Restore Missing Desktop Icons in Windows Vista

If you’ve removed your recycle bin icon, or you previously added the some of the “special” icons like Computer, User or Control Panel to the desktop and they are now missing, you might want to know how to add them back.

Go to Control Panel \ Personalize (or right-click on the desktop and select Personalize), and then choose the link for “Change Desktop Icons” on the left-hand side.

Now you can chose the icons you want back on the desktop by checking the box next to the name:

Click the Apply button, and you should see the icon show up on the desktop immediately.

The Geek is the founder of How-To Geek and a geek enthusiast. This article was written on 02/9/07 and tagged with: Desktop Customization, Windows Vista

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Comments (120)

February 24, 2007 5:22 pm

zak

Thanks a ton for the reference on restoring the icons. I installed a non-compliant application that wiped a good portion of them out.
March 25, 2007 7:34 am

aiden

Thank you so much for the info how to restore ICONS, that was usefull info, THANKS AGAIN
March 27, 2007 9:56 am

patrick

thanks a zillion for the clear directions on restoring the icons. it was neat. thanks!
April 13, 2007 10:38 am

Kara Kittle

Good info, i deleted mine for a month before i looked here, had it back in 2 seconds.
April 19, 2007 1:28 pm

Jazmin

Thank you very much, you have no idea how much you helped me out, I thought my aunt was going to kill me because I had accidently deleted the recycle bin from her brand new computer……
April 20, 2007 7:49 pm

ted strong

extremly helpful very valuble and helpful site

clear and descriptive
April 22, 2007 8:56 am

Lardi2007

Thanks soooooooooooooo much I have been going mad trying to find the RECYCLE BIN icon to restore it to my desktop.

Thanks again!.
May 10, 2007 12:49 pm

Frazil

hey do you how to activate and put up the shortcut for IE as it was for XP, with advanced functions like that of going to properties of IE through it and all.
June 1, 2007 10:59 pm

Mike

COOL!! I deleted my recycle bin twice. I used system restore to get it back. This is much easier. I knew there had to be a simpler way. Thanks!
June 5, 2007 3:19 am

Bones

Thank you… Thank you… Thank you.
June 6, 2007 4:54 am

pooja

Need help. Although this has nothing to do wid d tip u provided. Somehow my desktop shortcut icons and desktop files have got deleted mysteriously. Its a hp vista. Plzzzzz help me recover my files. Can u tell me wat could have caused tht?
June 27, 2007 5:43 pm

betaluva

this arrticle was a lifesaver for me,i lost the recycle bin icon (i still dont know why it dissappeared) and now i have it back thanks to you.
July 10, 2007 7:48 am

Alex

Muchas gracias por la info. Muy util!!!
July 12, 2007 2:40 pm

Wayne

Many thanks for info on how to restore recycle bin – much appreciated
July 13, 2007 2:21 am

Dan

It ain’t helping. Logging into my other accounts will show the desktop icons, but my main account still has the icons missing from my desktop, no matter if i check/uncheck them in the “Personalize>Change desktop icons>” setting. Help?
July 19, 2007 8:28 am

karthik

Try going to start > type command prompt in the search box > And then
Type regsvr /u shell32.dll
The icons should start working fine after that.
July 19, 2007 1:40 pm

Dennis

THANKS!
July 23, 2007 6:36 am

Unknown Stranger

omg u saved my life.. i almost feel like reinstalling os
July 28, 2007 8:04 am

nikos

thanks a lot dude!
August 2, 2007 4:14 am

Mayno

I need help. I need restore the icon of Internet Explorer (not shortcut)
August 8, 2007 11:36 pm

vinod

Thanks soooooooooooooo much I have been going mad trying to find the RECYCLE BIN icon to restore it to my desktop.

Thanks again!.
August 17, 2007 8:20 am

Beth

Thanks had been looking for my recycle bin for weeks…. any idea on how to get Windows mail back? it disappeared and I have to go to search>mail> open any message> help> open windows mail…
August 26, 2007 12:52 pm

M J Walters

I need to configur a Microsoft Exchange type email account, and it requires the use of the Mail icon in the Control Panel. Except that on all of these stupi HP Pav notebooks it doesn’t appear, and nobody at HP has a clue about it.

