The Windows 7 desktop has crashed. Enabling the display of desktop shortcuts

Useful tips

Usually the shortcuts appear after a short delay. But sometimes, even after some time, there is nothing on the screen except the splash screen. Why did the Windows 7 desktop disappear? What to do? Let's try to identify and solve the problem.

Icon display disabled

In all new versions of the OS, personalization settings allow you to completely disable the display of shortcuts. If you are not the only one using the computer, there is a chance that someone else did it accidentally. This is the simplest and most harmless reason explaining why the WIndows 7 desktop disappeared. What to do?

Click right click anywhere on the screen. Find the "View" tab in the context menu. Make sure that the display of shortcuts is turned on - there should be a check mark next to the corresponding item.

Shortcuts have been marked as hidden

It is almost impossible to do this by accident, so in this case Most likely, someone decided to play a joke on you. Icons and folders marked as hidden are still there, but are not displayed by default. If you have lost shortcuts and icons in Windows 7 for this very reason, first of all you need to enable display hidden elements. To do this, go to the "Control Panel" and open "Folder Options". In the list on the "View" tab, you need to scroll through the list of parameters and enable the display of hidden files and folders (there should be a checkmark next to the corresponding item). If the shortcuts appear, all that remains is to remove the “hidden” attribute in the properties.

The system has moved the items to the "Unused Shortcuts" folder

This is another one possible reason, explaining why the desktop disappeared. Windows 7 can produce automatic cleaning desktop and, at certain intervals, remove from the work area those icons that you do not use.

By default, the "Unused Shortcuts" folder should be displayed on the desktop (if not, you can find it through the search). If this is your case, it will be enough to simply transfer necessary shortcuts back. After this, you should disable cleaning. To do this, open the screen properties, find the “Desktop” tab and click “Settings…”. You just need to uncheck the box next to “Clean up every 60 days” and save the changes. Although the advice to check the "Trash" may seem stupid to many, we recommend doing so. In practice, it often happens that shortcuts were simply deleted.

The file explorer.exe is missing

Now let's talk about more complex options when it becomes unclear why the Windows 7 desktop disappeared. What to do if the above tips did not help? Most likely, when the system boots, explorer.exe does not start, the process responsible for externally displaying the system. To check this, go to Task Manager > Processes (Ctrl+Shift+Del) and try to find explorer. Sometimes when you try to open the manager, nothing happens. In this case, start Windows in safe mode by pressing the F8 button during boot and try again.

In the manager menu, select "File", click "New task" and in the window that appears, enter In the window that opens, you need to enter the path to the file (by default it is in the Windows folder located on the C: drive). If the shortcuts appear after this, it means the file is on the computer and you just need to fix a few registry errors.

What should I do if explorer.exe is missing from my computer and cannot be started? In this case, you will need your Windows installation disk.

Open the disk from another PC and find the explorer.ex_ file in the i386 directory.
Copy it anywhere and then change the extension to .EXE (to do this you just need to rename it).
Write it down ready file to a flash drive and connect it to your computer.
Run command cmd line through the "Task Manager".
Navigate to the files located on the flash drive. To do this, you need to enter the name of the disk (E:, D: or another).
Copy the file to the system folder using the copy explorer.exe C:\\Windows command. If everything is done correctly, a message will appear indicating that the operation was successful.
Restart your PC.

If installation disk no, you can copy explorer.exe from another computer to Windows 7.

Explorer.exe has disappeared from the registry

Let's talk in more detail about what to do if the Windows 7 desktop disappears due to registry errors. In this case, when you start the process through the "Task Manager", the shortcuts appear, but after restarting the computer they disappear again. This means that the launch conditions for explorer.exe are incorrectly written in the registry. Launch the Run application and type regedit. The Registry Editor will open. You need to find the following directory:

The Shell line should contain explorer.exe. If some other file is registered instead, or nothing at all, change the value of the parameter. Ready? Go ahead. Now we need to open another folder from the same directory.

If there is an explorer.exe (or iexplorer.exe) entry here, you need to delete it and then restart your PC. If the icons still don't appear, the file is likely corrupted and will need to be replaced.

