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:
- Open your File Explorer using This PC.
- 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.
- Navigate to the View tab and ensure the option for "Show hidden files, folders, and drives" is selected.
- Now, go to your C Drive > Users > %Your active account% > AppData > Local.
- Look for the IconCache file with a DataBase File type > delete it.
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