Go Back   Cyber Tech Help Support Forums > Operating Systems > Windows 7

Notices

Windows 7 Problem solving for the Windows 7 Operating System. Please remember to state which edition of Windows 7 you are using - Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate.

Reply
 
Topic Tools
  #1  
Old April 11th, 2013, 04:19 AM
jmnew51's Avatar
jmnew51 jmnew51 is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
O/S: Windows 7 64-bit
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 983
Desktop backround disappeared

I was screwing around with something in the task manager and my desktop disappeared. All my icons are there, but not the background. I tried right clicking the desktop and all it shows are blank thumbnails where the thumbnails of the background pics should be. I'm not sure what I did, but if someone could help me out I would really appreciate it.

Thanx

Jim
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old April 12th, 2013, 02:00 PM
Digerati Digerati is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Nebraska, USA
Posts: 2,562
I'd reboot.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old April 12th, 2013, 04:23 PM
jmnew51's Avatar
jmnew51 jmnew51 is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
O/S: Windows 7 64-bit
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 983
I've rebooted several times. That didn't help.

Jim
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old April 12th, 2013, 08:56 PM
Digerati Digerati is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Nebraska, USA
Posts: 2,562
Since I wrongly assumed we were talking about the computer in your sig in your other thread, and you've told us nothing of your computer in this thread, I won't assume anything here.

We need more information before going further.
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old April 12th, 2013, 09:59 PM
jmnew51's Avatar
jmnew51 jmnew51 is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
O/S: Windows 7 64-bit
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 983
It's windows 7 32-bit on an Emachines T5254. 2GB of RAM. 40 GB Hard Drive.

Jim
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old April 13th, 2013, 02:24 PM
Digerati Digerati is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Nebraska, USA
Posts: 2,562
Try this: Microsoft FixIt - Fix broken desktop shortcuts and common system maintenance tasks
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old April 14th, 2013, 12:10 AM
jmnew51's Avatar
jmnew51 jmnew51 is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
O/S: Windows 7 64-bit
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 983
Thank you for your suggestion Digerati, but that didn't help. I think what I did was I ended the process "Windows Explorer" in the Task Manager. Then when I rebooted the desktop was black. I have all my icons, however like I said I'm having trouble changing it to anything but that.

Jim
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old April 14th, 2013, 02:54 PM
Digerati Digerati is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Nebraska, USA
Posts: 2,562
Quote:
I think what I did was I ended the process "Windows Explorer" in the Task Manager. Then when I rebooted the desktop was black.
Ending Windows Explorer in TM should not have caused this type problem.

Do you have a Restore Point from a day or two before this started?
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old April 14th, 2013, 07:02 PM
jmnew51's Avatar
jmnew51 jmnew51 is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
O/S: Windows 7 64-bit
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 983
Yes I do and I tried system restore, but that didn't help either.

Thanx

Jim
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old April 15th, 2013, 02:45 PM
Digerati Digerati is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Nebraska, USA
Posts: 2,562
Well, I am afraid I am at a loss. I note you said you have 40Gb hard drive. That leaves very little space after Windows is installed, and even less space once you start using Windows and install other apps.

How much free disk space do you have? Have purged the HD of clutter? Have you scanned for malware?
Reply With Quote
  #11  
Old April 15th, 2013, 03:39 PM
jmnew51's Avatar
jmnew51 jmnew51 is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
O/S: Windows 7 64-bit
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 983
I have 4.8GB of free space. I keep all my systems pretty clean. And yes I frequently scan for malware using ESET, Antimalwarebytes and Microsoft Security Essentials. When I do system restore it only gives me a date that is a couple of days old. How do I go back farther than that?

Thanx for trying.

Jim
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old April 15th, 2013, 04:03 PM
Digerati Digerati is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Nebraska, USA
Posts: 2,562
You can't go back further than the oldest restore point. And you likely don't have any older restore points because you are almost critically low on free disk space. Windows has a very restricted amount of elbow room (temporary work space) to work in and I suspect that is much of your problem.

Severely hampering things further is your very limiting amount of RAM. With only 2Gb of RAM, Windows and your CPU are forced to spool data out to your page file on the slow hard drive frequently, and your PF is already being cramped by the small amount of free disk space. It may be further hampered if that tiny amount of free disk space is fragmented.

You need to free up some space on your drive by uninstalling programs you installed but don't need, replace your drive with a bigger drive, or install a second drive and move some of the data to it.
Reply With Quote
  #13  
Old April 16th, 2013, 12:32 AM
jmnew51's Avatar
jmnew51 jmnew51 is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
O/S: Windows 7 64-bit
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 983
OK. Thank you for your suggestions Digerati.

Jim
Reply With Quote
  #14  
Old April 16th, 2013, 06:37 AM
jenae jenae is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Sydney
Posts: 61
Hi, with only 4+ gb left on the HDD you are seriously compromised, you do need to get a larger drive, 40 gb was fine 12 years ago. When you stopped the explorer process it is most likely the Icon cache was corrupted, you can rebuild it, however you really do need to get a larger HDD.

2 gb Ram on a 32 bit is for most users fine. I would not bother increasing this, you will not notice the difference, spend the money on a new hdd.
Reply With Quote
  #15  
Old April 16th, 2013, 02:26 PM
Digerati Digerati is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Nebraska, USA
Posts: 2,562
Quote:
2 gb Ram on a 32 bit is for most users fine. I would not bother increasing this, you will not notice the difference, spend the money on a new hdd.
I agree more disk space is the first priority but I strongly disagree that more RAM will not improve performance noticeably. Bumping RAM to 4Gb will provide a very noticeable performance boost with Windows 7. This is especially true with motherboards using integrated graphics.

Sure, Windows 7 will run with 2Gb, but performance will be hampered.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Topic Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Topics
Topic Topic Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Desktop Disappeared kuzzz Windows XP 3 November 28th, 2009 03:38 AM
Desktop Icons disappeared! Smokey Windows XP 7 January 23rd, 2009 02:01 PM
how do I delete items on my sceen saver or desktop backround lists? rickr Windows XP 1 September 14th, 2008 10:48 PM
Setting pictures as desktop backround Nefertiti Windows NT, 2000, 2003, 2008, 2012 12 April 7th, 2008 03:02 PM
My desktop icons have disappeared... AnthonyUser Windows XP 5 December 3rd, 2006 06:25 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 02:07 PM.