How to restore Show Desktop icon in quick launch bar?

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I think many of you might accidentally deleted the Show Desktop icon in the quick launch bar. I also did accidentally deleted the Show Desktop icon at quick launch bar. Finally i found the solution to re create or restore this Show Desktop icon in quick launch bar again.

Just follow the steps below and you will restore Show Desktop icon back in your quick launch bar:-

  • Click Start -> Run -> type Notepad and enter
  • Copy the contents below to your Notepad and save as Show Desktop.scf

    [Shell]
    Command=2
    IconFile=explorer.exe,3
    [Taskbar]
    Command=ToggleDesktop

  • Once the file created, drag the file to the Quick Launch bar.
    show desktop, win xp, icon
    You will see the icon above if you restore the Show Desktop successfully
  • Done! You just restore Show Desktop icon.

Note: By default Notepad save all document as txt file. To save your file as .scf file extension, type the full file name together with the extension and simply select the “Save as type” from txt to “All files” and click “Save”

There are another way to restore show desktop icon in quick launch bar:-

  • Click Start -> Run and type regsvr32 /n /i:U shell32.dll and enter
  • Done! You just restore your Show Desktop icon


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Posted at October 3rd, 2006 by chua

If you think this article helps you to solve your problem and clear your headache, feel free to buy me a drink :)


92 Responses to “How to restore Show Desktop icon in quick launch bar?”

  1. Mark Says:

    I followed the directions to recreate the show desktop icon on the quick lauch bar, but both methods end with the same results. An icon is recreated and the hoverover text is “show desktop” but nothing happens when it is clicked.

    What am I missing?

  2. chua Says:

    Did u click it on your desktop?
    if yes, then it wont have any effect cuz you already in the desktop.

    Remember to drag that icon to your Quick Launch Bar and open few program,
    then you click on it, you will see the difference.

  3. Screwed Says:

    My 12 year old daughter lost the whole registry setting to make show desktop icon to function. I got the icon back but the .scf defaulted to a Sims 2 mod. I tried to restore all the reg settings, but with no avail. WOW! I couldn’t even make such a mess, but my daughter did. Google and MS searches show how to get the icon…but what about how the .scf functions!! HOw do I tried restor .scf reg settings by referencing my othe pc’s. How do you reset explorer to even dafault to execute the .sfc commands??

  4. kannan Says:

    THanks for ur help i restored my show desktop button thank you very much

  5. Pradeep Says:

    Thank you so much. I got my icon back. It was really a great stuff.

  6. Robert Says:

    VERY NICE, Perfect and now I don’t have to minimize 20 programs to find my icons.

    Thank you.

  7. Cruiser Says:

    Thanks for the hint and the lesson. I guess you call that a “batch file” from the old DOS days. Most excellent !! Thanks

  8. Boris Becker Says:

    Great stuff! Got the icon back on the quick launch bar and it’s working. This is a much better solution than what those idiots have on the official Microsoft website!

    Congrats and thanks!

  9. Timothy Says:

    It worked and the icon automatically appeared. Thanks so much. I accidently deleted my whole computer using logmein. I had all my files in a 45GB folder i was trying to backup. I used some recovery program to recover the folder. I still have no way to backup to reinstall windows.

  10. Paul Says:

    I get the icon back. Thank you so much!

  11. Keith Smith Says:

    I am no technocrat. This was easy and took me less than 3 minutes. It does what it says it will do. I used to press (alt option – M) to do the same thing. Thanks…

  12. angelo Says:

    to Robert..
    in order to clear your desktop from programs, press windows icon + D
    to bring it again do the same

  13. chen Says:

    My show desktop icon come back! Thank’s for the steps.

  14. Chris Says:

    Failure. Both of your suggested methods bring back the ICON, but not the functionality. When I click the show desktop icon now, I get a security warning asking if I want to open or save the file. (Name: Show Desktop.scf Type: Windows Explorer Command, 79 bytes) Choosing save makes a new copy of the file; choosing open returns to the same dialog box again. Opening the file through Notepad confirms that the commands are correct. Hitting the windows key + D properly minimizes all my windows and shows the desktop. Do you have any idea what is going wrong?

