# My desktop icons have disappeared **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 7, 2003, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-desktop-icons-have-disappeared/211981 "2003-11-07T22:17:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Anaclaidiabhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@Anaclaidiabhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaclaidiabhal)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2003, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-desktop-icons-have-disappeared/211981/1 "2003-11-07T22:17:06Z")
I’ve been in the middle east for the last seven months, and I just got home. While fiddling with the computer, I’ve discovered that my friends made my icons disappear. (On a side note, there are two things you do not do to a man while he’s gone: you don’t sleep with his girl and you sure as hell don’t mess with his computer.) Anyway, I know what I’m doing with this thing, but I can’t figure out what they did. They said that they were tweaking it somehow, but can’t remember what they did. To take care of the obvious answers: when I go to right-click on the desktop, none of the choices under “Arrange Icons By” for the icons are highlightable. And under “Customize Desktop” (under display settings, obviously), there’s no option to bring them back. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2003, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-desktop-icons-have-disappeared/211981/2 "2003-11-07T22:41:55Z")
If they mentioned “tweaking” then they may have used [TweakUI](http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp). It has a **Desktop** section where icons can be hidden and unhidden. You could try using it to reverse the process. ---
**Author:** ![Toddly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/22d042/32.png) [@Toddly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toddly)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-desktop-icons-have-disappeared/211981/3 "2003-11-08T03:05:43Z")
I read that you could only hide the Desktop Icons if Active Desktop was enabled. You might check that. TweakUI is a nice little utility that may also solve your problem even if you don’t have it installed. Download it. Last, here is a page of a reg hack that Hides Icons with the value set to 1, I bet a value of 0 does just the opposite. [Link](http://is-it-true.org/nt/registry/rtips48.shtml) I suggest that you back up the Registry before editing. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-desktop-icons-have-disappeared/211981/4 "2003-11-08T03:39:01Z")
While registry hacks are fun and all, all you really need to do is right click on a blank area of your screen, select “active desktop” and then check or uncheck “show desktop icons.” No downloads, no registry hacking… just a check box. ---
**Author:** ![Anaclaidiabhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@Anaclaidiabhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaclaidiabhal)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2003, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-desktop-icons-have-disappeared/211981/5 "2003-11-08T03:42:46Z")
engineer\_comp\_geek, that choice wasn’t highlighted, either. Believe me, I tried all the simple things first. Thanks, though. Toddly, your registry solution solved the problem. Thanks. mods may now kill this thread at their discretion.