Any ideas? I have ran out of aptions doing what I knew or could think of. thank you guys in advance. I am in a real pickel here, as I am beginning to travel tomorrow, and I need my notebook to access that particular email acount from the read.
August 27, 2007 4:27 pm

J C Storey

My recycle bin icon picture is still missing along with going through the start menu all of my programs pictures for the icons are missing. crazy weird. any help with this. hopefully i was able to discribe it correctly.
Thanks.
August 27, 2007 4:44 pm

J C Storey

Well my recycle bin icon picture is missing…but my buddy told me that it is the folder’s displays? that are missing. I so hate vista…
August 28, 2007 2:00 am

jodie

hi recently has windows xp on my pc and have now updated to windows vsta ultimate but i have no start menu or desktop icons its driving me crazy can anyone please please help ive been trying for days lol!!
August 31, 2007 2:26 am

sneka

Thanks a lot for this useful info. I restored the icon back…
September 1, 2007 1:06 pm

greg

cool, but my windows vista icons arnt displaying properly still. there is a small black box covering each one on the bottom left side
September 5, 2007 1:09 pm

Enrique P

thank you so much!
oh my gosh
i freaked out for a minute because i thought i too had deleted my bin
you are a lifesaver
and thank you for being straight to the point about figuring out what to do
usually info sites take you on about 7 or 8 or 9 links
before you can actually find the info that you need
thank you again so very much
September 13, 2007 9:30 am

dan mccarty

hey your way did not work i am still missing my entire background…and i cannot use my “right click” all the icons are missing as well as my toolbar and start button….help?
September 14, 2007 8:08 pm

June Reich

My desktop icons are all missing. I tried your suggestion above. I tried:

“C:\Windows\system32\rundll32.exe” Shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL desk.cpl,,@Web

from Run.
Nothing works. Help
September 18, 2007 2:25 pm

kerwan mc gowan

can you help me to restore my missing desk top icon.i am running windows xp.
September 26, 2007 7:03 am

lisa

wow. this is exactly what I was looking for.

thank you for making the world a little bit brighter by being not only helpful (apparently for no personal gain either – way to go!!!) but also doing it in a clear and easy to follow way. you just made my day, computer geek!
September 26, 2007 7:15 am

The Geek

@lisa:

Thanks for the compliments! We try hard to be as helpful as possible.
September 27, 2007 1:27 pm

Ray

Thanks a bunch, you the man
September 27, 2007 8:08 pm

Lou

Thanks, I would have been searching for hours!
October 8, 2007 10:56 pm

Ralph Galardi

I believe this site is the greatest idea since the wheel!!!!!!!!
October 24, 2007 8:17 pm

Anna

Thanks a million! I’m not sure how I deleted it in the first place, but now it’s back!
October 25, 2007 5:30 am

Joris voorn

any idea how it should work, when my computer doesn’t show up if I check or uncheck box, no changes at all ! Help plz to restore, it disturbs me in a lot of ways when i go to browse folders from some programs i can’t see My computer icon, no matter WHAT, i can send you a screenshot if you colud help me?

Thanks in advance
October 30, 2007 9:17 pm

flabdablet

If you see no desktop icons at all, try right-clicking on the desktop, then selecting View, and making sure Show Desktop Icons is checked.

Yes, this is a deeply stupid option.

Yes, it’s doubly stupid to bury it in a submenu.
November 12, 2007 4:56 am

ANton

hi im anton my computers icons go missing a few minutes after i log into my main profile on the computer there is no start, no icons, the only way i can log off or shut down the computer is to press ctrl alt delete……pliz i need help.
November 13, 2007 10:13 pm

Kim

Thank u so very much. I lost my desktop months ago and had no idea how to find it until i found this. And it worked. Thanks again.
November 24, 2007 2:08 pm

Don

Thanks lots for the simple fix . I lost my recycle bin (dont know how) and didnt know how to get it back.
Losing the bin wasnt a real pain but each time I deleted something the files were just sitting in the invisible bin.
Now the bin is back I am able to delete the 4000+ files in it which were wasting disk space .
November 30, 2007 7:01 pm

Marlene

My Internet Explorer was deleted from my desktop and anywhere else it was at. I cant find it on Start or when I search My Computer or all the programs on the computer. When I tried to re-download it from the website, a message showed up saying that I already had Internet Explorer7 so it wouldn’t let me download it again. What can I do to get it back? Now, there’s Internet Explorer ( No add-ons) but i searched the add ons and they were all enabled. What can I do? Thanks!
December 1, 2007 1:54 am

jay lamoncha

my icon for yahoo is missing from my desk top how do i get it back on there someone please help
December 13, 2007 8:56 am

