From time to time all the desktop icons will disappear for about 3 seconds and then come back. I have come to accept this as normal for Windows but I wonder what is causing this. It doesnt seem to cause any trouble although I have lost 2 large files. I have a 2.8 Gig machine with 512 Meg of RAM.

Hi I have the same problem. Seems to occur only when I am working in the file explorer. Really a pain. I have posted the same issue here in this forum and hope for a clue. Good luck

Do you have active shares across your pc's? J. j e r u v y a t y a h o o d o t c o m

This may help if it is symptomatic of your problem, i.e. when you close a window the computer hesitates while windows "refreshes" all of the Desktop Icons. This is because the ShellIconCache file has reached it's limit of 500 entries. To stop this run Regedit and open the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer and create a new string value. Name it MaxCachedIcons and then set the value to 2000.

Jeruvy, I do have another computer networked to this machine but rarely have it turned on. I cannot remember if it was turned on when I have experienced the problem or not. I will take notice. Burrwalnut, I have done as you suggested and will have to wait and see what happens. Thanks for the help.

I have the same problem, however i end up losing icons also in my system tray..but they stay active. I have to cntl+alt+del..and end the process of the ones that the icons are missing and restart them...I also did the maxcachedicon set at 2000...i hope that is going to correct the problem. If anyone does have a fix or a clue as to why this is happening..that is if its not the iconcache issue..i would appreciate any help on it ...thank you 0=)

I have the same problem with my Toshiba Laptop running XP Pro. I notice this happens primarily when I am using Explorer. It even happens when doing something simple like opening a directory...Blink...No icons....Explorer appears to close, then the desktop returns but my system tray is reduced to just a few icons and several missing that are still running in the background. I have SETI@Home running fulltime in the background and I'm wondering if there's a conflict of some sort. Anybody else running Seti and having the same problems? Thanks.