My Favorites file disappeared from my Windows desktop today, can you
advise?
The My Favorites file that disappeared from your desktop could either have
been the actual folder containing all of your favorites or it could have
been a shortcut that points to the location of the folder containing your
favorites. The difference is important because if it was just a shortcut,
then all you need to do is go to the original location and create a new
desktop shortcut. On the other hand, if the folder that disappeared was the
actual folder and not a shortcut, then you may have more work to do to
recover from this event.
Desktop shortcut icons always have a small arrow superimposed over the icon.
When you delete shortcut icons, you are deleting the shortcut to the file,
not the underlying file. The actual folder and its files remain in their
original location. If you believe that the missing My Favorites file was
just a desktop shortcut, then creating a new shortcut is the answer.
First, you will need to find the original Favorites folder in Windows
Explorer. Right-click the Start button and choose Open Windows Explorer. By
default, the Favorites folder is located in C:\users\[user name]\Favorites.
Click your hard disk drive, click Users, find your user name in the list and
click it, and see if you can find Favorites. If you do, right-click it,
click on Send To > Desktop (create shortcut). This will place a new shortcut
to your My Favorites file on your Windows desktop.
But what if the missing folder on your desktop wasn't a shortcut? It could
have accidentally been deleted or moved to another location. Let's start by
looking in the Recycle Bin. Double-click the Recycle Bin icon on your
desktop and then click on the bar just above Name to sort the Recycle Bin's
contents alphabetically. Scroll through the list until you see the file.
When you find it, right-click it and choose Restore. This will restore the
file to its original location on your desktop.
If the file isn't in the Recycle Bin, the next step is to use the Windows
search tool to search your computer for the missing file. Go to Start and
type "favorites" or "My Favorites file" into the search bar. If Windows
finds it, it will list it in the Start menu. Right-click it, choose
Properties, and click on the Location tab. Click the Move button and then
click on the Desktop folder followed by Select Folder.
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