Somehow I deleted my IE icon from my desktop - it is not in my recycle bin. How do I restore it?
I currently can not adjust any settings in Explorer, like, deleting temp files, cookies, etc. because I did all of that by right clicking on IE, clicking on 'properties, etc - from my desktop icon.
I tried to drag the IE icon from my IE program files folder but it only creates a shortcut and therefore I cannot get to IE properties with it.
Can any help me? Anyway to restore the way it was?
You can do the same things with the IE shortcut (which is all I have anyway, as well). Only instead of right-clicking, you open an IE window and use Tools > Internet Options. All of the stuff you want to do is there.
With your cursor on the desktop, right-click and you’ll see one of the options is “New”; click on it and one of the options will be “Shortcut”; click on that. Browse for the location of the Internet Explore executable application file, which should end with the suffix “.exe”. This program is usually located in the folder “C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer”, and is usually named “IEXPLORE.EXE”. Once you’ve found it, Highlight it, click on “Open”, then on “Next”. It’ll then prompt you for a name; this is the name you want to show up under the icon on your desktop, and you can use whatever you’d like (my son has chosen a rather obscene expression for our shortcut). Finally, click finsih, and it should show up correctly.
Like Q.E.D. said, the Internet Options can be accessed from inside IE (and it’s probably a bit easier to do it that way of you already have IE open). That said, here’s how to get your shortcut back.
Right-click on the desktop, and select “New–>Shortcut”. Click the “Browse” button and browse to “My Computer–>C:–>Program Files–>Internet Explorer”. Select “iexplore.exe” (or just “iexplore” if you have file extensions hidden), and click “OK”. Now hit the “Next” button. Here, you can name the shortcut whatever you want. Now click “Finish”.
Also note that this is the procedure for WinXP. It might be slightly different for different versions of windows (I really can’t recall), but the overall concept is the same.
Another way in XP: Right Click on desktop, choose ‘properties’, click on the ‘desktop’ tab, click on the ‘customize desktop’ button on the bottom, put a check in the ‘Internet Explorer’ checkbox. Click ‘OK’, then “apply”.
If you’re not using XP you can get the fully-functional icon back by going to Tools|Internet Options in IE, clicking the Advanced tab, and checking the box for Show Internet Explorer on the desktop. If it’s already checked then uncheck it, hit Apply, check it, and hit Apply again. Unlike a shortcut this icon will allow you to get into Internet Options by right-clicking and hitting Properties.