Where Did My Icons Go and How Do I Get Them Back?

Tuckerfan · #1 8th December 2011, 03:58 PM

I was having problems with a program on my PC, as it turned out, the issue was caused by an add-on which I'd installed for that program. There not being an easy way to uninstall said add-on, I did some poking around on the web to find out what I needed to do to remove that add-on. The solution involved poking around in the User folder. It turned out that file was hidden and I had to tell Windows (I'm running Windows 7 Home Premium) to show the file. I picked "Apply" in the dialog box, and Windows proceeded to spend several minutes scanning the folder. Once it was done, I realized that I needed to go to bed, since the dialog box was still up, I clicked 'Ok' and it began scanning again. Not knowing how it'd react if one of the cats began walking on the keyboard while I was away (and really wanting to get to bed), I canceled that, canceled the operation, closed everything out and discovered that all the icons on my desktop were gone.

Looking in File Manager (or whatever they're calling it these days), I can't find a bunch of the folders which were once there (including the Users folder). None of my stuff seems to be deleted, nor did I click on anything last night to delete any files. Rebooting didn't fix the problem, so I'm stumped. Anyone know how to unfubar this?

Random Precision · #2 8th December 2011, 06:27 PM

Have you checked ~~behind the couch cushions~~ the recycle bin? You can reach it by pressing [windows key] E, for Windows Explorer.

There's also the option of restoring to the last break point from the control panel.

Harry · #3 8th December 2011, 06:48 PM

Restoring from an earlier date would be my suggestion, too. Go to "restore" from the control panel and Windows will show you a calendar. Days you can restore from will be in bold.

Annoying Retard Nonny · #4 8th December 2011, 07:00 PM

Right click on desktop.
Go to View submenu.
Make sure "Show desktop icons" is checked.

Tuckerfan · #5 9th December 2011, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Annoying Retard Nonny

Right click on desktop.
Go to View submenu.
Make sure "Show desktop icons" is checked.

Its checked, and the only restore point I have is from freakin' March, which means that it'll take 16 hours to reinstall all the various updates if I go that route.

Harry · #6 9th December 2011, 04:42 PM

Try this. You've still got the programs. Open the list for "all programs," right click on the name of the appropriate program and you should get a menu that includes "send to." That will open another menu which will include "desktop (create shortcut)." That don't work, I got no other ideas.

Tuckerfan · #7 9th December 2011, 05:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry

Try this. You've still got the programs. Open the list for "all programs," right click on the name of the appropriate program and you should get a menu that includes "send to." That will open another menu which will include "desktop (create shortcut)." That don't work, I got no other ideas.

That won't reveal where Windows has hidden my "Users" folder, which I kind of need to find.

Harry · #8 9th December 2011, 05:17 PM

In the "Start" menu did you search for "user's folder?" It's in a sub folder of the favorites folder.

Tuckerfan · #9 9th December 2011, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry

In the "Start" menu did you search for "user's folder?" It's in a sub folder of the favorites folder.

Yeah, but nothing comes up. (So far as folders go.) I suspect that its somehow become hidden, otherwise I doubt this thing would work at all as a number of other folders are gone as well.

Random Precision · #10 9th December 2011, 06:00 PM

Can you go back to Explorer and reset your preferences to view hidden and system files? Perhaps during the earlier process, it changed the attributes of your files and your preferences don't allow you to see them.

You could also create a new user profile and see if everything shows up in that profile.

Tuckerfan · #11 10th December 2011, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Random Precision

Can you go back to Explorer and reset your preferences to view hidden and system files? Perhaps during the earlier process, it changed the attributes of your files and your preferences don't allow you to see them.

I can't find a way to get it to allow me to view hidden files for the drive as a whole. I can select individual folders and tell it to allow me to view hidden files in there, but not the whole drive, and the User folder wasn't a subfolder of anything.

Quote:

You could also create a new user profile and see if everything shows up in that profile.

Tried that and nothing showed up (not even the icon I created in the main account), nor did the Users folder become visible. It looks like my only solution is going to be to nuke the beast and start all over again, which sucks about 16 different kinds of ass.

Random Precision · #12 10th December 2011, 05:59 PM

It could be worse. Last week my hard drive cratered. With no backup of several years worth of photos on it.

I'm looking at a new CPU with a terabyte drive for $350 rather than rebuilding my current system. Happy birthday to me.

Tuckerfan · #13 10th December 2011, 07:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Random Precision

It could be worse. Last week my hard drive cratered. With no backup of several years worth of photos on it.

I'm looking at a new CPU with a terabyte drive for $350 rather than rebuilding my current system. Happy birthday to me.

Have you tried running Spinrite on your system? It might revive your drive long enough for you to extract your photos off of it. BTW, I've learned to put the OS on one drive and everything else on another. That way if the drive with the OS goes tits up all of a sudden, I'm not completely fubar'd. (In theory.)

And Spider Oak looks to be about the best online back up software out there. (There's a free version, so you can try it out, and they encrypt stuff before they upload it to the web!)

Random Precision · #14 10th December 2011, 07:12 PM

I haven't completely given up. After I get the new system up and running I'll try pretty much everything before I call it quits.

Wolf Larsen · #15 10th December 2011, 08:36 PM

Your icons have gone to live on a farm where they can run around free.

Tuckerfan · #16 11th December 2011, 06:39 AM

I've managed to get them back without nuking the thing and starting over. I just happened to need to download and save something off the web to burn to a CD before I nuked the thing and that's what enabled me to find the folders and get them back. The folder Firefox is set to save things to just happened to be in my Users folder, and I didn't change it before I saved the file.

After I saved it, I was able to find the file using search, from there, I was able to reset the preferences to make the files and folders visible.