Shortcuts keep disappearing from desktop in windows 7

The "fix" is to turn off the icon removing feature and not the rest of the system maintenance pieces which seem to be the useful ones. All too often, the responses are simply to do whatever it takes to get the problem to stop happening, even if that workaround causes other problems.

And you respond without letting your frustration turn into a rant of which I am quite guilty. Your solution above to change the number of broken links in the script is probably the most elegant solution I have seen so far. It sounds much easier than some of the others, though if you still have to take ownership of the file, it is a little more difficult, but worse case would be tied for the easiest solution. The fix you posted worked for me for a couple of machines in the last month, but in the last week failed on two machines the hotfixes both said "this Microsoft Fix it does not apply to your operating system or application version.

I assumed that the hotfixes had been integrated into a windows update patch, and the one rolled into production lost it's network shortcut icons. I checked the registry and the keys were there. Another machine got the same error trying to install the fixes, but the registry keys were not there. That machine has not gone into production yet and I have not tested it yet.

I manually added the keys and will test it this weekend though. The point being that the posted hotfixes may not work properly mine are all Wbit pro versions. And even the manual entry may not work properly. I will update this if I find out anything definitive, though I will be changing the number of icon threshold on the machine that currently isn't working properly.

What makes them think that they have any right whatsoever to delete any file, folder, shortcut, or whatever that we've put there, however "broken" they may consider it and it's pretty clear they're not all-knowing? Noel - thank you for this answer. The hot fix below doesn't help me so I'd like to perform your fix. Can you help us improve? Resolved my issue.

Clear instructions. Easy to follow. No jargon. Pictures helped. Didn't match my screen. Incorrect instructions. Too technical. Not enough information. From there, you might be able to unhide apps.

The options will vary depending on your device or launcher app. Simple Reasons for Icons Not Showing You can do so by right-clicking on the desktop, selecting View and verify Show desktop icons has a check beside it.

Go into Themes and select Desktop icon settings. Everything was perfect till the next morining, the icons where gone. Is this the same issue as above? Did anyone try just disabling desktop cleanup via GPO?

I have not had this issue and have been using Windows 7 since it was released. One of the first things Idid was disable desktop cleanup because I feel it is useless. I know there is a setting in GPO for this. Wondering if this is changed to force disable that function if it would resolve?

From the looks of the solution proposed it should. Yeah, we disabled it via GPO because modifying the script may work for some time but revert back to its original state with windows update or other ways. I created a shortcut to a folder on a network drive, then put all my shortcuts in that. How about a fix that actually makes the broken-icon deletion function properly. It would look something like this suedo code:. As system changes will be effected to your operating system be aware that it might not work in your instance.

Best thing about it is that the shortcut folder is on my NAS meaning I can access them from any computer. Arguments 2. ReadAll objFile. WriteLine strNewText objFile. You can modify this path to be anywhere accessible to your clients.

I have similar problems with shortcut icons occasionally disappearing from my desktop. There is plenty of room there, and they were displayed OK there before. In my case, I have one user out of about 50 who logs into terminal services with a roaming profile. His desktop is completely empty when he logs in, even though the Desktop folder in his profile has them all there. If I try adding a file or folder to the desktop, all of the icons will spontaneously reappear.

Today I deleted the desktop. A year later that coworker complained again and I discovered that both computers were back to saying GT 4. Clearly windows update restored the disgusting MS code. So, today I used the script from jasofbass and put it into my sbs login script.

There are NO broken links and frequently used shortcuts keep going away. This is total crap. I hate Microsoft. So much for alpha and beta testing before release to the public. I did the regedit keys additions. Hopefully that works.

F-you Microsoft for this asinine auto-deletion masquerading as something necessary resulting in a waste of my time. I had taken to storing them in a zip file so I can put them back with less of a pain. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.