Quick Tip: How To Display Desktop Icons (This PC, etc.)
In this blog post, I’m going to talk about how to display icons, like This PC, Documents, Network, Recycle Bin, and Control Panel on your Windows 10 desktop. I will also show you how to enable these icons, as they are much easier and more convenient to access than trying to navigate through the Start Menu built into Windows 10, though I do cover a better replacement Start Menu in another video and blog post called Open Shell.
I will also cover how to do this in Windows 11.
Windows 10
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It’s very frustrating that Microsoft decided to turn off the desktop icons by default in Windows 10, but thankfully they’re easy enough to turn back on.
Right click anywhere on the desktop and left click “personalize”.
On the left hand side of the window, left click “Themes”.
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Click Image To Viewer Larger Version
Then click “Desktop Icon Settings” on the right hand side under “Related Settings”.
A window resembling the desktop icon settings in Windows 7 will show up. You will see checkboxes next to This PC, Documents, Network, Recycle Bin, and Control Panel. Click each to put a checkbox in them, then click “Apply” and “Okay” at the bottom of that window, and any other windows. You will now see those icons on the desktop.
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Windows 11
In Windows 11, click the “gear” icon, or Settings, in the Start Menu.
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Click Image To Viewer Larger Version
Left-click “Personalization” on the left hand side, then left-click “Themes” under “Personalization”.
On the “Themes” page, click “Desktop icon settings”.
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Click Image To Viewer Larger Version
The Desktop icon settings window will appear. Left-click the checkbox beside each icon you want to see on your desktop, then click “Apply” and “Ok”, and close the Themes window behind it.
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