Windows Vista Desktop Icons Gone!

Just had a question...

I was scanning my system with Norton AntiVirus and after I was finished, hald of my desktop icons were gone! I restarted my computer, but they're all missing still.

Norton only found a tracking cookie by the way, so it wasn't a virus that went haywire when trying to be removed.

I have a few folders on the desktop that are now gone, but when I open my documents and then hit "Desktop" on the left of the explorer box, they're still there!

I'm looking for help on how to get them back and what could have caused it, because I don't want this to happen again!

Edit: I just noticed that there's a "Desktop" in My Documents...

Edit 2: :C\Users\Bobby Maclennan\Documents\Desktop\Desktop refers to a location that is unavailable. It could be on the hard drive of this computer, or on a network. Check to make sure that the disk is properly inserted, or that you are connected to the Internet or your network, and then try again. If it still cannot be located, the information might have been moved to a different location. (I just got this message when opening Documents)

 

Yup, all checked.

There's a "Desktop" in Documents now, which I'm unable to move or delete...the error message makes me wonder, I don't understand how I could have magically "Deleted" the Desktop

 

Hi Had the same trouble after deleting a E Bay toolbar, it took all the desktop Icons with it, I found them all and replaced them except " My Computer" so did a System Restore and then just hid the toolbar and all's well.
Cheers Des.

 

System restore, that's what I should do...

Question about that though, would it delete files? For instance, I have a few .htm files I've made in the meantime...would those be gone?

 

If it's only a few files I'd copy 'em someplace off the PC just to be sure. I've given up on predicting exactly what Restore will do 'cept that there's usually one thing I didn't expect or want. Best not to make assumptions.

 

For some reason, System Restore is not working...

This whole thing is just messed up

 

Do you have any 3rd party toolbars hooked to the shell, any
file copier utilities set as the default shell copy? any Browser
Helpers attached to Internet Explorer? I'm not into Norton so I don't
know if it makes a backup but other than that it sounds like
something is messing up the Namespace shell stuff(which is what Windows
uses as a psuedo file system to hook together Desktop My Computer
etc..)

Your best bet might be if you have any registry backups. I use
ERUNT for an automatic rotating weeks worth of registry backup.
First thing though is I'd try a Norton specific forum. Chances are it
happened to somebody else.

I do the ocassional spyware and virus scan with semi-harmless
utilities and rely on Sandboxie as prevention. From what I've seen
anti-virus is a two-edged sword.

 

I have none of that stuff mentioned, none whatsoever.

I don't think Norton is the cause, it's fine on my mom's Vista computer and it hasn't caused a problem. I think it's just a glitch that happened in Vista, or a Vista error...it just seems that way

 

Little update here
---

This desktop issue is not really affecting my system, but it there still is a problem. In the "Desktop" folder in "My Documents ", there's still a second Desktop. My concern is the large amount of space it takes up; Vista will also not let me delete it

The 2 desktops are also different somehow...