System settings failed

Sometimes even after adding the file to the registry, the problem persists. This may indicate a glitch in the system settings. Fortunately, the "seven" has special application- "System Restore", which returns the computer to an earlier state. You can run it using the same Run program. To do this, you need to enter the command shown in the screenshot below.

The computer was infected with viruses

A trivial option is when your Windows 7 desktop has disappeared due to malware. You probably know what to do in this case. To open an antivirus, you can enter the full address of its executable file in the Run window (for example, C:\\Programs\Antivirus\antivirus.exe). It is recommended to scan your PC in Safe Mode. After scanning, delete all infected files and restart your computer.

Even if this does not help, the best solution is to simply reinstall Windows. The necessary files can be copied to a flash drive via the command line (of course, if you can remember their location).

Today we’ll look at what to do if shortcuts have disappeared from your Windows 7 desktop. Let us touch upon two cases:

the shortcuts themselves are missing, “Start” and “Taskbar” are functioning;
everything disappeared from the desktop except background picture, and sometimes it is missing too.

You should not go to extremes and think about reinstalling the operating system: almost all icons can be quickly returned. How to do this, read our guide for beginners.

Activating the icon display function

A beginner may not even suspect that all the elements from the desktop on his computer have disappeared because someone inadvertently activated the option to hide icons. Let's turn it off.

Opening context menu desktop.
Select the last item in the drop-down list.

Type “explorer.exe” and press Enter.

After this, the icons on the desktop and the “Start” with the “Taskbar” should appear.

System icons disappear

If any system icon (“Trash”, “My Computer”) is missing, you can create a shortcut for them, for example, by dragging the desired icon from “Start”. But in this case, an arrow typical for such elements will appear near the element. Best to restore desired icon in the following way.

Using the desktop context menu, call up “Personalization”.

Click “Change desktop icons”.

Select the checkboxes for the icons that you want to restore and click “OK.”

Here you can change the icon of any object: click on it, then click on “Change icon...”.

Select an image from the library or specify the path to your own icon or their library and save the changes.

Problem appears after reboot

If the desktop becomes empty after restarting the computer, you will have to dig into the system registry keys.

Press Win + R.
Type “regedit” and click “OK” to execute the command.

Expand the “HKLM” hive, and in it go to the “Software” folder.

Open the section shown in the screenshot.

If it contains a subsection “explorer.exe”, delete it through the context menu.

We go to the next section along the path shown in the screenshot.

We look at the value of the “Shell” parameter. If it says “explorer.exe”, then everything is fine. Otherwise, indicate the correct value.

The changes will take effect after you restart your computer.

Disabling the service tool

This tool checks each desktop shortcut for functionality. If there is a shortcut, but there is no file (referring to an inaccessible location or deleted file), the program will delete such an object. If the desktop contains links to removable drives or network directories that sometimes become inaccessible and are defined as non-working, their number must be reduced to a maximum of 4 pieces. Create a separate directory for such objects or pin them to the “Taskbar”.

Also, so that not a single such icon disappears, you can disable the system maintenance tool.

It is launched through the “Control Panel” - open it.

Click on the “System and Security” element.

Through search bar(top right) find the “Troubleshooting” object and click on it.

If you once turned on your computer or laptop, but during the usual boot of Windows XP, 7 or 8, all shortcuts, icons, even the start menu and taskbar disappeared on the desktop. This can also happen due to viruses or accidental deletion. system files or registry data. In this article, we have collected the main ways to solve the problem of restoring the display of shortcuts on the desktop.

Solution to the problem:

1. Explorer.exe file is missing

The fact is that the explorer.exe process is responsible for external display in Windows, and if you press CTRL+ALT+DEL, or CTRL+SHIFT+ESC to launch the task manager, it is missing in the “processes” tab. This could happen due to the action of viruses. If you try to launch the task manager, but no response occurs, try restarting the computer in safe mode (F8 key while Windows is loading) and try again.

To solve the problem, the first thing you need to do is determine whether the explorer.exe file remains on the system at all so that it can be launched. This can be done without Explorer, using the command line.

In the task manager, click “File - New task” and enter “cmd” there; Enter the command there:

C:\Windows\explorer.exe

if your OS is installed on another drive, then instead of C:\ enter the drive on which you have the system installed).

