Restore & Recreate “Show Desktop” Icon on Quick Launch Toolbar
June 20th, 2006I use the handy Quick Launch toolbar on my windows lower navigation bar to quickly open programs that I use very often. It has quick launch shortcuts to notepad, firefox, messenger, media player etc… and my favourite and most useful shortcut is “Show Desktop”.
Clicking on the “Show Desktop” icon minimizes all open windows to show you the desktop. For some unknown reason, the Show desktop icon disappeared from my Quick Launch toolbar. I realized this is not like any other simple shortcut to a program. Of course I found a keyboard shortcut – pressing Windows key + M does the same job of minimizing all windows too.
In case you do not have a Quick Launch toolbar. Right click on the lower navigation bar, select Toolbars, check Quick Launch and the Toolbar should appear beside your start button. Drag and drop as many quick launch softwares as you want. Easily drag them to realign the order. Limit the length of the toobar by right click and selecting “Lock the Taskbar”.
I created a shortcut to “C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Desktop” on my desktop and dragged it to the quick launch toolbar. The same icon appeared. But when I clicked on it opened a new window showing the desktop contents. I could tweak the settings in Properties such that it opened minimized. But that is not what I wanted.
Then I found this Microsoft support article and which instructed on how to recreate the Show Desktop icon. And here are the simple steps.
1. Open Notepad
2. Copy and Paste this exactly (in multiple lines)
[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop
3. Save the file on Desktop as Show Desktop.scf (not with a .txt extension)
4. Drag the file to the Quick Launch toolbar
Click the Show Desktop Icon and it works!
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“Windows + D” can also be used to hide/show all windows on desktop.
Windows Key + M minimizes all windows, but Windows Key + D actually does the same thing as hitting that shortcut.
An article on “How to Add Show Desktop Icon on Quick Launch Toolbar” helped me a lot.
Thank you!
work for me
Worked…thanks!!!!
it works… thanx for the tips..
ur my god
That totally worked for me. Thanks alot!
Exactly what I was looking for. Not having this icon was driving me crazy!!
Thanks!
Bonnie
Thanks for this how to file, it saved me a bit of mental anguish trying to figure out how to restore it. Thanks.
I am so glad I found this article, my QL button vanished and it irritated the hell out of me.
Thank you for the simple shortcut of Windows Key + M. Why the microsoft website couldn’t bring itself to offer this simple solution will always puzzle me. We should all be thankful for technical savy people who are actually interested in helping those of us technically challenged.
Worked Fine
show desktop item helped me a lot..
thanks.. its very useful..
OMG! Thank you so much. I feel like a genius and now my favorite icon is back!
you can use this also :
start/run :
regsvr32 /n /i:U shell32
My first icon is, in quick launch, Internet Explorer and it also disappears and soon coming back and soon also disappers. Also disappears the second icon, when first is already dissapeared.
This have to be some windows problem, not just “show desktop” problem and how to solve this problem.
Hey, thanks a million for the code above. I lost my shortcut somehow and couldn’t find it in the system.
Thank you so much! I looked all over Windows Help to try to figure this out and finally gave up. Found your article through Google search – worked like a charm.
I tried all of above and the icon is back in Q/L. However it just did not work. This link fixed it. Took awhile to find it http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm. This fixes the Registry entry
It really helped me.
Thank u.
Yippee. It worked.
Bansty, loved your way of doing it!
Thanks :)
THANKYOU!!!! i have been going nuts trying to figure out how to restore that thing….your article was easy to understand..AND IT WORKED!
thanks alot.
thanks a lot this helped me out :)
Hi- your article was the first I found in google when searching for “my show desktop icon has disappeared” so I gather you’re very popular- cos you work!
Thanks.
Instead of dropping more clutter on your desktop, save this to C:/ and then link it from there.
Thanks for the tip though man, worked like a charm!
That was awesome,, like magic.. thanx man
Hey,
You really made my day. I’m a techie but still couldn’t figure out how to get the icon back to my QL bar. I followed your steps and it worked.
Thanks a lot!
harsha.
It worked! Thanks.
helpful website