Pat

A friend of mine has just got a Laptop with Vista Premium installed,he had a little play?? and now the Desktop Icons have gone very large, the screen resolution is correct at 1440X900, the DPI is OK, the icons in any application are OK it,s just the Desktop Icons??. Any Ideas please.
December 18, 2007 2:34 pm

whs

Pat, for the large Icons right click on the desktop, go to VIEW and here you can set the Icons the size you like
December 19, 2007 4:18 pm

Anusman

Thx for tip its realy useful for alot of people like me who accidently delited recycle bin and are new to vista
December 20, 2007 7:30 pm

Luvlie

Thank you so much for the info how to restore my recycle bin, i dont know where dat thing went, it was driving me crazy, that was usefull informantion, THANKS.
December 27, 2007 12:30 pm

Kay Malm

My email was not working correctly. I reinstalled Outlook 2007 and now I cannot get the Mail icon in Control Panel to open. Outlook says I need to setup a profile. How do I get the Mail icon back?
January 2, 2008 12:37 pm

David

I get to those steps, but when i get to the personalization part I hit the Cahnge desktop Icon and I get this message Your system administrator has disabled launching of the Display Settings Control Panel. Can you help me in how to enable this please???????????????
January 9, 2008 8:42 pm

Sean the SLUG

big help Thanks
February 3, 2008 3:58 am

Don

Thanks Mr (G) ,I need lots of help.Cant belive I found you,newbee and dont know anything, hope what I read works.I will be back.
February 3, 2008 4:16 am

Don

I wasnt able to try what you sead, newbee is perpelxed,Cant even get out of here without unpluging.
February 23, 2008 1:39 pm

Fance

thank you so much for your help,i could’t find recycle bin in my vista,so you help me,thank you for your help.Fani
March 29, 2008 10:24 pm

Rebecca

If you cannot see your ‘mail’ icon, you likely have 64bit vista ultimate…or other 64 bit and I am truly sorry and feel your pain

If so, Under the X64 version of Vista, you need to first look under an icon called
32 bit control panel items. There’s the mail icon.

Nothing but trouble connecting to anything, vpn, etc with 64 bit.
April 2, 2008 8:48 pm

luckyea

Quote:

flabdablet
If you see no desktop icons at all, try right-clicking on the desktop, then selecting View, and making sure Show Desktop Icons is checked.

Yes, this is a deeply stupid option.

Yes, it’s doubly stupid to bury it in a submenu.

Thanks man. I knew right away that it must be some new dumb arss option. Of course I couldn’t find that sucker. Thanks!
April 11, 2008 4:03 am

A Fan

Rebecca, you lifesaver! Took me a minute or two to find it, since it’s called ‘View 32-bit Control Panel Items’, but that did the trick! Can’t believe such basic things are hidden away like that…
April 16, 2008 7:16 am

JAMES

I removed everything about YAHOO and now I want it back. I don’t know how to get to the control panel to restore it and the icon

just got this computer and don’ know how to use it
April 19, 2008 7:32 pm

jenn

Thanks for the easy to follow instructions!
April 27, 2008 1:27 pm

kiten785yahoocom

hi,i hope u can help me,my icons in my desktop are missing and no right click in my mouse,i hope u can help me on how to restore my missing icons immediately.thank you.
May 14, 2008 12:03 pm

Rosalyn Waldron

Missing the system icon for network activity on the lower right taskbar in Vista. The selection box for that icon is grayed out on the “Taskbar and Start Menu Properties”, “Notification” tab.
June 22, 2008 9:17 pm

Pattie

OMG! Thank you SO MUCH! I stupidly deleted my trash and then couldn’t get it back, I thought I’d never find that icon again. YAY!
June 25, 2008 6:03 am

Cherie Le Bozec

Cherie
Thank you for making that so easy.Other suggestions I got were all so complicated. Keep up the great work!
June 25, 2008 1:13 pm

MissingLink

Works gr8, thx
July 7, 2008 4:42 am

Vivian

THANK YOU SO MUCH
July 7, 2008 3:02 pm

Rob

That made it so easy. Thankyou
July 10, 2008 6:28 pm

tonya

that was so easy, thanks so much
July 11, 2008 4:27 pm

any

thank soooooooooooooooooooooooooo much
July 15, 2008 12:51 am

Sheldon

i dont have admin rights to change the desktop icons, can u tell me how to restore it using the registry interface…
July 20, 2008 8:25 am

SpaRda

OMG 1 billion thanks Thankie thankie again
July 20, 2008 5:05 pm

Adam

omg, thank-you, SO MUCH! on how to restore icons, my roommate accidentally deleted the recycle bin when he meant to empty it, and this happened the first day I’ve bought my laptop, and I’ve just been deleting and not emptying the recycle bin for around 8 months now!, again, thank you so much!
July 25, 2008 10:47 pm

