Issue: Desktop shortcuts disappear in Windows 7.
Affects: Windows 7
Solutions to the issue:

1. Make sure that the view icon is selected

If it is and you still don’t see your icons then continue reading…

These shortcuts are regarded as broken and are deleted by the System Maintenance troubleshooter.

The System Maintenance troubleshooter performs a weekly maintenance of the operating system. The System Maintenance troubleshooter either fixes problems automatically or reports problems through Action Center. When there are more than four broken shortcuts on the desktop, the System Maintenance troubleshooter automatically removes all broken shortcuts from the desktop.

WORKAROUND

You can disable the System Maintenance troubleshooter.

Note If you disable the System Maintenance troubleshooter, all the maintenance tasks that it performs are disabled.

To disable the System Maintenance troubleshooter, follow these steps:

1. Click Start and then click Control Panel.
2. Under System and Security, click Find and fix problems.
3. On the left navigation pane, click Change settings.
4. Set Computer Maintenance to Off.

Comments:
Date of last update: 06-15-2010
Author:Gaetan Barthelemy