If you find a lot of transparent icons on your desktop or some completely disappeared, then it’s possible a virus changed your icon file attributes
AVG / Panda
1. Step Obviously, transparent icons or hidden icons are not ok and you should first of all run a virus scan – we recommend to use AVG or Panda software for this purpose.
2. Step We previously explained how to unhide a hidden hosts file, so you may want to read this as well
Unhide Hidden Desktop Icons The Old-Fashioned Way (Not recommended, for beginners)
3. Step The easiest solution to the problem is obviously this one
- Open the Windows Explorer via Windows key + E
- In the left sidebar go select the blue desktop icon to go to your desktop folder
- Now hit CTRL + A to select all desktop icons – make sure to hold CTRL and click the icons Libraries, Homegroup, Computer, Control Panel, Network, User, Recycle Bin
- Right-click on a file while still holding CTRL and click on Properties
- It should say something like xx Files, xx Folders – uncheck the box Hidden and click Apply
Unhide Hidden Desktop Icons Using The Command Prompt
4. Step If that does NOT work, you follow the following steps
- Open an elevated command prompt (I just tested it, you don’t need elevated rights for this apparently)
- Enter cd C:\Users\username\Desktop (replace username with your own actual username – if you are unsure browse to C:\Users\ and see if anything sounds familiar like your nick or something!)
- Enter attrib -r -a -h -s hosts
- -r (remove read-only)
- -a (remove archive attrib)
- -h (remove hidden attrib)
- -s (remove system attrib)
The command above changes the file attributes in a way that will make sure all of your files are visible, regular non-system files.
As you can see there’s no magic involved, unhiding files is easy to do, but in any case you should ask yourself if your PC is infected and run one of our top 5 malware scanners
thank you verymuch.. helped a lot !!