Ken Mason

Thanks very much, I couldn’t find anywhere else to learn how to recover the Computer icon on my Vista desktop. VERY useful!
July 26, 2008 5:08 pm

Wonder Boy

Thanks very much, mine was deleted and now that i know how to get it back I can show friends who lost theirs
August 2, 2008 1:59 pm

oidicle

Hi, nice tip, do you happen to know of a way to have the documents folder on the desktop other than as an actual shortcut(.lnk)?
August 5, 2008 12:28 pm

Aseem Kishore

I wrote a post similar to this, but when all your desktop icons disappear along with your taskbar or Start Menu also!

http://www.online-tech-tips.co.....sappeared/
August 19, 2008 4:17 pm

tonya m

my recycle bin icon disappeared too. I cannot choose the change desktop icons option because it as well as almost every other desktop icon gives the error “not a valid win32 application”. one minute they worked and the next they didn’t any suggestions?
August 23, 2008 10:02 am

Vee

Thanks for this. (New to Vista. Wanted to empty Recycle Bin. Deleted it instead!)
August 24, 2008 11:56 am

Shannon

OH MY GOD!
YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH YOU’VE SAVED ME!!!!!
THANKYOU SO MUCH!
YOU ARE A GOD!
August 30, 2008 6:22 am

Patrick

Thanks for the quick and informative howto article!
August 31, 2008 2:35 pm

Bokbok

Ayt, thanks. People need these kind of stuff. Hopefully more people start searching the web for answers, it really helps.
September 1, 2008 3:14 pm

Taz

Thanks worked perfect !!
September 6, 2008 7:38 am

Joe

HI
Hope you can help me out.Im trying to add my icons and taskbar back on my dell 1521.When i turn pc on icons show up for a few mins then they disappear the funny thing is my gadget or still on the desktop.I tried adding icons back in control panel with no luck please help Joe thanks
September 6, 2008 5:03 pm

Abbie

So, I’ve tried that and my desktop icons (while visible in the desktop folder in the toolbar thing) are still missing. Is there anything else I can try?
September 6, 2008 9:29 pm

jd2066

@Abbie: It sounds like you have all your desktop icons hidden.
Try this to enable them:
Right click on the desktop.
Move over View and if unchecked check Show Desktop Icons.
September 10, 2008 4:34 pm

Ritamarie

Thank you for the clear and direct instructions. Restored my Recycle Bin icon in a few seconds.
September 22, 2008 10:43 am

Mary

I bought a new comp it has windows Vista I have tried to set up my IM expressions my Icon nd such,I can’t see it if it has been added –one message ws that my color is not capatable? or something what do I do?
September 25, 2008 6:15 pm

Matt

Thanks flabdablet, for NO reason my icons disappeared and even in the submenu “Show desktop icons” was ticked. I unticked it, then reticked it again and they came back. Vista you are STILL flakey after 18 months!
November 24, 2008 4:33 pm

Georgia

Thank you sooo much Rebecca (March 29). I have Windows Vista and have been pulling my hair out trying to find the mail icon in order to setup my Outlook.
November 28, 2008 8:48 am

gedas

THANKYOU~!
so much for the images how to rextore the recycle bin it was really hard to find it this help really helped me thanks again!!:D….
November 29, 2008 4:01 pm

margie

The volume mixer icon disappeared from my toolbar [I'm using Vista] and I’ve followed various recommendations without success. One problem is the areas are greyed out but there are others. I’m a silver surfer and need all the help I can get – simply explpained please!!!
Many thanks for whatever. Margie
December 19, 2008 3:20 am

Aisha

thank you! was wondering how to get my Recycling bin back! YAY!
January 1, 2009 8:22 am

patrick

Thanks man your post saved the day
January 19, 2009 11:31 pm

Roberta

Oh God thank you for the how to Geek people or i be still at my computer trying to figue how restore my recycle bin… Thank you And God Bless you all in your Staff..
January 21, 2009 12:51 am

Colin

I could not find answer to my missing desktop Icons. I lost the somehow and found them when I typed in desktop in the search area ( I have window vista) and clicked on it and the Icons showed up on desktop in a window that had all Icons and said it was file D, tried to make a short cut and it came up and said the source and destination file are the same–Please getting too old for these problems (82) and tried hard to find out myself but NO luck !! glad to pay you for help if you can solve this
problem
January 21, 2009 12:45 pm

jd2066

@Colin: Have you tried right clicking on the Desktop, moving over view and clicking “Show Desktop Icons” (Note: Only helps if “Show Desktop Icons” is unchecked, if it’s checked then there is a different problem and this won’t help)?
January 24, 2009 9:14 pm

