{"id":10457,"date":"2010-01-29T13:11:35","date_gmt":"2010-01-29T12:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onsoftware.en.softonic.com\/restore-lost-desktop-shortcuts-in-windows-xp\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T02:16:37","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T09:16:37","slug":"restore-lost-desktop-shortcuts-in-windows-xp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/restore-lost-desktop-shortcuts-in-windows-xp\/","title":{"rendered":"Restore lost desktop shortcuts in Windows XP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When you install Windows XP for the first time \u2013 or perform a clean reinstallation from scratch \u2013 you usually get a bunch of default icons on your desktop, namely My Computer, My Documents, My Network Places, Internet Explorer and the Recycle Bin. These are special system shortcuts, different from standard desktop shortcuts, and have their own tweaking options to hide them or bring them back in case they&#8217;re lost.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/articles-images.sftcdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2010\/01\/icons.png\" alt=\"Restore lost desktop shortcuts in Windows XP\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If you want to recover those lost system icons, right click anywhere on the desktop to open the <strong>Display Properties<\/strong> window, select the <strong>Desktop<\/strong> tab and click the <strong>Customize Desktop<\/strong> button. This will open the Desktop Items window, where you can see a box containing all these special system icons, and small checkboxes to enable or disable them. Now simply select which icons should be displayed and which ones should be kept hidden, or hit the <strong>Restore Default<\/strong> button to go back to the standard configuration.<\/p>\n<p>Incidentally, the Desktop Items window also lets you change the icon in these special system shortcuts. It&#8217;s as easy as selecting the icon you want to customize, click <strong>Change Icon<\/strong> and select a new one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you install Windows XP for the first time \u2013 or perform a clean reinstallation from scratch \u2013 you usually get a bunch of default icons on your desktop, namely My Computer, My Documents, My Network Places, Internet Explorer and the Recycle Bin. These are special system shortcuts, different from standard desktop shortcuts, and have &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/restore-lost-desktop-shortcuts-in-windows-xp\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Restore lost desktop shortcuts in Windows XP&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2011,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-10457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 5.0.4 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When you install Windows XP for the first time \u2013 or perform a clean reinstallation from scratch \u2013 you usually get a bunch of default icons on your desktop, namely My Computer, My Documents, My Network Places, Internet Explorer and the Recycle Bin. 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