Fix 'jumping icons' on the Windows 10 desktop The first option that you have is to enable the 'align icons to grid' option which takes care of that. Right-click on a free location on the desktop and select View Align icons to grid to activate the feature. You may repeat the process to disable it again in the future. Inside Settings, click on Personalization. From the next window, select the Themes tab from the left pane. On the right pane of the Themes tab, click on Desktop icon settings to open the settings in order to enable the Desktop icon visibility. Select the icons you want to show on the desktop and click on Apply and OK buttons afterward.

Stay calm if Windows 10 update deletes your desktop files or icons disappeared from your desktop. This page guide you to determine whether the desktop is missing or deleted by Windows update and guide you to recover missing desktop icons and bring all lost files with manual solutions and automated EaseUS file recovery software.

How do I get my desktop back on Windows 10?

When I had the Monitor/Laptop setup -all open applications and desktop icons stayed in place. With the two monitor set up, the applications open on my Secondary Monitor move to the Primary after Waking Up, and the Desktop icons on my Primary shift around. (I have to drag everything back.) This is annoying, please assist.

'I'm having this problem that the desktop files and some apps disappeared after Windows 10 update. Some files and folders stored on the desktop of my PC disappeared after Windows 10 upgrade. I don't know where to find them.

How do I recover the lost files and get my desktop back to normal on Windows 10?'

According to Microsoft and a large number of Windows users, Windows 10 update indeed deletes some files in system drive or causes desktop apps missing. So how to fix this issue?

First, you need to check out whether the desktop files are lost or missing. You can right-click on Windows icon > Open File Explorer > Navigate to C:UsersPublic or C:UsersUserNameDocuments and search the missing file name at the right search bar.

Next, choose the right solutions toward your current issues:

If files show up in File Explorer after searching, they are not lost but saved on a specific location on your PC. Follow manual solutions in Part 1 to restore your Windows desktop icons and files.

If nothing shows up in File Explorer by searching, your files are probably hidden or lost. Refer to solutions in Part 2 for help.

Part 1. 5 ways to restore missing desktop apps and files

Due to Windows 10 bug, desktop and saved files may disappear after Windows 10 update. And you may try here below manual methods get lost desktop back:

Method 1. Show desktop icons

Step 1. Right-click on the desktop, go to View and uncheck'Show desktop icons'.

Step 2. Re-check the Show desktop icons option to see if the desktop icons and files show up. If not, try multiple times to repeatedly uncheck and re-check the box.

When the desktop files and icons show up, continue with the next step to arrange your Desktop.

Step 3. Right-click on your desktop, select 'View' > Check or uncheck 'Auto Arrange Icons'.

It would make all files and folders appear on the left side. And you can drag and drop them where you need them to be.

Method 2. Manually set Windows icons to show up

Step 1. Open 'Settings' and click on 'Personalization' > 'Themes' > 'Desktop icons settings'.

Step 2. Check desktop icons like Computer (This PC), User's Files, Network, Recycle Bin, and Control Panel that you'd like to show them on desktop.

Click 'Apply', then 'OK'.

Method 3. Switch User Account to find missing Desktop files

Sometimes, when you logged in a wrong account, the saved files and installed applications on the Desktop may disappear. All you need is to switch the right account and bring the missing files and apps back.

Step 1. Click the Windows icon and click your username at the top.

Step 2. Select the other visible account on the list, click to switch to it.

Step 3. Sign in with the password of the other user account.

After this, your files and disappeared app icons should be available again.

Method 4. Disable Tablet mode, switch to desktop mode

This method only works on a device with a touch screen. Tablet mode is enabled on Windows 10 and it may cause desktop or icons missing issue.

Here are the steps to disable the Tablet mode:

Step 1. Right-click on the Windows icon and select 'Settings'.

Step 2. Click 'System' > 'Tablet mode'.

Step 3. Under I sign in, select 'Use desktop mode' and disable 'Hide app icons on the taskbar in tablet mode' by switching to 'Off'.

Method 5. Go back to the previous Windows build

When your desktop disappears due to Windows 10 update, you can revert it to the previous Windows Build so to resolve this issue.

