Figured out how to make those icons appear on your Windows 10 desktop? It’s surprisingly easy, but sometimes it can get a little weird—maybe the icons just disappeared after an update or some settings got messed up. Not sure why, but it’s pretty common for users to find that the “Show desktop icons” toggle isn’t checked anymore or that some glitch is preventing Windows from displaying them properly. Basically, it’s a quick fix that might save you the hassle of digging through apps or folders just to access your shortcuts.
How to Show Icons on Desktop in Windows 10
Make sure the “Show desktop icons” setting is enabled
- Right-click on your desktop background—sometimes you gotta do it right in the middle, not on an icon.
- From that context menu, go to View.
- Check if Show desktop icons is ticked. If it’s not, click it to enable.
This step is the core reason icons could be missing; Windows sometimes resets or loses that setting, especially after updates or crashes. Once it’s checked, your icons should pop right back up. If it’s already checked but you still don’t see icons, then move on to other troubleshooting stuff.
Refresh the desktop or restart explorer.exe
- If clicking the toggle doesn’t work, sometimes a quick refresh helps. Hit Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
- Find Windows Explorer, right-click it, then pick Restart.
- This restarts the desktop environment without rebooting. In my experience, sometimes it “wakes up” the desktop icons.
On some setups, this can be hit or miss, but it’s worth a shot before rebooting fully. If icons still refuse to show, it might be because of icon cache issues or registry hiccups, which leads to the next method.
Reset the icon cache manually
- Close all open programs.
- Open File Explorer, then navigate to:
C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer. - Look for files named like
iconcache.db. Delete or rename them (e.g., toiconcache.old). - Restart your PC or restart explorer.exe again (via Task Manager: +End task on explorer, then go to File > Run new task, type
explorer.exe).
This can help if the icon cache is corrupted—kind of annoying Windows has to do this sometimes, but it works pretty often. On some machines, the icons come back after a reboot, on others, you might have to repeat this a couple of times.
Check related settings in Personalization and Group Policy
- Navigate to Settings > Personalization > Themes or Desktop Icon Settings (type it into the search bar).
- Make sure the icons you want (Computer, User Files, Network, Recycle Bin, etc.) are checked if you’re manually controlling desktop icons.
- If you’re in a work environment, check if some Group Policy (gpedit.msc) is disabling the icons. Sometimes IT can set policies preventing icon display.
That last bit is less common for most home users but can be the case if your desktop was customized or if a corporate computer is involved.
Pro tip: Keep Windows updated and scan for malware
- Sometimes, updates fix odd bugs. Make sure Windows Defender or your antivirus isn’t blocking or hiding icons due to false positives.
- Run Windows Update and do a quick malware scan.
Because of course, Windows has to make it harder than necessary sometimes.
All in all, showing icons on your desktop is usually just toggling a setting, but if that’s not enough, trying these other tricks can help dig deeper. It can be frustrating when stuff just vanishes, but usually, it’s something fixable without a full wipe or reinstall.