Reinstalled windows 7 no desktop. Automatic shortcut recovery method

• Missing Windows desktop, but appears along with all folders and shortcuts if you boot in Safe Mode. What do you think the admin, what could be the matter? My problems began with active Saturday surfing on the Internet, I was looking for a disk image with to my laptop (I touched my own somewhere). I found the desired image on one of the sites, but decided to open and see the screenshot of the disk, located on another site - image hosting. And at that moment, he suddenly got alarmed and issued a warning that there was a virus in the C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\Temp folder and cleaning was impossible, then the computer hung, I had to force restart. After the reboot, an absolutely empty Windows desktop awaited me, without folders and shortcuts, instead of my permanent screen saver there was another one, and even with such an image, it’s better for you not to tell. I tried to start the Task Manager using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + Del, but after it the screen turns black and so on ad infinitum.
  I have been reading your articles for a long time, I immediately tried to boot into and successfully, there is a desktop along with folder shortcuts in place. Unfortunately, I can not apply, it is disabled for me. I launched and scanned the entire C: system partition with it, three viruses were found, then it booted into the system and, interestingly, the alien splash screen disappeared, but the desktop was still empty. I also have an anti-virus at the ready, so I think it came in handy. Booted from the disk, after a full scan, another virus was found, but during a normal boot, the desktop still did not appear. Are there other options for me besides ? Sergey.

Missing Windows desktop

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 dismantling everything. possible ways solutions to this problem and start with the simplest and fastest.

• If all else fails, be sure to try the latest method in this article, it's called If nothing helped, it often helps me when the desktop disappears.
• Of course, you need to apply anti-virus curing utilities, then fix the registry and (we will analyze this), but you can solve the problem even more in a simple way. I'm sure if our first reader had System Restore turned on, which can be perfectly applied in safe mode, then the problem would be solved in five minutes. First of all, in such cases, you need to remember about the restoration, it was invented for a reason.

So, if we have Windows boot the desktop is empty like in a wallet before a salary, we try immediately (without restarting the computer) to type the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + Del, the task manager should open, then File -> New task,

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

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

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

You can ask me: - Why didn't the Explorer.exe file start by itself and you need to run it forcibly. You can answer like this: - We were lucky friends, yes, yes, it was lucky - the malware just changed some important parameters registry, responsible for running the Explorer.exe file (but did not change the file itself). Instead of the Explorer.exe file and the desktop, a malicious application was launched, the process of which can be seen in the Task Manager. How to fix a corrupted registry and make Explorer.exe run by itself? Of course apply System Restore, this is the easiest method. Apply system restore.

Important note: Friends, sometimes malware modifies or deletes the Explorer.exe file itself. If this article does not help you, read another, it describes how to pick out the explorer.exe file from Windows distribution 7 and replace the faulty file with it.

Exactly in half of the cases, the problem will be solved and at the next boot you will see your desktop, then you can check the system for viruses. By the way, you can immediately call System Restore 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

In most cases, you will see your desktop. We apply system restore, roll back a day ago.

If in safe mode there is also an empty desktop, but system recovery is 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 restore will start, roll back and check the computer for viruses. It's also a good idea to do a system restore. Windows files.

In safe mode with command line support, we type explorer.exe on the command line, the desktop opens, then we start 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 fails for some reason

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

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

It is the Explorer.exe file that, in our case, is attacked by viruses and, with luck, modifies it, as a result of this modification, the Explorer.exe file infected with a virus and the lifeless Windows desktop. But in some cases, viruses do not touch the Explorer.exe file, but change some registry settings. As a result, when booting, the operating system does NOT refer to the Explorer.exe file, but to a completely different virus file. As a result, the Windows graphical shell does not load again. How to fix the registry if system restore did not work for us?
AT safe mode, run the registry - Start -> Run, type in the input field regedit ,

The registry will open. If in safe mode you will 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 a value c:\users\your username\appdata\local\temp\2lfg38m0.exe

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

In the same branch, we 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, the value c:\users\Username\appdata\local\temp\2lfg38m0.exe is again present

All this needs to be removed and the registry brought back to normal. We fix both values ​​​​in the registry.

We look at another branch of the registry
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer, if the parameter is present: NoDesktop , then its value should be 0 , but in no case 1. In general, the NoDesktop parameter can be removed.

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

Shell parameter must be empty

Explorer.exe

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

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

So, you need to enter safe mode or safe mode with command line support and execute 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 it into the drive installation disk Windows. Our file - Explorer.exe will be restored.