If you don’t know what drive the system is installed on, then enter the following into the command line:

%windir%\explorer.exe

in this case, the system itself will substitute required disk on which it is installed.

If, as a result, all desktop icons and the taskbar appear, then the explorer.exe file has not been deleted from the computer and most likely you will only need to correct a few registry files.

If you see an error message that such a file does not exist, then you will need to copy the explorer.exe file to the Windows system folder yourself. If explorer.exe itself generated the error, then delete it:

DEL C:\Windows\explorer.exe

2. Check icon display function

Let's start with the simplest. You need to check the option that disables the display of icons on the desktop:

For Windows 2000

In the menu that opens, select “Active Desktop”;

For Windows XP

Right-click on the desktop;
In the menu that opens, select “Arrange icons”;
In the expanded submenu, next to the item “Display desktop icons” there should be a checkmark. If there is no checkmark, then click on this item.

For Windows Vista and 7

Right-click on the desktop;
In the menu that opens, select “View”;
In the expanded submenu, next to the item “Display desktop icons” there should be a checkmark. If there is no checkmark, then click on this item.

3. The file explorer.exe is on the computer

To launch the Registry Editor, click “file->new task” in the task manager again and enter the “regedit” command. Next you need to do the following:

In the Registry Editor, select: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon. Then look at the right panel. The Shell parameter value must be Explorer.exe. If it is not, change it to Explorer.exe.
We are trying to find: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ Image File Execution Options. If there is a subsection explorer.exe or iexplorer.exe, delete it (right-click -> Delete).

After this, restart your computer. If this still does not help, then perhaps explorer.exe is damaged and should still be replaced.

4. Explorer.exe file was not found on the computer

If you have an installation disk for your Windows, then you can find the explorer.ex_ file right there in the i386 folder, rename it explorer.exe and use it. You can rename in any file manager, or you can go to the control panel, select folder properties -> view there, and uncheck the box next to “hide file extensions”. If not, then you will have to find a computer with the same Windows as yours and copy the file from there from the Windows folder.

We copy the resulting file, for example, to the root directory of your flash drive and insert it into the broken computer. Run the cmd command line on it again. We consider what kind of media the inserted flash drive is (this will be the last available disk). There we enter the command “E:”, or “F:”, or another... (depending on what kind of disk the flash drive is). Next, if explorer.exe is in the root folder, enter the command:

copy explorer.exe C:\Windows

copy explorer.exe %WINDIR%

As a result, it should be written that 1 file was successfully copied.

Restart your computer and everything should work.

These are the most basic simple ways to solve this problem. If that doesn’t work, you can also try to restore the system, but most effective way- this, of course, is to reinstall Windows.

5. System Restore

If method No. 2 gives an error that the explorer.exe file was not found or the problem remains after a reboot, then you should try to perform a system restore:

In the “Start” menu, open sequentially: “Programs” - “Accessories” - “System Tools”
In the "Utilities" menu, click on "System Restore". Note. If there is no such item, then follow these steps: in the “Start” menu, select “Run”. In the open field, type the command %SystemRoot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe and click “OK”;
In the "System Restore" window, on the right side of the window, select "Restore more than early state computer" and click the "Next" button;
In the calendar, select the day in which there is a checkpoint, such days are highlighted in bold. Choose a day on which your computer worked normally, i.e. if you remember that three days ago the computer started normally, then select a point that was three days ago. If control points no, then most likely you have disabled the option to create control points and you will have to go to method No. 4.
Having selected the day, click the “Next” button;
We listen to the advice written in the window (written in red) and click the “Next” button;
We are waiting for the process to complete;

6. Registry fix

If system restore does not help, then you will have to go into the system registry:

