Loss of Desktop shortcuts

donwb · 01 May 2017

I'm running Windows 10 Professional WinVer 1607 and use Classic Shell.
Some time ago I added the folder called Desktop (which contained all my Desktop shortcuts) to my "My Drive" folder.
When I recently deleted it from there, all my desktop shortcuts bar two disappeared.
I tried all the internet suggestions to recover them, but none worked.
Even copying the original Desktop folder back into My Drive had no effect.
Finally I was forced into doing a recovery from a system image.
I would like to know where the "official" location for all the Desktop information / shortcuts is and why in my case win 10 seems to be using an "unofficial" location I created myself.

dalchina · 01 May 2017

By default, your desktop would be
C:\Users\<your user id>\Desktop

You can relocate it thus: (rt click on Desktop)

Loss of Desktop shortcuts-snap-2017-05-01-10.17.49.jpg

(I prefer mine on a non-system disk - if I happen to have anything on it of interest and I need to restore an image of the OS, the data is preserved).

As a rule of thumb, don't keep important stuff on your desktop.

If you've just lost shortcuts, most shortcuts can be recreated relatively easily. But there are far better ways than keeping loads of shortcuts on your desktop.

Note: for imaging, we recommend Macrium Reflect (free) e.g. rather than the built-in Backup and Restore.