Chris

The right click –> Show desktop icons worked for me… Thanks a bunch!
January 25, 2009 12:43 am

John

I have no icons on desktop, have no icons on taskbar, can not right click on desktop, tried the step you have suggested for others, no luck with me, can you help?
January 25, 2009 3:03 am

jd2066

@John: Is there a taskbar at all? If there is no taskbar, no desktop icons and you can’t right click then that means the Windows Explorer shell is not loading.
If that is the case then the fix will not be simple thing. There are many causes for Windows Explorer not loading and some are not easy to fix.
I would suggest posting on the forums, as posts there do not need approval before they are posted so it’s a lot faster to work out problems like this there instead of in the comments.
January 27, 2009 3:11 am

Tone

I have lost all my desk top icons and have tried the right mouse click, view and show desk top items are clicked, I have also tried the command prompt solution and that did not work, any other ideas?
January 28, 2009 1:01 pm

Ross

You may have also un checked the Show Desktop Icons selection on the right mouse menu of the desktop.
January 29, 2009 8:40 pm

Engr. Abdul Rehman Chaudry

Thanx I found the solution for my problem
February 8, 2009 6:58 pm

Omar

Perfect!!!! Just what I needed, and done.
February 15, 2009 4:21 pm

Irisa

wonderful!!!!!
i have get back my recycle bin!
happy now!!!!!
March 9, 2009 12:25 pm

Igor

When I choose the link for “Change Desktop Icons”, I get the window: “You system administrator has disabled launching of the Display Settings Control Panel’. How do I fix it?
March 24, 2009 4:07 pm

Oriana

Thanks! This worked even when CCleaner made the icon (image, not presence) of my Recycle Bin go invisible. I just deleted my Recycle Bin and restored it from Preferences!
March 28, 2009 7:42 pm

shaba

cheers pal you’re the man
March 31, 2009 10:36 am

tibi

I have deleted by mistake my “recycle bin” icon. I have restored but now it don’t indicate when I dump files in there…
April 5, 2009 1:02 pm

matt

or one thing you can do is right click on your desktop pic and under view it will have the option just click show desktop icons
April 9, 2009 4:20 am

Elliot

Thanks a lot!!
April 10, 2009 7:19 am

Angie

I had tried everything to get my icons back. I followed the steps you had and still nothing. I just glanced up and saw Matts comment so I tried that. It worked. Thanks Matt. I have been trying for two days to get them back. Something as simple as that.
Thanks for having this website. You are a life saver.
April 13, 2009 10:02 pm

tony

hi i just got mine back thanks now sure how it went missing but thanks. now for some reason i got it back but when i out stuff in it the icon don’t show me how i fix that.
April 19, 2009 11:01 am

Lee Openshaw

After trying almost every single suggestion on this webpage to bring back my icons……flabdablet finally hit the solution on the head for me. Turns out the simplest solution of them all worked out best. Thanks a million for this invaluable information. Even though the other suggestions weren’t the right ones for me, it still gave me a number of options to try that i would never have thought of. Most of all, THANK YOU FLABDABLET for solving my problem.
How my icons disappeared is still a mystery, however. Must be a Vista gliche cause i didnt touch my computer until todays bootup, and hey presto, the icons were gone. Thought it may have been a virus but now i know that it wasn’t. Thanks again.
April 22, 2009 11:31 am

Holly

Thanks! It worked great!
May 4, 2009 6:36 am

Narissa

This is great advice!! Thxx very muchh..It works very well! xx
May 8, 2009 6:52 am

vishal

Guys! try this for resolving no icons on desktop……
right-click an open area of the Windows Desktop, click View , and make sure Show Desktop Icons is selected…….try this
May 27, 2009 9:42 pm

bee

Thanksss heapss !! i accidently deleted my recycle bin and i was panicing so much
u helped soooo much !
May 31, 2009 5:09 am

sukh

hi, i have ticked the boxes in desktop icon settings, but still the icons dont appear on my desktop. is there anything else that i can do?
June 3, 2009 10:42 pm

senthil

Unfortunately I was deleted the desktop recycle icon. It is so much supportive.
Thank you very much
June 15, 2009 9:05 pm

joseph

yea… i did wat u said…. anout the icon but… my icon is still not showing up… please help….

Restore Missing Desktop Icons in Windows Vista

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