AVZ Utility

At the end of the answer to the first letter, I want to cite the well-known AVZ utility as an example. If all the above does not help, you can apply this utility.
We go to the website of the utility developer - Oleg Zaitsev.
http://z-oleg.com/secur/avz/download.php
Downloading the utility

Here attention, many users make a mistake when starting the utility. Press CRTL + ALT + DEL, the task manager appears, click File-> New task, in the field that opens, type the full path to the avz.exe file. For example, my avz.exe file 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

Put a tick on point 9. Removing debuggers system processes" and 16. Restore the Explorer launch key, then click "Perform marked operations."

Reply to second letter

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

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

The other time was quite funny. The guards in our organization decided at night to connect to one system unit two monitors and did something there, probably played. Turned off the computer in the morning 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, otherwise everything is gone in the computer, and soon the authorities will come.

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

I tried Ctrl + Alt + Del, the task manager did not appear, I look, and the mouse pointer is 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 active monitor and Apply, the desktop appears.

If nothing helped

There is another little-known way to restore Windows 7 boot after a crash, and I'll tell you about it. At first glance, it will 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 lies in registry errors. And Windows 7 wouldn't be Windows 7 if it didn't have a mechanism to protect registry files. Such a mechanism exists and creates archive copies of the registry in the RegBack folder every 10 days, regardless of whether you have system restore enabled or not.

If you can't fix problems booting Windows 7, you should try replacing the existing (and apparently corrupted) 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 we 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:, attention, the drive letters here can be mixed up, but the system drive C: I think you can recognize by being inside system folders Windows and Program Files.

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

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 the SAM , SECURITY , SOFTWARE , DEFAULT , SYSTEM files from the C:\Windows\System32\Config folder, which are responsible for all registry hives,

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

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

Launching the folder

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 relevant only if the folder and the path to it are not damaged, in otherwise explorer.exe will not work correctly.

1. Through the task manager;
2. Through the command line.

First way

Select "Create a new task" and type 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 through the console, you must run a command prompt with administrator rights. To do this, press WIN + W and enter "Command Prompt" in the search bar. Click right click manipulator and select "Run as administrator":

Recovery Tool

In this case, you can choose to run Last Known Good Configuration. However, the method is not reliable if the computer is infected with a virus program.

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, and so on.

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

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

Working with the registry

Final computer cleaning

• We load an antivirus with a new database on external media;
• We are looking for a file on the Internet called explorer.exe, download and upload it to a USB flash drive where the antivirus is located;
• Using the latter, we check the computer and remove all suspicious utilities and files;
• We are looking 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);
• We 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 instruction for restoring the desktop

The order on the desktop is very good. All folders are in their places, labels are arranged on a grid, there is nothing superfluous. But sometimes such an “order” can appear unexpectedly and scare the user a lot, especially if all the shortcuts and even the taskbar disappear along with the Start button. To solve this problem, it is useful to know how to restore the desktop on Windows 7.

You decided to install Windows 7, made your wish come true, actively used the system, and suddenly, the next time you turned on your computer, you saw that instead of your desktop, a blank sheet appeared on the screen, not burdened with any shortcuts, gadgets and panels. What to do?

The explorer.exe file launches the Windows graphical shell, so after turning it on, the desktop appears on the screen with all the shortcuts and the taskbar. The question arises why this system file will not start normally? Most likely, some malicious program changed the parameters of its operation, specified in the registry, while the file itself remained working.

To fix this error, perform a system restore, and then be sure to check your computer with an antivirus or a special cleaning utility, Dr.Web CureIT.

Important! If you choose to customize Windows 7, do not disable System Restore. Creating and storing restore points, although it requires certain resources, can be extremely useful.

Using safe mode

If the Windows normal boot does not open the Task Manager or restore the desktop, you can try the steps above in safe mode.

Restart your computer and press the F8 key (to be sure, press it several times immediately after startup until the mode selection window appears).

In the vast majority of cases, you will see your home screen with all the shortcuts and panels. You just have to go to the "Start" menu and select the "System Restore" item, which is located in the "Utilities" section.

If the desktop is empty, call the "Task Manager" and try again to force the "explorer.exe" file to run.
Alternatively, you can immediately start System Restore by typing the “rstrui.exe” command.

After the system starts up normally, be sure to check it for viruses so that you do not encounter similar problems again.

Working with the registry

If System Restore does not help (or was simply disabled), you will have to work a little with the registry, checking and, if necessary, correcting some of the entries responsible for starting the Windows 7 graphical shell.

In the registry editor, you need to check several branches. First go sequentially along the path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE→SOFTWARE→Microsoft→WindowsNT→CurrentVersion→Winlogon.

Check the "shell" parameter - it should be set to "explorer.exe".

As you can see in the screenshot, in this case, the value of the parameter is different, so instead of a graphical shell, the system launches a malicious application that is located in the “temp” directory.

