To restore all the missing desktop icons, right-click on a blank area of the desktop, and from the context menu, hover your mouse cursor over View option. Although File Explorer will remember your last setting when you open this folder again, this is a folder-specific setting, so you'll have to adjust each folder you'd want different icon and text sizes for. Method 2: Use Show Desktop Icons option If all the desktop icons are missing, there is a chance you might have accidentally hidden all the icons.