Desktop Icons dissapear!

Help! On occasions, after I shut down a window or program or even the first
start up pop-up menu in Vista....all of a sudden all the icons dissapear!
All that is left is the background and the clock on the upper right hand
side. The pointing arrow is still there and you can move it, but there is
nothing to click on! You have to logoff and then log back on to get the
icons back. It has happened to both my wife and I (we log on under seperate
users). It does not happen all the time, but it does happen about 25% of the
time when we use our laptop (brand new Dell laptop).

Does the taskbar disappear as well? If so, that sounds like the shell
instance of Explorer crashing. If so, check your event logs for error
numbers,


--
Good Luck,

Keith
Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]

"James" <James@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B8ECEEF0-B518-4A80-B38F-C18ABFA8AA85@microsoft.com...
> Help! On occasions, after I shut down a window or program or even the
> first
> start up pop-up menu in Vista....all of a sudden all the icons dissapear!
> All that is left is the background and the clock on the upper right hand
> side. The pointing arrow is still there and you can move it, but there is
> nothing to click on! You have to logoff and then log back on to get the
> icons back. It has happened to both my wife and I (we log on under
> seperate
> users). It does not happen all the time, but it does happen about 25% of
> the
> time when we use our laptop (brand new Dell laptop).

Yes, even the taskbar disappears. Even when you hit the "windows" key on the
keyboard, nothing pops up. I'll check to see if there is anything in the
event log for error numbers.

"Keith Miller MVP" wrote:

> Does the taskbar disappear as well? If so, that sounds like the shell
> instance of Explorer crashing. If so, check your event logs for error
> numbers,
>
>
> --
> Good Luck,
>
> Keith
> Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
>
> "James" <James@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:B8ECEEF0-B518-4A80-B38F-C18ABFA8AA85@microsoft.com...
> > Help! On occasions, after I shut down a window or program or even the
> > first
> > start up pop-up menu in Vista....all of a sudden all the icons dissapear!
> > All that is left is the background and the clock on the upper right hand
> > side. The pointing arrow is still there and you can move it, but there is
> > nothing to click on! You have to logoff and then log back on to get the
> > icons back. It has happened to both my wife and I (we log on under
> > seperate
> > users). It does not happen all the time, but it does happen about 25% of
> > the
> > time when we use our laptop (brand new Dell laptop).
>
>

See if it is crashed in memory. As if chooses to crash, or Windows decides
to terminate it (cause it generated a fatal exceotion) then Windows will
restart Explorer. If it is 1/2 crashing this may explain why it doesn't
automatically restart.
"James" <James@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C24F9895-CE0F-4174-B918-E1B785484FEC@microsoft.com...
> Yes, even the taskbar disappears. Even when you hit the "windows" key on
> the
> keyboard, nothing pops up. I'll check to see if there is anything in the
> event log for error numbers.
>
> "Keith Miller MVP" wrote:
>
>> Does the taskbar disappear as well? If so, that sounds like the shell
>> instance of Explorer crashing. If so, check your event logs for error
>> numbers,
>>
>>
>> --
>> Good Luck,
>>
>> Keith
>> Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
>>
>> "James" <James@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:B8ECEEF0-B518-4A80-B38F-C18ABFA8AA85@microsoft.com...
>> > Help! On occasions, after I shut down a window or program or even the
>> > first
>> > start up pop-up menu in Vista....all of a sudden all the icons
>> > dissapear!
>> > All that is left is the background and the clock on the upper right
>> > hand
>> > side. The pointing arrow is still there and you can move it, but there
>> > is
>> > nothing to click on! You have to logoff and then log back on to get
>> > the
>> > icons back. It has happened to both my wife and I (we log on under
>> > seperate
>> > users). It does not happen all the time, but it does happen about 25%
>> > of
>> > the
>> > time when we use our laptop (brand new Dell laptop).
>>
>>

"James" wrote:

> Help! On occasions, after I shut down a window or program or even the first
> start up pop-up menu in Vista....all of a sudden all the icons dissapear!
> All that is left is the background and the clock on the upper right hand
> side. The pointing arrow is still there and you can move it, but there is
> nothing to click on! You have to logoff and then log back on to get the
> icons back. It has happened to both my wife and I (we log on under seperate
> users). It does not happen all the time, but it does happen about 25% of the
> time when we use our laptop (brand new Dell laptop).

I am having the similar issue right now but the windows disappears and
sometimes would return but everytime I open up a "My Documents" for
example everything disspears.


--
Vistaneedhelpman
Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com

Launch an elevated CMD window, ie Right click, Run as Administrator...
Shutdown Explorer Process from the Task Manager
In the CMD window go to C:\Users\<ProfileName>\AppData\Local
Do the following command: attrib -H IconCache.db
Do the following command: del IconCache.db
Do the following command: start explorer

This should rebuild the Icon Cache

<credit to oKean>
--
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Mark L. Ferguson

..
"Vistaneedhelpman" <Vistaneedhelpman.35chk6@no-mx.forums.vistaheads.com>
wrote in message news:Vistaneedhelpman.35chk6@no-mx.forums.vistaheads.com...
>
> I am having the similar issue right now but the windows disappears and
> sometimes would return but everytime I open up a "My Documents" for
> example everything disspears.
>
>
> --
> Vistaneedhelpman
> Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com
>

Could not do it or its either I am doing it wrong it already comes up in
the CMD as my C:\document and setting\username> but im not sure how to
proceed from there. I tried typing in attrib -H IconCache.db but then it
said "file not found".


--
Vistaneedhelpman
Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com

[AdAbsurdum]

I had this same problem I believe.

When you try to open any window, 10 seconds later you lose your desktop, taskbar, icons and all that. Nothing but a relog or restart will return them.

This is a Trojan causing this mate.

Download a program called SuperAntiSpyware and scan/delete.

http://www.superantispyware.com/down...NTISPYWAREFREE



Solved my problem at least... good luck.