Re: Desktop Icons Not Showing
Sofie Kovalcheck
When I go to my desktop folder, everything is there but not showing up on actual desktop. I try dragging it onto it, and it doesn't do anything. I can't even click and drag to make that filled square. Help please!
Then download and run Etrecheck. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.
The monitor is the primary: I set the option "Primary" in the settings editor ( -to-dual-monitor-setup-on-xfce.html) and I use this setting: xrandr --output HDMI1 --primary --right-of LVDS1 (HDMI1 is the monitor as you might have guessed)
And what's even more annoying: Every two or three days (must be some kind of race-condition) when I start the laptop the icons which are carefully arranged on the monitor appear all on the left side of the laptop in one vertical line and I have to drag them back and re-arrange them.
Is there another option/ setting where I can set which is the primary monitor, so that the desktop-icons also realize where they are supposed to appear? How can I prevent the random icon-moving at the start of the system?
However, if you use KDE as your desktop manager/window manager, you can use "FolderView" as your desktop setting. This way, you can arrange icons exactly as you wish on either monitor and they will stay put.
I have tried most of the major desktop environments, including Cinnamon, Gnome 2, Gnome Classic (Gnome-Session-Fallback), Gnome 3, KDE, LXDE, MATE, Unity, and Xfce. Among these, KDE is the only one I have tried that enables me to use my right-hand monitor as the primary display while also keeping my desktop icons on the right-hand display.
If you want to stay with Xfce, a workaround I have used in that desktop environment is to install screenlets and use the folderview screenlet to put a window on my right-hand monitor that is set to the Desktop folder. This way, I can see the icons that are on the far-left in the screenlet window. With this screenlet, I can also open, copy, paste, or delete files that appear in the Desktop folder.
Through GNOME Tweaks if I try to enable the "Show icons" option a strange thing happens: the icons do not appear, but instead the Home folder opensBy the way, the Home folder opens automatically whenever I start the PC, I think there could be a correlation but I don't know how.
Following another thread I downloaded the "Desktop icons" extension (that was missing) and with that I can finally see the icons, I can open the files but I can't move them or delete them, so I guess it's not the correct solution. In addition, even with Desktop icons, the Desktop settings in Tweak Tools have no effect.
On Ubuntu 18.04 desktop icons are provided by nautilus-desktop which is a part of the nautilus package, not by the "Desktop Icons" extension as you have suspected. So it seems nautilus-desktop is not working correctly. To fix the issue purge and reinstall the nautilus package and restart your computer.
I'm far from a Linux expert but got asked to help when a friend hit this problem. I researched and tried a few solutions but nothing seemed to work. Eventually I looked at alternative desktop environment and this did the trick very nicely. My friend was already using Xubuntu (getting all that he can out of an old system) so I reloaded the xubuntu-desktop and voila! The best part was that it was a simple two step solution. (step 3 was reboot)
On occasion, blue sync icons will appear on files and shortcut links that are located on my Win 10 Desktop. None of the files are related or stored in Dropbox. What is causing this. The only way to remove them is to reboot my machine. Any idea what is causing these sync issue to appear.
I had the same issue on my Win 10 pc. I had recently shared a video in dropbox to a friend and this popped up shortly after. So I assumed it was a drop box thing. I did an F5 (Refresh) on the desktop and they all went back to the Windows "Shortcut" icon on all the files (which explains why you restarting fixed this). So I think something gets messed up in Windows and it has to do with any file that is a shortcut on your desktop. Files native to the desktop folder didn't have this icon or a shortcut icon. Hope this helps!
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Not really helpful. Over 100 Apps loaded in background in a Win 10 environment. Really need something I can work with. No one has seen this before? Why would an Icon that is particular to Dropbox show up on my desktop and it not be a DropBox issue. Not saying it is not a Dropbox issue confuses me. Has to be. Who else would want to usurp a Dropbox icon and employ it. Really need some critical thinking from DropBox people.
Hello, I have a brand new Spectre 360 notebook. I connected an external monitor to it and it loaded all my old apps from my old computer onto the new computer. I had all my icons on my desktop. Then I thought I'd increase the display size to make it a bit larger. In doing so, my desktop icons disappeared. I can only find one icon at the very top of the computer. I've been through all the suggestions the Virtual Assistant suggested, and nothing works. Can anyone offer any help? Thanks!
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Thanks for the suggestions, but I've already tried them and the desktop icons are still missing, although they are listed on my taskbar. I never had this problem with my old computer. The problem is on my new Spectre laptop. Apparently, other people are having the same issue. Not sure if this is a Windows 10 glitch or a Spectre problem.
Windows 10 has a reset feature that repairs your computer by reinstalling the operating system. This feature is recommended for recovery because it reinstalls Windows 10 while either preserving your personal data and customizations or removing all your personal data.
Gnome has been on the war path with Linux. And as such, you can't place icons on your desktop by default. You can try installing the icons on desktop extension to see if that allows you to do it. Some have success, while other's do not.
You can install Gnome Tweaks from the software store. Gnome Tweaks will allow you to manage your extensions. But it can also allow you to manage your appearance, as well as add system icons to the desktop!
I did check the location - nothing there. However, I pulled out my external drive that I use for backups. The "Public" user on the backup shows my icons but the Tricia user has nothing. Is it possible the system was using the Public user settings? Currently there is nothing in the Public User desktop setting on the laptop either.
I think at some point I might have accidentally moved the Desktop folder onto my Pictures folder, and when I noticed I reverted it. But ever since then, the icons shown in my graphical desktop are of the files and folders in home.
I would like to know if there is a way to show only specific desktop icons on the Windows desktop? I usually keep a clean wallpaper look by not showing any icons by right clicking on Desktop > View > Uncheck Show Desktop Icons. But, I do like to have one or two icons show up.
My desktop has many application icons and other things. When I enable Show Desktop Icon, those are the ones I need. So, I do not want to move them all to some folder to "cleanup" my desktop.
I was trying to open a file this morning, and when a pop-menu asked what application I wanted to choose (from a list) to open it, I clicked on Adobe Reader - just as a guess. After that, just about all my desktop icons are Adobe icons, and when I click on them, the pop up menus says I can't access the file. These icons also show up on my menu of all my MS Office programs like Outlook, Word, Excel, etc.
First, thanks for responding. Unfortunately, I don't recall what I was trying to open. And yes, I think I've permanently associated nearly everything with the Adobe file extension. In another post, someone else with the same problem uninstalled the Adobe Reader, which I did, and that took care of my problem for now. He said that when he re-installed it, the problem came back. I haven't tried re-installing it, concerned that I'll have the same problem again. But I'll do that in the next few days to see how that works out.
In the meantime, though, if this problem is the same as the other, I'm not sure I've solved the problem. Can you instruct me on how to reset the file extension? Here's the post from this other person:
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