Windows XP desktop icons disappears

I have Windows XP installed on my computer. Recently I've noticed that some of my desktop icons has been disappeared. It first occurred when my computer crashed while I was logged into Yahoo Messenger. I rebooted my system and then I was unable to find my some of the icons. Today, I was burning some DVDs and at the same time was listening to music on Windows Media Player, after certain time several of my desktop icons were gone.

Is this normal? Have anyone faced such kind of problems with Windows XP? Need your help immediately ...

To restore Windows XP desktop icons:

Right-click on the desktop, Arrange Icons By, click Show Desktop Icons.

Backup your registry before doing this. Open Notepad, Copy and paste this code into it:

Code:

---

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ActiveDesktop]
"NoChangingWallpaper"=dword:00000000
"NoComponents"=dword:00000001
"NoAddingComponents"=dword:00000001
"NoDeletingComponents"=dword:00000000
"NoEditingComponents"=dword:00000000
"NoHTMLWallPaper"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoDriveTypeAutoRun"=dword:00000000
"NoActiveDesktop"=dword:00000001
"ClassicShell"=dword:00000000
"ForceActiveDesktopOn"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"DisableRegistryTools"=dword:00000000
"NoDispAppearancePage"=dword:00000000
"DisableTaskMgr"=dword:00000000

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies] [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ActiveDesktop] "NoChangingWallpaper"=dword:00000000 "NoComponents"=dword:00000001 "NoAddingComponents"=dword:00000001 "NoDeletingComponents"=dword:00000000 "NoEditingComponents"=dword:00000000 "NoHTMLWallPaper"=dword:00000001 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer] "NoDriveTypeAutoRun"=dword:00000000 "NoActiveDesktop"=dword:00000001 "ClassicShell"=dword:00000000 "ForceActiveDesktopOn"=dword:00000000 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System] "DisableRegistryTools"=dword:00000000 "NoDispAppearancePage"=dword:00000000 "DisableTaskMgr"=dword:00000000

---

and Save it as desktop_icons.reg. Let Windows to open the file. It should ask you if you want to add information to the registry. Click on Yes and it will do that for you. Now go to your desktop, right-click, and click "Refresh".

You actually need to do a Repair Install or probably the whole reinstall. If you have already done that and nothing changed then I would suspect possibilities of hardware issues.

Go to Start, Run and type "eventvwr". Event Viewer might have some relevant "X" errors.

You can also do a System Restore: %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe <--- on Run

1. Ctrl + Alt + Del to bring up Task Manager.
2. Click "New Task..." then click "Browse..."
3. Click My Computer on the left panel. Click C:\WINDOWS.
4. Navigate to explorer.exe, right click and copy explorer. Rename it to explorer1 (.exe)
5. Hit Cancel to go back to Create New Task window. Type regedit.exe and click OK.
6. In the registry editor, navigate to the following Key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

With the Winlogon key selected, look in the right side window for the
'Shell" value.

Double click Shell. In the Value Data box, you should see Explorer.exe. Change it to explorer1.exe and click OK.

Exit the registry editor and reboot the computer.