Why are my task bar and desktop icons gone?

[Dell Inc.]

Hello, I am Nitika from the Dell Social Media outreach team.

Please follow the below mentioned steps to fix this issue


1. Ctrl + Alt + Del to bring up Task Manager.
2. Click "New Task..." then click "Browse..."
3. Click My Computer on the left panel. Click C:\ - WINDOWS.
4. Navigate to explorer.exe, right click and copy explorer. Rename it to explorer1 (.exe)
5. Hit Cancel to go back to Create New Task window. Type regedit.exe and click OK.

6. In the registry editor, navigate to the following Key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

With the Winlogon key selected, look in the right side window for the
'Shell" value.

Double click Shell. In the Value Data box, you should see Explorer.exe. Change it to
explorer1.exe and click OK.

Exit the registry editor and reboot the computer.


If in case you do face any challenges in the process, please feel free to contact me directly by sending me an email or by through a reply to this blog.

We would recommend you do not post your private information on a public forum.

Thanks & Regards
DELL_NITIKA_K
Dell Social Media Responder