Clear the Icon Cache

To recover missing desktop icons, you can reset the icon cache, essentially rebuilding it from scratch. Here's a guide on how to do this:

1. Open your File Explorer using This PC.
2. Click on File at the top-left corner, then choose Options from the drop-down menu. If you're using Windows 11, click on the three horizontal dots at the far right and select Options.
3. Navigate to the View tab and ensure the option for "Show hidden files, folders, and drives" is selected.
4. Now, go to your C Drive > Users > %Your active account% > AppData > Local.
5. Look for the IconCache file with a DataBase File type > delete it.