If you launch the "Task Manager" and carefully read the "Processes" tab, then among other running applications you can easily find the malware that you found in the registry.

Then check the "userinit" parameter - it should be set to "C:\Windows\system32\userinit.exe". In the presented screenshot, you can see that the system accesses the "temp" folder, launching a malicious application.

To correct these shortcomings, it is necessary to bring the value of the "shell" and "userinit" parameters back to normal. The resulting entries should look like this:

The next registry branch to check is HKEY_CURRENT_USER→Software→Microsoft→Windows→CurrentVersion→Policies→Explorer. If you see a "NoDesktop" setting here with a value of "1", change it to "0" or just delete it.

Finally, you can search by the name of the virus that you found in the value of the "shell" and "userinit" parameters.

Press Ctrl+F in the registry editor and start the search by typing the name of the malicious application in the line.

If you find a "shell" parameter on the HKEY_CURRENT_USER→Software→Microsoft→WindowsNT→CurrentVersion→Winlogon branch that has some path in its value, edit it. By default, the value of the "shell" parameter should be empty.

Registry recovery

In order not to correct entries manually, you can use the restore function Windows Registry 7. If you save a working registry configuration in advance in special file with the *.reg extension, you can easily return all the correct parameters if necessary.

But even if you have system restore turned off and you have not made copies of the registry, you can use the standard Windows tools, which allow you to return the records to their original state.

Every 10 days, the registry is automatically saved in the form of several files that can be found in the "RegBack" folder.

Now you need to delete the registry files from the "Config" directory and copy the backups from the "RegBack" directory in their place.
As a result, the registry will take on its normal, working form, in which no malicious applications will interfere with the correct display of the desktop.

Restoring system files

Above, we considered the situation when the explorer file itself is not damaged, and changes are made only to system registry. However, it also happens that recovery is required by the application itself, which is responsible for launching the shell.

To restore explorer.exe, follow these steps:

A computer scan will start, as a result of which system files will be searched for and restored. At this stage, you may need an installation disc, so prepare it in advance.

However, explorer.exe errors are usually fixed by the system itself, so you only need to wait for the scan to finish, after which you can start checking the registry.

AVZ Utility

Reestablish system files is possible not only with the built-in Windows tools, but also thanks to the AVZ utility. If you can’t start the program with standard two clicks, open the Task Manager and select the New Task item from the File menu.

Important! In the launch line, you must specify not the name of the utility, but the full path of its storage. For example: C:\Users\Username\Desktop\avz4\avz.exe.

The main program window will open. Expand the "File" menu and select "Update databases".

Wait for the update procedure to complete and click OK. Open the File menu again and select System Restore.

Check items 9 and 16 (“Remove debuggers” and “Restore startup key”) and click “Perform marked operations”.
After finishing work AVZ utilities it is necessary to check the registry and, if necessary, correct the entries using the instructions indicated above.

The most common cause missing desktop with all graphic elements in Windows - malware, penetrated into the system due to user inattention or improper functioning of the antivirus program. To fix this problem, you will need to restore the virus-damaged file that is responsible for the graphical shell of the OS and scan the computer for viruses.

Ways to revive the desktop

The performance of the graphical desktop shell in Windows is controlled by the explorer.exe application, which is located on the system partition in the Windows folder. If you change its properties specified in the registry, or damage executable file virus after booting the computer the screen will be absolutely clean.

There are several ways to restore the desktop in such cases:

• forced launch of the explorer.exe utility;
• system recovery;
• through the registry
• replacing the explorer.exe utility.

Forced launch of explorer.exe

The easiest way to restore the table in Windows 7 is to manually run the explorer.exe executable file.

The procedure will be as follows:

If the executable file is not damaged, then after performing these steps, the desktop should be restored. In this case, you should immediately scan the entire system for viruses with a reliable antivirus program. If this did not happen, or when accessing the task manager, a message pops up like “It is impossible to access the Task Manager due to blocking by the administrator”, which is also one of the signs of a virus attack, you can try to restore the desktop by other methods.

Using System Restore

You can start System Restore through Safe Mode or by using boot disk with the operating system. In the first case, you will need:

You can also start the Windows desktop recovery procedure through the installation disk with this OS. At the same time, its assembly should not differ from the one that is on the computer.

In this case, you need to do the following:

If this did not help to return the desktop settings, you can try to perform resuscitation from the command line (the Windows DVD must be installed in the drive):

Working with the registry

The executable graphic file is launched through a specific branch in the registry. When a PC is infected with a virus, instead of initializing explorer.exe, the virus program is activated. To restore the desktop using the registry, you must:

Replacing the executable explorer.exe

All of the above methods of reviving the desktop in Windows 7 are suitable when the explorer.exe file itself is not damaged. Otherwise, you will need to change it to a working one, which can be copied from DVD disc with the operating system.