  15. Riad Says:

    I have just tried it and it worked very well, if it doesnt at the first time just desactivate your quick launch icons then lauch them again it’s gonna work.thanks for the help

  16. Basty Says:

    Start/Run
    regsvr32 /n /i:U shell32

    does the same thing

  17. McMoo Says:

    You rock dude, thanks!

  18. AB Says:

    Worked well for me once I carefully followed the instructions and right-clicked on the Windows toolbar then selected “Toolbars” and clicked on Quicklaunch which had been previously hidden.

    Thanks for the help!

  19. al Says:

    dear chris, am facing the same problem.. clicking the icon just opens a dialog bax with open & save options.
    i cant say just how frustrating this is, but i have just spent more than 5 hours trying to resolve the issue. if u have done omething to correct the problem, pls o post.it,
    regards,
    al.

  20. MRJ Says:

    It worked! I tried Option 2 & then followed Riad’s advice. Thank you both for the assistance! =0)

  21. Dave Says:

    Worked, THANK YOU!!

  22. Heath Says:

    I lost me Show Desktop icon after deleting files from a user acccount that I didn’t want no more, This solution is quick and easy and it works.

  23. segaran Says:

    I had just tried it and its really works,a great advance solution tips to share with. Thanks for the help

  24. piyush chandra Says:

    that was gr8 solution…
    i had been lookin for it..
    that was easy but couldn’t find out myself… :(

    thats the same when you open the “show desktop” in notepad,
    just drag it to notepad, and u’ll see…..

    and more u can change the icons by changing the values…
    IconFile=explorer.exe,”x”
    giving various values for x… dats fun… :)

  25. Chitra Says:

    Great Job..I restored my Desktop Icon..I am so happy too…
    Thank you/

  26. Mike Says:

    Great!

    been looking for this for a while now..

    took less than 10 seconds, thanks a lot.

  27. hwystar Says:

    thanks the icon came back but the function that is suppose to do is still not working.
    How do u make it work again?

  28. Nibha Says:

    Thanks for the tip. It worked well for me. I am glad to have the icon back. Thanks.

  29. Heather Says:

    I tried the second option and it restored the icon, but after rebooting it restored all of my XP settings to their defaults. It even tried to restore Office again and started asking for disks. Is there any way to reverse the registry change without harming the system?? I used the restore function and it brought me back to my original screen (without the desktop icon) and then the next time I rebooted it reverted back to the defaults again and I had to restore again….Help!

  30. Tom Ashforth Says:

    Dear Chris and Al,

    When creating your txt file, save as and make sure the file extension is .scf

    It may be worth trying the following after saving as well:

    My computer
    Tools
    Folder options
    View
    Untick the box “Hide extensions for known file types”
    Apply
    Ok

    Know check the .scf file you have created. it may look something like this

    “Show Desktop.scf.txt”

    Try renaming the file “Show Desktop.scf” making sure once applied the .txt extension is not showing.

    Hope this helps!

  31. Bruce Says:

    Thank you, this was a quick and easy fix for my windows XP system. I had it back within 3 minutes!!

  32. Bethany Says:

    thanks soooooo much, i deleted mine by accident ages ago and it has been bugging me ever since. I owe you a huge thank you!

  33. Buhril Says:

    thanks a lot ! lo my show desktop is restored.

  34. Obaid Says:

    Thanx man it worked real good.

  35. Caroline Says:

    THANKS SO MUCH. (:

  36. dani Says:

    WOW that was amazing!
    ur a god
    thanks so much

  37. Nemanja Says:

    I DID ALL THAT,FIRST AND THE SECOND WAY,AND MY SHOW DESKTOP ICON ISNT WORKING?NOTHING HAPPENS WHEN I CLICK ON IT!

