Icons are the little (or sometimes big) items on your desktop or in your folders that represent something, symbols of something like a music file or movie file or a general file. Based on the type of OS you have, there are default icons for certain classes of files. For example, wave files are pictured by icons that have the symbol of speaker, or directories are pictured by yellow folders that are closed when the directory is closed or open when the directory has been accessed. Usually when we start our computers and enter the OS, we end up on the desktop. Now, there are times when the icons that are supposed to be on the desktop are not there, i.e. they are not showing.

There are a few reasons why they would not be visible at some point in time. I have known of instances where icons disappear when the computer memory runs low. Also, some people accidentally or intentionally remove the icons via the Customize Desktop settings under the Desktop tab in the Display Properties (right-click on the desktop and select Properties. Then click on the Customize Desktop button. Under the General tab there is heading called Desktop Icons from where you can choose whether or not show the icons or only certain icons.) At times too, viruses have been known to “eat” the icons, at which point an anti virus software has to be used to remove the virus. Finally, the icons tend to disappear when there is a problem with Windows Explorer. A restart of it will bring the icons back.

You can do further research into the causes and treatments for disappearing icons. The possible causes that I presented are the more common ones. The list, however, is much larger.