On your keyboard, press and hold the Ctrl+Alt+Delete buttons;
In the Manager window Windows tasks", go to the "Applications" tab;
On this tab, click the “New task...” button;
In the “Create a new task” window, in the “Open” field, type the regedit command and click the “OK” button;
In the “Registry Editor” window on the left side, sequentially expand the registry keys to the “Image File Execution Options” section: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/WindowsNT/CurrentVersion/Image File Execution Options/
Expand the “Image File Execution Options” section and look for the “explorer.exe” and “iexplorer.exe” subsections. If any of the subsections are found, then it must be deleted.
Right-click on the subsection and in the menu that opens, select “Delete”;
When asked to confirm deletion, click the “Yes” button;
Now let’s check the launch parameters of explorer.exe; to do this, expand the registry keys to the “Winlogon” section: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/WindowsNT/CurrentVersion/Winlogon/
Left-click on the “Winlogon” section and in the right part of the Registry Editor window we find the “Shell” parameter;
Right-click on this parameter and select the “Change” menu item;
In the “Change string parameter” window, the value field should say explorer.exe and nothing else, if this is not the case, then correct it;
Click OK, close all windows and restart your computer

7. Recovering hidden shortcuts on the desktop

The “hidden” attribute may have been set on all folders and files on the desktop. To check whether this is true or not, go to “Start -> Control Panel -> Folder Options”, open the “View” tab, go to the end of the list of options and set the “Hidden files and folders” switch to the “Show” position hidden files and folders."

If after this the contents of the desktop begin to be displayed, then to restore the display of your shortcuts, files and folders you need to remove the “hidden” attribute from them. This can be done as follows:

We go to “Start -> Run”, write “cmd” there and click “Ok” - the command line should start.

Remove the “hidden” attribute from all files and folders on a shared desktop with this command (you may need administrator rights for this):

attrib /D /S -h “%ALLUSERSPROFILE%/Desktop/*”

Now make all files and folders on your desktop unhidden with this command:

attrib /D /S -h “%USERPROFILE%/Desktop/*”

Just in case, click on empty space desktop and press F5 to refresh the desktop.

If previously missing icons, files and folders from the desktop are no longer faded in color, then they are no longer hidden and you can set “Do not show hidden files and folders” in the “Folder Options” window.

Windows desktop disappeared, but appears along with all folders and shortcuts if you boot into Safe Mode. What do you think, admin, what could be wrong? My problems began with an active Saturday surfing the Internet, looking for a disk image from my laptop (I touched mine somewhere). Found it on one of the sites the desired image, but decided to open and look at the screenshot of the disk, located on another site - image hosting. And at that moment, I suddenly got alarmed and issued a warning that there was a virus in the folder C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp and cleaning was impossible, then the computer froze, I had to force a reboot. After the reboot, a completely empty Windows desktop awaited me, without folders or shortcuts; instead of my permanent screensaver there was another one, and even with such an image, it’s better not to tell you. I tried to launch the Task Manager using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Del, but after it the screen turns black and so on ad infinitum.
I’ve been reading your articles for a long time, I immediately tried to boot into it and was successful, there is a desktop there along with folders with shortcuts in place. Unfortunately, I can’t use it, it’s disabled for me. I launched it and scanned it all system partition C:, three viruses were found, then it loaded into the system and, interestingly, the alien screensaver disappeared, but the desktop was still empty. I also have an antivirus at the ready, so I think it’s useful. Booted from the disk, after a full scan another virus was found, but when normal loading The desktop still did not appear. Are there any other options for me besides ? Sergey.

Windows desktop disappeared

Friends, very often I have had to deal with this problem; at first glance, readers asked me two identical questions, but they are solved differently. Let's look at the first case first, since it is much more serious, because it concerns Windows infection by a virus.

First of all, in order to successfully deal with this problem, you need to know which system file the virus modifies and which registry settings it changes, then it will not be difficult for you to quickly fix everything. I suggest you take everything apart possible ways solutions to this problem and let's start with the simplest and fastest ones.

If all else fails, be sure to try the most last method in this article, it is called that If all else fails, it often helps me when my desktop disappears.
Of course, you need to use anti-virus treatment utilities, then fix the registry and (we'll sort it all out), but you can solve the problem and more in a simple way. I'm sure that if our first reader had System Restore enabled, which can be applied perfectly in Safe Mode, the problem would have been solved in five minutes. First of all, in such cases, you need to remember about recovery; it was invented for a reason.

So, if when we boot Windows the desktop is empty, like a wallet before payday, we try to immediately (without restarting the computer) type the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Del, the Task Manager should open, then File -> New Task.