  38. eneccar Says:

    thank you

  39. yulonda Says:

    I DID EVERYTHING YOU SAID BUT I DONT KNOW WHERE THE QUICK LAUNCH BAR IS….IM LOST….PLEASE HELP…THANK YOU

  40. TJ Says:

    Dude thanks for the tip just like u said i acedently deleted mine dont ask how but i just did, BUT thanks man for the lesson i learned sumthing new today

  41. JB Says:

    Go to Start and click search
    Choose All files and folders
    Type in – show desktop
    Search
    Wait for results
    Choose file
    When Icon comes to desktop drag to quick launch.
    Excellent!

  42. celine Says:

    GREAT JOB..
    i finally restored my icon..
    thanks ya!!!

  43. Will Alverson Says:

    ive created the .scf file, dragged it to the quick launch and that didnt work, tried double clicking, that didnt work!

  44. Zebra Says:

    I LOVE you!!!

  45. John Says:

    I’ve tried these two techniques and nothing works. I used to enjoy this feature but one day it sopped working and is still dead. Any ideas?

    John

  46. Morten P Says:

    Hey
    After I had run the “regsvr32 /n /i:U shell32.dll” and pressed Enter I went to the C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR-USERNAME\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch and I found the ShowDesktop ShortCut and dragged it to the taskbar! AND IT WORKS.

    Regards
    Morten

  47. Robert Says:

    thanks so much u made it so simple & easy

  48. Stef Says:

    Worked like a charm, thanks for the info

  49. Deborah F. Says:

    WOW! I was skeptical, thinking something could damage my PC here, but it actually worked! I used the ‘resvr32′ suggestion and the icon just popped up. The best advice was from Morten P. – his notes helped me get thru the process. And I’m an accountant, not a techie! I spent hours trying to fix this last week, took me 2 minutes today … thanks for the help.

  50. Peter S Says:

    Fantastic! I ran the registry command and the little icon just mysteriously appeared in my quick launch bar again. No more using a dumb shortcut – wohoo!

    Thanks for the help!

  51. john m Says:

    I ran the registry command and the icon apeared in my quick launch bar but doesn’t execute. Instead when I click on it, my Spybot scans it and doesn’t find anything and that’s it. How do I get rid of the Spybot execution and let it execute itself?

  52. Minnie Says:

    Thank you soooo much! Your directions were so clear cut that even a pc-illiterate such as myself can understood, so thanks!

  53. Angelo Says:

    I have the exact same problem as “john m”

    When I click on the “show desktop” button, Spybot scans it and finds nothing wrong with it!

    Does anyone know why this would be happening, and is there any fix for this?

  54. Gina Says:

    I have also lost my taskbar and desktop icons. I have tried all that was said to try to fix it and it still has not appeared. Any suggestions? The only operable function I have it ctrl+alt+delete then click on new task. Please help!! Thanks

  55. Raghu Says:

    Thank U

  56. emad Says:

    why troubling yourselves too much just copy it from any other computer and drag it to your quick launch
    i did it before

  57. Jason Says:

    Thanks alot for this little fix. been wanting my icon back for a few days now but to lazy to look up on the net for it. hehe. ty again.

  58. Tully Says:

    Cheers – When my office switched servers my quick launch folder vanished and would come up with an error when I tried to get it back. Desktop icon was gone, and when having to minimise 6 windows everytime I wanted to get to the desktop finally started annoying the hell out of me, this little trick solved the prob. Thanks again.

  59. Sireeshna Says:

    Thank you soo much… It worked perfectly.. but I am not sure about the second method.. it didnt work for me..

  60. Leo Says:

    It worked just as u said. Thank you so much.

  61. Robert Says:

    Second fix doesn’t work in XP x86-64.. just an fyi, but thanks for the 1st tip!

  62. mohammad Says:

    thank u very much, u r amazing

  63. Javad from Iran Says:

    I had this problem, however the icon was there but not working, I didn’t know the second method, I used the first one but it did not work for me. Then I found out that I should this also:

    Go to My Computer->Tools->Folder Options->File Types
    click New
    type “SCF” (no quotes)
    Click Advanced
    For @ssociated File Type type “Windows Explorer Command” (no quotes)

  64. Javad from Iran Says:

    for gina
    try running explorer.exe from new task

  65. Mike in Oregon Says:

    As soon as I read this from Javad from Iran, “Javad from Iran Says:

    December 22nd, 2008 at 5:37 pm
    I had this problem, however the icon was there but not working, I didn’t know the second method, I used the first one but it did not work for me. Then I found out that I should this also:

    Go to My Computer->Tools->Folder Options->File Types
    click New
    type “SCF” (no quotes)
    Click Advanced
    For @ssociated File Type type “Windows Explorer Command” (no quotes)”, …….

