How to Restore the Show Desktop Icon on the Quick Launch Toolbar

Published on 17 Sep 2007 at 9:50 am. No Comments.
Filed under Programming, Software, Solutions.

Last night when my machine was bogged down and I became impatient, I inadvertently threw away my Show Desktop Icon that came with the Quick Launch Toolbar.  There is no easy way to restore this, so I went searching online for a solution. 

Here is what I found from Microsoft support:

1. Open the Notepad program so that you can write a text file

2. Cut-and-paste the following (the commands must be on different lines):

[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

3. On the File menu, click Save As

4. Change the Save as Type to All Files button.  This will help ensure that Notepad does not append a .txt to the file name.  If it does, just remove it when you aredone saving.

5. Migrate to one of these two directories:

Microsoft Windows 95 and Microsoft Windows 98
Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

Microsoft Windows NT, Microsoft Windows 2000, and Microsoft Windows XP
C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch  

Note that Username refers to the account name where you want to put the icon.

6. Save the file with the filename: Show Desktop.scf

7. Use Windows explorer to migrate to the folder where you just saved the file.  Drag-and-Drop the file onto the Quick Launch Toolbar.

Kevin Knuth
Albany NY

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