Windows 10 Desktop Icons

Step 1. Go to Settings > Click 'Update and security' > Go to the Recovery tab.

Step 2. Click 'Get Start' under Go back to the previous version of Windows 10.

Then follow the onscreen instructions to roll back Windows 10, bringing the missing desktop back.

Part 2. Recover lost or disappeared Dekstop files

Files disappeared from desktop may be deleted by Windows 10 update or got hidden by the OS or other programs. Therefore, you have two options here to restore the lost or missing files.

Method 1. Show hidden files on Windows 10 desktop

Step 1. Open Windows Explorer, click on 'Views' > 'Options' > 'Folder Options:.

Step 2. Go to View Tab and check 'show hidden files, folders and drives' (uncheck the option 'Hide protected operating system files' if there is this option). Click 'OK' to save all the changes.

Close the Folder Options window and then go back to the desktop to see if you can find the saved documents and files.

If no files, folders nor apps are found, you need to refer to a more powerful data recovery software to fix this issue.

Method 2. Recover lost desktop files with data recovery software

Reliable data recovery software can effectively recover disappeared or lost desktop files in PC due to Windows system update. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard allows you to recover any lost files, apps or folders in Windows PC or storage devices under complex situations.

Besides, it also supports USB recovery, hard drive recovery, external hard drive recovery, etc. in a few simple clicks. Let's see how to restore the desktop files with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard:

Step 1. Run EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, select location to scan lost folder.

Under the Specify a location section, click 'Browse' on Select Folder to choose the location where you lost the folder and click 'OK' to scan the lost folder.

Step 2. Find and preview found files in the lost folder.

You can find the lost folder in 'Deleted Files', 'Lost Files' or use the 'Search' feature to quickly find the lost folder by searching the folder name. Then open the found folder and double-click to preview lost files.

Step 3. Recover and save the lost folder with files.

Windows 10 Unable To Move Desktop Icons

Last, select the folder and files and click 'Recover', browse to choose a new & secure spot on your PC and click 'OK' to save it.

Bonus tips to protect Windows desktop files

When your desktop files or icons disappeared or lost, you can effectively restore them by following solutions provided in Part 1 and Part 2. Besides, you may also want some practical tips to protect the Windows desktop files. Here, we've collected two reliable tips to help.

# 1. Create backups for Desktop valuable files

To avoid similar issues from happening again, we'd like to suggest you create backups for desktop files and important data in PC before installing Windows update.

You may copy all valuable files on the desktop to another secure device as a backup or refer to a powerful file backup software to create a full backup of all files on your PC at one time.

Here are the detailed steps of creating backup image of Desktop files in 3 steps:

Step 1: Launch EaseUS Todo Backup software and then choose 'File Backup', 'Disk/partition Backup' or 'System Backup' for different backup purpose.

Step 2: Choose the system, disk partition, files or apps that you want to back up. Then select a destination where you want to store the backup file.

Step 3: Click 'Proceed' to start the data backup process.

# 2. Turn on Windows Defender and clear disk errors

Due to virus infection or disk error, sometimes, the Desktop apps and files my suddenly disappear on your PC. To avoid this issue, we also suggest you turn on Windows Defender or use virus cleaner software to protect your PC and run disk check command to clear existing errors on your local hard drive.

Steps to turn on Windows Defender, Virus & threat protection

Step 1. Right-click Windows icon and select 'Settings' > Click 'Update and Security' > Click 'Open Windows Defender Security Center'.

Step 2. Click 'Virus & threat protection' on the new window > Go to Virus & threat protection settings.

Step 3. Turn on these three options: Real-time protection, Cloud-delivered protection, and Automatic sample submission.

Steps to run disk error check

Step 1. Open My Computer/This PC, right-click the C: drive that your invisible Desktop files were saved on and click 'Properties'.

Step 2. Click 'Tools' under Error-checking, select to scan existing errors in your drive. Click 'Check' to start the process.

Windows 10 Desktop Icons Moving After Sleeper

Step 3. Click 'Scan drive' to begin scanning and repairing any found hard drive errors.

Windows 10 Desktop Icons Move After Restart