We enter explorer in the input field and OK, the desktop should appear with all the shortcuts and folders.

It is the Explorer.exe file that is responsible for launching the Windows graphical shell,

which consists of the desktop, start menu, toolbars and explorer. If the system file Explorer.exe does not start along with the operating system, then the desktop will not start. The explorer.exe file is located in the C:\Windows folder.

You may ask me: - Why didn’t the Explorer.exe file start on its own and you need to force it to start. You can answer this way: “We were lucky, friends, yes, yes, we were lucky - the malicious program just changed some important parameters registry responsible for launching the Explorer.exe file (but did not change the file itself). Instead of the file Explorer.exe and the desktop it started malicious application, the process of which can be seen in the Task Manager. How can I fix a damaged registry and make Explorer.exe start on its own? Of course, apply system restore, this is the easiest method. Apply system restore.

Important Note: Friends, sometimes a malicious program modifies or deletes the Explorer.exe file itself. If this article does not help you, read another one, it describes a method for extracting the explorer.exe file from Windows distribution 7 and replacing the faulty file with it.

In exactly half of the cases the problem will be solved and the next time you boot you will see your desktop, then you can check the system for viruses. By the way, you can immediately call system recovery in the Task Manager - File -> New task, enter rstrui.exe in the input field, but this is in Windows 7 and 8. In Windows XP you need to type %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

Safe mode If the task manager does not open in normal mode, boot into safe mode,

In most cases, you will see your desktop. Apply system restore and roll back a day.

If in safe mode there is also an empty desktop, but you have system recovery enabled, then you can type Ctrl+Alt+Del, the Task Manager will open, then File -> New task, enter explorer.exe in the input field, the desktop will appear or enter immediately command rstrui.exe, system recovery will start, roll back and check the computer for viruses. It is also advisable to restore the system Windows files.

Safe Mode with Command Line Support

In safe mode with command line support, type explorer.exe in the command line, the desktop opens, then run system restore, edit the registry, and so on.

We can immediately start system recovery with the command rstrui.exe

In Windows XP, type %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

System restore does not work for some reason

If in all modes system recovery does not work and does not solve the problem, and the desktop is still empty during normal boot, then we go to the registry and manually correct the parameters changed by the virus.

The Explorer.exe application deserves special mention in our entire story, as I already said, it is responsible for launching the Windows graphical shell, which consists of the desktop, start menu, toolbars and explorer.

It is the Explorer.exe file that in our case is attacked by viruses and, if successful, they modify it, as a result of this modification - the Explorer.exe file infected with a virus and a lifeless Windows desktop. But in some cases, viruses do not touch the Explorer.exe file, but change some registry settings. As a result, operating system when loading, it does NOT access the Explorer.exe file, but a completely different virus file. As a result, graphic Windows shell won't load again. How to fix the registry if system restore did not work for us?
IN safe mode, launch the registry - Start -> Run and type regedit in the input field,

The registry will open. If in safe mode you also have an empty desktop, then try the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Del, the Task Manager will open, then File -> New task, enter regedit in the input field.

First of all, you need to look at the problem in the registry branch:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon look at the line “shell” it should have the value “explorer.exe”. And in our case, instead of explorer.exe there is the value c:\users\Your username\appdata\local\temp\2lfg38m0.exe

This means that instead of the Windows desktop, the 2lfg38m0.exe virus will be loaded from the temp folder.

If at this time we manage to launch the task manager, then instead of the Explorer.exe system process we will see some malicious process, in our case 2lfg38m0.exe.

In the same thread, look at another line “Userinit” It should have the value “C:\Windows\system32\userinit.exe”, there should be nothing after the comma. In our case, again the value is c:\users\Username\appdata\local\temp\2lfg38m0.exe

All this needs to be removed and the registry restored to normal look. We correct both values in the registry.

Let's look at another registry branch
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer, if there is a parameter: NoDesktop, then its value should be 0, but in no case 1. In general, the NoDesktop parameter can be deleted.

Using the name of the virus 2lfg38m0.exe, I search the registry and find another modified value. Branch

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\ the Shell parameter contains the full path to the virus file
c:\users\Username\appdata\local\temp\2lfg38m0.exe, delete all this, there should be nothing here at all.