The information required to restore the table is in the image with the .wim extension. To read it, you should download and install the 7-Zip archiver program, which is absolutely free. When downloading this utility, you need to pay attention to its bit depth (32 or 64 bit). It all depends on the bitness of the system used on your computer.

To restore the desktop, you will need:

1. Install the 7-Zip utility. The installation procedure is the same as in other programs.
2. AT DVD drive install a disk with Windows 7 of the required assembly, and a USB flash drive into the USB connector.
3. Having entered the root directory of the boot disk, go to the sourses folder and copy the install.wim file from it to any folder on your computer. For these purposes, it is better to make a new folder.
   
4. Turn on the archiver, go to the folder with the file you just copied and start the extraction procedure using the "Extract" button.
   
5. Go to folder 4 (Maximum OS build).
   
6. We go to Windows folder, select the explorer.exe file and transfer it to the USB flash drive.
   
7. After that, we restart the PC without removing the disk and USB flash drive, and we get into the window for choosing OS installation options. Click "System Restore" and open "Command Prompt".
   
8. In the command window, enter notepad, after which a regular notepad opens.
9. Using notepad, go to the USB flash drive and copy the explorer.exe file.
   
10. Through the same explorer, we go to the system disk (in the recovery environment, the names of the disks are different).

With Windows users a serious emergency may occur: all documents and icons from the desktop strangely disappear. That's just worth figuring out - is it serious - and then what to do. All the tragedy, as well as the speed of solving the problem, depends on the establishment of the cause.

Labels gone? Not a problem - we will tell you how to return everything to its place

First reason

When the user sees that all the icons on the desktop suddenly disappeared, he is no longer in the mood for jokes. However, the matter may lie just in a joke, and a very harmless one at that. On Windows, there is an option that allows you to hide all desktop elements. At the same time, they themselves are only not displayed on the main screen, but in no case are they destroyed. The option is activated and deactivated in a simple way.

1. We right-click on the free space on the desktop (and if the folders and shortcuts are gone, there should be plenty of it).
2. AT context menu select the "View" tab.
3. Check the box "Display desktop icons".

After that, all icons should reappear.

It may happen that shortcuts from the home screen have disappeared for the same reason, but this method does not help. Then you should check the "Desktop" folder for missing files.

1. Open "My Computer" (on Windows 10 this is easy to do through the "Explorer", on older systems - through the "Start" menu).
2. Double-click on the system drive "C".
3. Select the "Users" or "Users" directory there. It will contain the folders of all users of this PC.
4. We open the directory with the name of our user, we find the daddy "Desktop" or "Desktop".

There will be labels and documents if they have not been deleted.

explorer

The disappearance of icons from the desktop can also cause the failure of the Explorer program, which is responsible not only for folders, shortcuts and viewing them, but also for the functioning of the main parts of Windows management. If the case is in Explorer (not Internet Explorer), you just need to restart it.

1. Press the key combination Ctrl+Alt+Delete. On older OSes, "Task Manager" immediately appears, on new ones we select this function in the menu.
2. Open the advanced mode of the application.
3. Select File, then New Task.
4. Type "explorer.exe" (without the quotes), press "Enter".

These actions will restart Explorer if it suddenly crashes and does not want to reboot on its own. An error message is displayed - it's really bad. Now you have to either check the system with an antivirus, or delve into the registry.

Registry

Many people already know how to check a computer for virus software. Almost everyone has their own program for this case. Not? Then immediately download a free trial analog, for example, Dr. Web. The application will scan the system and possibly find viruses and bugs that have left all the icons and folders somewhere.

Things are much more complicated with the registry. You should not edit it and make any adjustments if you are still an inexperienced user. Have you decided yet? Then make a backup copy first so as not to lose other important documents.

1. Press the combination Win + R on the keyboard.
2. Enter "regedit" in the line and click on the "OK" button.
3. We find this section in the registry editor:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/WindowsNT/CurrentVersion/Image File Execution Options/

1. Open and look for "exe" or "iexplorer.exe" there. If we find it, we delete it.
2. Finding a section:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/WindowsNT/CurrentVersion/Winlogon/

1. On the right, there should be a "Shell" parameter, and its value: explorer.exe.
2. If the parameter is missing, then create it and set exactly this value.
3. We save all changes, close the editor and restart the PC.

These actions should help in the return of missing shortcuts and folders. However, they don't always help. Anyway, you can try the above method to find all the documents and icons in the Desktop folder. This, at a minimum, will save all the necessary files.