Desktop icons never appear after startup until right click.................

[saaron11111]

A cute problem I haven't figured out: On my dual monitor WIN 8 setup, my desktop icons never appear after startup until I right-click on either screen. It does not matter if the Metro/Modern interface is on or off via WINKEY.

Any ideas?

[Medico]

saaron, welcome to the Lounge.

Did this start after you set up the dual monitor setup, or has it been a problem from day 1? I have never heard of this before.

If it has been a problem from the beginning I would suspect a corrupt installation and would suggest starting over. To eliminate the ISO file or the DVD as the culprit I would suggest a new download of the ISO file from a reliable source (not a Torrent), slow burn the ISO file to a new DVD and Custom Install again.

[saaron11111]

From day 1.

Upgraded using my TechNet rtm version without ANY problems at all. Every piece of hardware and software came through. The double monitor setup was recognized and, of course, had Metro on one of them...... but no icons anywhere. If I right-click either screen (after hitting WINKEY to get rid of Metro) the icons will appear after about 5 seconds just before the normal menu that usually is seen.

I only have to go through this on a clean reboot.

[Medico]

I wonder if there is a problem in the icon cache. I have a rebuild icon cache batch file if you would like to try. Open Notepad and paste the following:

@echo off
cls
echo The Explorer process must be killed to delete the Icon DB.
echo Please SAVE ALL OPEN WORK before continuing
pause
taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
echo Attempting to delete Icon DB...
If exist %userprofile%\AppData\Local\IconCache.db goto delID
echo Previous Icon DB not found...trying to build a new one
goto :main
:delID
cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
del IconCache.db /a
pause
echo Icon DB has been successfully deleted
goto main
:main
echo Windows 7 must be restarted to rebuild the Icon DB.
echo Restart now? (Y/N):
set /p choice=
If %choice% == y goto end
echo Restart aborted...please close this window
explorer.exe
:end
shutdown /r /t 0
exit

Save this to your desktop as a rebuildiconcache.bat or some such .bat file.

Click on the file to run.

[saaron11111]

Success!!!

I did a lot of things, but never thought of rebuilding the icon cache. I have a similar bat file, but no testing today. Used yours and it work perfectly.

I've rebooted a few times and all is good

thank You!!


Steven

[Medico]

Steven, glad this little batch helped. That was a weird problem and this was just a guess.

[saaron11111]

Same as before......no icons when rebooting.

clearing the cache works for one reboot... them no icons again

[Medico]

I have to believe there is some other either corruption or some app causing problems while trying to run. Have you tried a Refresh of your system?

There is also a chance that your ISO file download was not exact and something was corrupted either from the ISO file, or perhaps from the DVD burn. Who knows, this might even be one of those Upgrade versus Custom Install problems.

One option would be to download the ISO file again, slow burn the ISO file to a DVD and do a complete Custom Install. I realize this involves install all apps again, but this is the best way to getting the most pristine installation. I always Custom Install because of past problems. I just do not want to take the chance. I realize others have had good success with Upgrades and always use this method. Unfortunately it seems the problems with Upgrades are more numerous than the Custom Installs.

[saaron11111]

Funny you mention custom install....this is the first time in many, many years that I did an upgrade. I usually do a new install and load apps and move data.

As far as the ISO, when pulling down MS apps, I slow burn and verify.

But I just pulled down the ISO and did a comparison - exactly the same.

Will think of doing a new everything!

[Medico]

I had an experience quite some time ago with the Upgrade and have used Custom Install ever since. I also will when I buy and install Win 8 Pro when it's released.

The info is that Win 8 upgrades better than all other versions of Windows. I'm sorry, but I will still do the Custom Install.

[jwitalka]

Try a clean boot. if the problem goes away, use the diagnostic procedure given on that page.

Jerry

[saaron11111]

The CLEAN BOOT did not solve the problem........but when I normally right-click the desktop it used to take 15-20 secs to light the icons; this time it took 5.

It's easy to right-click on my home system, but of, course that's not the answer.