Shell parameter must be empty

Explorer.exe file

All this is good, but we have considered the solution to the problem from one side, that is, the Explorer.exe file is not infected, but the virus has made malicious changes in the registry. We performed a system restore and scanned antivirus utilities our Windows and removed the viruses, then corrected the registry, that’s basically it, the problem is solved and after loading into normal mode we have a desktop.

But the problem may be different, the Explorer.exe file may be infected or deleted altogether, and even if we want to, even with a normal registry, we will not be able to load the Windows desktop. Therefore, if you get an explorer.exe error when loading the operating system or explorer.exe application error and sometimes it's just a black screen.

This means you need to enter Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Command Prompt support and perform system file recovery. How to do it?

Select safe mode with command line support.

Type sfc /scannow on the command line.

Windows system files are checked and restored; sometimes the system may ask you to insert a Windows installation disk into the drive. Our file - Explorer.exe will be restored.

AVZ utility

At the end of the answer to the first letter, I would like to give an example of a well-known AVZ utility. If everything said above does not help, you can use this utility.
Let's go to the website of the utility developer - Oleg Zaitsev.
http://z-oleg.com/secur/avz/download.php
Download the utility

Please note here that many users make a mistake when launching the utility. Press CRTL+ALT+DEL, the task manager appears, click File->New task, in the field that opens, enter the full path to the avz.exe file. For example, my file avz.exe is located in the folder C:\Users\Username\Desktop\avz4\avz.exe

So we type C:\Users\Your Username\Desktop\avz4\avz.exe

The main program window opens

We update the AVZ utility. File –> database update

File->System Restore

Check the boxes on item 9. Removing debuggers system processes" and 16. Key recovery launch Explorer, then click “Perform selected operations”.

Reply to the second letter

Quite recently I had a similar case. One of my friends in the screen settings found, in addition to the main Samsung monitor, something else unknown to him Display device: VGA. He became interested and made it the main screen, then clicked Apply.

After this, the monitor screen turned black, restarting the computer did not help, the Ctrl+Alt+Del key combination did not help either - the task manager did not appear. What helped was this: when you booted the computer, you had to press F-8, the troubleshooting menu would open, in which you need to select Loading Last Known Good Configuration that's all. You could also enter safe mode and apply system restore.

Another time there was a completely funny incident. The security guards in our organization decided at night to connect to one system unit two monitors and they were doing something there, probably playing. In the morning we turned off the computer and disconnected the second monitor, then turned on the computer, and there was an empty desktop. I was the first to come to work, they run to me, they say help me, otherwise everything on the computer is gone, and soon the bosses will come.

I go to help and think what’s missing there after all. I sit down at the computer and say - what’s missing? And they show me at the monitor with their hands - look, there is nothing.

I tried Ctrl+Alt+Del, the task manager did not appear, I looked, but the mouse pointer was on the desktop, then I right-clicked on the desktop without much hope and a menu appeared, selected Screen Resolution, I see two monitors in the Screen settings, made it the main one the monitor is active and Apply, the desktop appears.

If all else fails

There is one more little known method restore Windows 7 boot after a failure and I’ll tell you about it. At first glance, it may seem difficult to many, but nevertheless it often helps me out.
The fact is, friends, that a very large part of the problems due to which you cannot boot Windows 7 lie in registry errors. And Windows 7 would not be Windows 7 if it did not have a mechanism that protects registry files. Such a mechanism exists and creates archival copies registry in the RegBack folder every 10 days, regardless of whether you have system recovery enabled or not.

If you can't solve problems with loading Windows 7 you should try replacing the existing (and apparently damaged) registry files from the Config folder archive files from the RegBack folder. To do this, we will have to boot the computer from the installation Windows disk 7 or disk Windows recovery 7.

Boot into the recovery environment, select the command line

and type in it – notepad , we get into Notepad, then File and Open.

We go into the real explorer, click My Computer. Now we need system disk C:, please note, the drive letters here may be mixed up, but the system drive C:, I think you can recognize it by the system drive letters located inside Windows folders and Program Files.

