Holy Crap, help! My entire desktop just disappeared!!

[teddyFBI]

OK, I'm trying not to panic, because I don't think any files have been lost, but just want to get this fixed sooner rather than later.

One of the applications I had open crashed, and the next thing I knew, every single icon (mostly shortcuts) I had placed on my desktop disappeared, so that all that remained were "My Computer", the trash bin, IE, and Outlook (and somewhat oddly shortcuts to UB and Absolute, even though all other file and poker shortcuts were gone).

Here's what my sleuthing has discovered so far. I'm pretty sure the problem has to do somehow with XP user accounts. In the "All Users / Desktop" folder, I see the exact contents of the bare desktop I'm seeing right now (i.e. those few applications and the UB and Absolute shortcuts), so it seems clear that I'm in the "All Users" XP profile. Now I go to "Dan / Desktop", and I see all the contents of my old desktop there (what I'm trying to get back to!!!)...

But try as I might, I can't figure out how the hell to get back to the "Dan" profile (and accompanying desktop). I "log off" and log back on to "Dan", but I just get the very same bare bones desktop.

Hope someone out there can help me...

[testaaja]

The icons might be outside your desktop. Try to rearrange them.
If you see them in your dan/desktop I think this is the case.

[teddyFBI]

that too was my first thought..and so i changed and rechanged the screen resolution which usually has the effect of rearranging all my icons in the upper left corner of my screen. No such luck.

FWIW, the desktop is also doing a lot of very funky other stuff that makes me think that something is more wrong...

After a little more poking around, here's what I can't make heads or tails of:

1. In my IE browser, all of the favorites are the one in my Dan profile, and NOT the ones in my "All Users" profile...yet the things I see on my desktop are ONLY the ones in my all users profiles...and even though in the folder view, all of my old stuff appears in Dan's "desktop", it's nowhere to be seen on my actual desktop.

Starting to get a little concerned...

[Link774]

This might not be the best solution, but if you're seeing files in the All Users Desktop and not in your desktop folder, just copy the files from your desktop folder to the all users desktop folder. Of course, if you're not the only user of that system you might irritate people..

[j0ep0ker]

Right click, active desktop, uncheck show web content

[Nepa]

[ QUOTE ]
OK, I'm trying not to panic, because I don't think any files have been lost, but just want to get this fixed sooner rather than later.

One of the applications I had open crashed, and the next thing I knew, every single icon (mostly shortcuts) I had placed on my desktop disappeared, so that all that remained were "My Computer", the trash bin, IE, and Outlook (and somewhat oddly shortcuts to UB and Absolute, even though all other file and poker shortcuts were gone).

Here's what my sleuthing has discovered so far. I'm pretty sure the problem has to do somehow with XP user accounts. In the "All Users / Desktop" folder, I see the exact contents of the bare desktop I'm seeing right now (i.e. those few applications and the UB and Absolute shortcuts), so it seems clear that I'm in the "All Users" XP profile. Now I go to "Dan / Desktop", and I see all the contents of my old desktop there (what I'm trying to get back to!!!)...

But try as I might, I can't figure out how the hell to get back to the "Dan" profile (and accompanying desktop). I "log off" and log back on to "Dan", but I just get the very same bare bones desktop.

Hope someone out there can help me...

[/ QUOTE ]

sounds like your profile got corrupted. Do you have under C:\Documents and Settings\dan and C:\Documents and Settings\dan.000?