All icons disappeared

Jelle_1997

Reputable
Nov 16, 2015
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I just got a new laptop, an Acer Aspire e5 573-35QT with 4gb of RAM, gtx920m and i3.
I was changing the dpi to 110%. After that I booted it up and all the icons are gone:
http://imgur.com/a/lgjG8
Changed the dpi back to 125% but the problem is still there.
The same thing happened on my desktop last week. Does anybody have any idea of how to fix it?
Icons are also missing in my explorer and control panel, I tried to rebuild my broken icon cache using this tutorial: http://www.howtogeek.com/232779/how-to-rebuild-a-broken-icon-cache-in-windows-10/ but that doesn't work.
On my desktop I didn't change any settings. It just happened when I booted.

Does anybody have an idea of what it could be?
 
Solution
I would suggest trying Tweaking.com Windows Repair. It can fix a lot of problems within Windows without the need to reinstall the OS. I would recommend trying it with the default settings.

Tweaking.com - Windows Repair can do the following:

    ■Reset Registry Permissions
    ■Reset File Permissions
    ■Register System Files
    ■Repair WMI
    ■Repair Windows Firewall
    ■Repair Internet Explorer
    ■Repair MDAC & MS Jet
    ■Repair Hosts File
    ■Remove Policies Set By Infections
    ■Repair Icons
    ■Repair Winsock & DNS Cache
    ■Remove Temp Files
    ■Repair Proxy Settings
    ■Unhide Non System Files
    ■Repair Windows Updates
and more...

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
have you tried hiding them and then showing them again?

Go to SETTINGS > SYSTEM > TABLET MODE. Here set both the buttons ie Make windows more touch friendly & Hide icons to ON position. Then slide them both back to OFF setting. Now return to your homescreen and hopefully you will find your matter resolved

http://www.tenforums.com/general-support/13060-desktop-icons-have-disappeared-2.html

try
right click start button
choose command prompt (admin)
type SFC /scannow and press enter
once its run, copy/paste this into same window:
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

DISM cleans the files SFC uses to clean windows
 

Jelle_1997

Reputable
Nov 16, 2015
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Tried both, and they didn't work, even after a restart. Anything else I can try?
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
Are both of your devices on the same account? Its possible your desktop and laptop settings are synced and the roaming profile could be using the settings for one on the other device. Have a look in settings/accounts/sync your settings and see if its turned on (it is by default unless you use a local account)

One thing you can try is make a local account and see if same problem happens on it as well - https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/instantanswers/5de907f1-f8ba-4fd9-a89d-efd23fee918c/create-a-local-user-account-in-windows-10
You can make it admin, and it will have as much access as your current account. You can copy your current user folders in c/users/username over the new one and they have access to files then.


Otherwise, you might want to try this: http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html
 

Jelle_1997

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Nov 16, 2015
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Created a local account but the problem was still there: http://imgur.com/a/HiL9Z
What does that repair option do exactly? Will I still have my programs?
Also I'd rather have it so that both of my pc's are on my microsoft account. Couldn't I edit the settings somewhere?
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
I wasn't expecting it to do same thing on a new user,

repair option installs win 10 over top of itself and all you loose are windows updates and it remakes the desktop environment for each user.

I have never seen this before and yet you have had it twice in a week. Did you run anti virus scans?
 

Jelle_1997

Reputable
Nov 16, 2015
63
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4,630
I think the problem was that I was on a custom scaling. I started with 125%, but then manually changed to 110%, now with both 125% and 100% my icons are, but I don't really like either, 100% is too small, while 125% is way to big. I changed using Advanced display settings > Advanced sizing of text and other items. Is there maybe another way too scale that doesn't mess up my icons?

Also, the weird thing is that I don't think I did this scaling on my desktop (could be some other graphics settings using Nvidia configuration), but I will mess around with the scaling and see if that fixes it.
 

GamingInsider

Distinguished
Aug 11, 2015
118
0
18,810
I would suggest trying Tweaking.com Windows Repair. It can fix a lot of problems within Windows without the need to reinstall the OS. I would recommend trying it with the default settings.

Tweaking.com - Windows Repair can do the following:

    ■Reset Registry Permissions
    ■Reset File Permissions
    ■Register System Files
    ■Repair WMI
    ■Repair Windows Firewall
    ■Repair Internet Explorer
    ■Repair MDAC & MS Jet
    ■Repair Hosts File
    ■Remove Policies Set By Infections
    ■Repair Icons
    ■Repair Winsock & DNS Cache
    ■Remove Temp Files
    ■Repair Proxy Settings
    ■Unhide Non System Files
    ■Repair Windows Updates
and more...
 
Solution