We go to the folder C:\Windows\System32\Config, here are the active registry files, specify the File Type - All files and see our registry files, we also see the RegBack folder, in it every 10 days the Task Scheduler does backup copy registry sections.

So, we will replace the existing registry files from the Config folder backup files registry from the RegBack folder.
So, first of all, let’s delete from the C:\Windows\System32\Config folder the files SAM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE, DEFAULT, SYSTEM, which are responsible for all registry hives,

and in their place we will copy and paste files with the same names, but from the backup copy, that is, from the RegBack folder.

Note: The SAM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE, DEFAULT, SYSTEM files cannot be deleted all together; delete them one by one. Then copy the same files from the RegBack folder in their place.

Working with a computer is based mainly on interaction with the desktop, on which the most frequently used programs and folders are located. But what to do if your Windows 7 desktop disappears? Where to look for a lost folder?

Launch the folder

Explorer.exe– the process responsible for displaying the desktop on Windows. If this process fails while working on the computer, the entire interface disappears and only the picture remains (sometimes a completely black screen). The reasons for this system behavior can be both ordinary problems and serious failures. In any case, the problem can be solved quite simply.

The desktop is an ordinary folder, the work of which is initiated by the explorer.exe process. Therefore, the answer to the question of how to restore the Windows 7 desktop is obvious - you just need to start the process.

This method is only relevant if the folder and its path are not damaged, otherwise explorer.exe will not work correctly.

There are two ways to restore the process:

Via task manager;
Via the command line.

First way

To do this, you need to open the task manager using the combination Ctrl+Alt+Delete and click on the “File” control panel:

Select "Create new task" and enter explorer.exe into the window that appears. After this action, the desktop should appear. If this does not happen, then we use the second option.

Second way

To implement process recovery via the console, you must run the command line with administrator rights. To do this, press WIN+W and enter “Command Prompt” in the search bar. Right-click the manipulator and select “Run as administrator”:

Enter explorer.exe into the console without any commands. The program will automatically start the process; if successful, all desktop icons will appear again:

Recovery tool

If the method described above did not help or Windows boots to a black screen on which no action can be performed, then you will have to use the recovery tool to return the desktop:

In this case, you can choose to run Last Known Good Configuration. However, the method is unreliable if the computer is infected with a virus program.

We start the device in safe mode and call the Task Manager again . We repeat the algorithm, running new process through modal window. But in this case we need the rstrui.exe command:

This command will run system utility recovery, which will allow you to select a rollback point, which will allow you to return the state of the computer to the date and time the point was created.

It is not necessary to create rollback points yourself. Windows does this automatically as soon as the user installs programs that affect the system, updates drivers, etc.

The rstrui.exe process, similar to explorer.exe, can also be launched through Command line with administrator rights.

This method allows you to restore your desktop even when the explorer.exe file is damaged/deleted/modified.

After a rollback, be sure to check the system for malware, since there is a high probability that the problem lies precisely in them.

Working with the registry

The registry is a database of all parameters assigned to the system. This is where all viruses are first registered, changing values and rewriting paths. Of course you can download the latest successful configuration or roll back the system, but if the device starts in normal mode, but without a desktop, then it’s faster to check everything yourself:

As a precaution, before manipulating the registry, it is recommended to make a backup copy on a third-party medium (flash drive or disk). So, if the values change incorrectly, you can easily restore the previous copy and start all over again.

Final computer cleanup

As soon as Windows has loaded and the desktop has not disappeared, you can begin cleaning up the system, which will allow you to finally get rid of this incident:

Loading on external media antivirus with a new database;
We look for a file called explorer.exe on the Internet, download it and put it on the flash drive where the antivirus is located;
Using the latter, we check the computer and remove all suspicious utilities and files;
We look for explorer.exe on the computer (the search is carried out in the section where the operating system is installed) and change it to a file downloaded from the network (after checking it with an antivirus);
Reboot the device.

It is possible that Windows Remote Desktop is not working due to a video card failure. Don't forget to update your video and audio drivers after restarting.

Video instructions for restoring your desktop

The video shows the main recovery methods if the remote desktop does not work:

Desktop restoration is an easy and fairly quick process. The most difficult procedures will be finding the cause, ways to solve them, and finally cleaning up the computer manually or using special utilities.