS). And that one is just not there. Can anyone tell me another way to get the icons back on desktop?

 

 

 

 

 

To arrange your desktop icons

1. Right-click the desktop.
   
2. Point to Arrange Icons
   
3. By, and then click one of the commands on the submenu, as explained in the table below. ClickTo
   
4. NameArrange icons in alphabetical order by the icon name.SizeArrange icons in order of file size. If the icon is a shortcut to a program, the size refers to the size of the shortcut file.
   
5. TypeArrange icons in order of type. For example, if you have shortcuts to several PowerPoint presentations on your desktop, these will be arranged next to each other.
   
6. ModifiedArrange icons in the order that the shortcut was last modified.
   
7. AutoArrangeArrange the icons in columns along the left side of your screen.
   
8. Align to GridSnap icons into place as designated by an invisible grid on your screen. The grid keeps the icons aligned with each other.
   
9. Show Desktop IconsHide or show all desktop icons. When this command is checked, desktop icons are displayed on your desktop.
   

Edited May 29, 2009 by maynardvdm

[RandyL]

Hi Sandy try this.

 

Right click your desktop.

Click View.

Click Show Desktop Icons.

 

Does the option work ok on yours but not your friends?

[danzil]

hi

did your friend use a prog built into xp called"desktop cleanup wizard"

if so you can runt that and simply drag the icons back onto the desktop.

please post back if not and we will see if we can help more

regards

danzil

[sandy99]

Thanks I will try that when I see them later today

[sandy99]

That did it The right click on desk top. Thanks a lot.

[RandyL]

I'm glad to hear that sandy. It could have been something more complicated.

 

Thanks for letting us know.