    I followed his lead and discovered that my SCF files were mis-associated with a Sims sound file from a game that had been installed. I fixed that easily and typed the “Run” command, – regsvr32 /n /i:U shell32.dll and presto! Everything was correct and working. Javad, I thank you.

  66. Sunday G Says:

    thanks ! you really helped me.

  67. EP Says:

    Thanks. It worked fine for me.

  68. Syed Muzamil Says:

    Thx the 2nd option worked .

    regsvr32 /n /i:U shell32.dll

    Thanks again…

  69. ryan Says:

    The second option on your,”HOW TO RESTORE DESKTOP”,worked perfect.
    You made it very easy,thank you so much.

  70. Nadine Says:

    Wow, my friend lost ALL of my quick launch icons. Thanks to you I could reset the last one…. the desktop icon! Just keineig!

  71. Tim Weber Says:

    Well done – excellent & easy fix… many thanks

  72. Bobby Says:

    Thank you on helping me get my desktop icon back in my taskbar,and working perfectly.Even a rookie can do it,thank you.

  73. Paul Says:

    Windows Logo+D keystroke is just as effective.

    Others that are handy to know;

    * Windows Logo (Display or hide the Start menu)
    * Windows Logo+BREAK (Display the System Properties dialog box)
    * Windows Logo+D (Display the desktop)
    * Windows Logo+M (Minimize all of the windows)
    * Windows Logo+SHIFT+M (Restore the minimized windows)
    * Windows Logo+E (Open My Computer)
    * Windows Logo+F (Search for a file or a folder)
    * CTRL+Windows Logo+F (Search for computers)
    * Windows Logo+F1 (Display Windows Help)
    * Windows Logo+ L (Lock the keyboard)
    * Windows Logo+R (Open the Run dialog box)
    * Windows Logo+U (Open Utility Manager)

  74. OptoGuy Says:

    That has been bothering me for close to a year now. This worked perfectly. Thank you.

  75. SteveI Says:

    Both methods worked a treat

  76. abhishek Says:

    thanks man..the second one worked.

  77. Tangaloo Says:

    Thanks, worked like a charm!

  78. DanielQuinde Says:

    It works! thanks men.

  79. JP Says:

    The fix worked great! Thanks for posting!

  80. David Says:

    Javad from Iran- THANKS!!!

  81. KS Says:

    lol thanks for posting

  82. Arslan Ali Says:

    Thanks , i have use the first option and it works

    Thanks again

  83. Dave Says:

    w00t! Thank you, chua!

  84. Martin Says:

    All good, but, only seems to work if you leave a copy of it on the desktop as well as on the quick launch bar?

  85. Karthik Says:

    For those whom this does not work, check the spelling in the file.
    I did the same mistake and then corrected.

  86. Slippy Says:

    Thanks so much! i just misplaced this by accidently dropping it on my desktop then i deleted it xD
    So thanks alot! This is my favorite button!

  87. Dipinder Says:

    Works !! Awsome.

    For some reason, I was reading “.scf” as “.csf” again and again ….
    “.scf” works. cheers !!

  88. Chris Says:

    the smallest thing makes my day! Thanks a million!

  89. Julia Says:

    heyy…… i had the same problem like sumtime bk… searchd. tried ur steps… and ther u go… its working now…!! :) thanx a million…!

  90. Jadius Says:

    Dang, For some reason when i made a new user, the quick launch for show desktop wouldn’t work at all.. Thanks to your greeaat help :) it saved me and a heap of people a lot of time :D

  91. Base Says:

    Thanks man…Good Code

  92. bronagh Says:

    thanks so much! huge help! you rock!

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