What to do if the desktop is blank after logging into Windows?

!In this article, we will look at the problem when immediately after loading the Windows OS you see only the desktop wallpaper, and there are no shortcuts and folders.

We will show in detail and step by step what should be checked to fix this problem.

What to do if the desktop is blank after logging into Windows:

First of all, you should check that the explorer.exe process is running.
To do this, use the key combination CTRL + SHIFT + ESC to open the Task Manager, find the explorer.exe process on the Details tab.
If it is running, restart it by selecting Restart from the right-click menu.
If it is not running, click Run new task and execute the command explorer.exe.
To make sure that the explorer process explorer.exe starts automatically when you log into Windows, check that it is specified in the registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon in the registry key Shell.
To launch the registry editor, use the key combination Win + R and run regedit.
Also, in the registry editor, check for the absence of the NoDesktop parameter with the value 1 in the registry branches:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
and also delete the HideIcons parameter in the branch HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced , and also delete the registry branch HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\NewStartPanel.
Then you should make sure that the directory with the user profile contains shortcuts and folders.
To go to this directory, type %username%/Desktop in the address bar of the explorer.
If this folder is empty, then either the profile of this user is damaged, or the files and shortcuts have been deleted.
If the problem persists, right-click on the desktop and check that the View context menu is set to show desktop icons.
If not, enable the Show Desktop Icons option.
Also, try resetting the icon cache.
To do this, you need to run the following commands in the command line:
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer
attrib -h iconcache_*.db
del /f IconCache*
del /f thumbcache*
cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local\
attrib -h IconCache.db
del /f IconCache.db
start C:\Windows\explorer.exe
After this, you should restart the computer (or the Explorer process, as in step 1)
You should also make sure that the Hide and disable all items on the desktop option is not enabled in the local group policies.
To do this, launch the Group Policy Editor by pressing Win + R and running gpedit.msc.
In the editor, find this option in the Computer configuration -> Administrative templates -> Desktop branch.
Finally, it remains to check the integrity of the Windows image using the commands:
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
sfc /scannow
After that, you should create a new user and check whether the contents of the desktop are displayed in a clean profile.