disappearing program shortcuts and icons : windows7 64bit

basically - exactly as it says in the title

the desktop shortcuts and program icons [ start button ] have dissapeared for several progs - i am the only person with physical access to this comp

anti-virus , security etc firewall all uptodate and indicating no problems

but google earth , a cad drawing prog and irfanview have all vanished from the programs list

all are installed from genuine licenced DVD or licenced free download

and win7 64bit is obviously a genuine issue

the kicker is - the progs are still on the computer - and run if you select a file and use " open with "

the associated file tipes even have the correct icons on them to show what prog will open them

short of backing up all files and custom files then uninstall / re-install

anyone have any ideas / suggestions ?????

its more annoyance than a disaster

but i am a bit concerned that my OS is mutating by itself

what else might it do ` on its own ` ???

Aloha.

Right-click on your Start Menu and select Properties.

Does yours look like this?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d0d6af4c562f.png[/atsimg]

reply to post by ignorant_ape


Hi, its is possible that a virus or other malicious software may have caused this.
To restore file type associations run the following file www.dougknox.com...
it should work with windows 7 x64.
I would also advise running ad-aware to look for infections. www.lavasoft.com... the free trial is good enough

EDIT -
If you have no luck with the first linked file, please try using this.. its more specifically for windows 7 www.sevenforums.com...

What has happened is that your default file type associations may have became altered from user error or corruption, if you need any futher help, please don't hesitate to contact me.
you may also find the following website of use
www.sevenforums.com...

go to system restore and restore your pc to a time before the error was happend

Let's not panic, folks.

Not every issue is caused by PC black magic.

other errors memorycard or videocard(or both) is broken.

I don't use Windows 7 yet, but I can tell you what it probably is. There is a "useful" setting that gets rid of unused icons on your desktop, but most people like to keep their projects laid out for (ever) a long time on their desktop so one day you come and look and all your stuff is gone.

Hopefully this will help, but if my info is a little wrong, someone should be along and clear it up...

In Windows XP (and maybe 7) Go to control panel>Display>Desktop and at the bottom you will have a button that says customize desktop. In there you can turn off "get rid of unused icons and shortcuts" In most versions of XP, that is on by default which sucks.

Here is what you should do, open windows help. Search for unused icons.
This is a trick to help you find the setting for it in 7. If the search returns a result, it will give you info on where it is and to turn it off. Hope this helps.

“I’m from Microsoft and I’m here to help”

Windows 7 is just trying to keep your computer "operator friendly" by removing unused icons Don't you just hate when your operating system thinks it knows what you need?

Try this from Pcroger.com: The Fix for Windows 7 Icons Deleted

A couple of you got to this before I did, but I agree with the Unused Icon dump that Win7 will take on your desktop. I run Win7 Home Prem and did a lot of upfront setup before even thinking about starting to load programs and save data.

Oh, and since you are dealing with Win 7 issues, you might as well go ahead and set up your God Folder to make fixing things easier later.