Access to IE suddenly disappeared!

This Am I was fooling around with my laptop -- I did a disk clean-up and a defrag. I started Malwarebytes and then I noticed I could not find the IE icon anywhere -- not on the Quicktask bar, the Desktop or in the all programs list. I looked for it in Program files and I find the folder but I could not see how to start it from there. I did not see any IE .exe files.

Fortunately, there was an IE to a specific page in the top of the left hand column after you click the start button (I have no idea why it was there) -- my only access. I clicked on it IE opened and went to that page. I then went to MS downloaded IE 8 again but first it had to remove "a previous version of IE" IE 7 presumably.

I realized what a pain it would be to have to redo the number of special attachments I use with IE.

So I though to do a restore -- I restored to early morning yesterday and voilà -- IE icon was back and everything normal.

I did the disk cleanup and the temporary internet files were still there -- so I did the delete. I analyzed the defrag and everything was post defrag from before.

So what happened!?! Where did the IE icons go? How could I have started IE without them? And was restore the only thing I could do to get the icon back? Anyone know?

BTW XP SP3 Also Xmarks wouldn't work and I had to reload -- no biggie...

 

Right click the desktop, -> "properties" - one of the tabs will have an option to select desktop icons, it should be in there as a checkbox.

 

There's a registry setting that displays/hides the IE icon on your desktop. The registry cleaner program might've changed it.
Next time it disappears create a shortcut on your desktop:

WinKey + E and then In folder tree go to "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe". Right click on iexplore.exe and "send to" > Desktop. This newly created shortcut will not disappear unless you delete it.

 

That registry change should be part of the desktop properties.

The key difference between a shortcut and the "real icon" is the lack of that arrow on the "real icon".

 

What little arrow?

I'm just kidding... I forgot about them. I had that tweaked when windows was installed.

 

There is a utility that can disable or resize them in Vista.

If you use Vista or later I suggest you forget about "tweaking" the OS as its more like breaking it.

 

No, it was XP I was talking about.

 

I had created a desktop icon by CTRL and drag from IE on all programs list.

Wouldn't that be the same?

And does anything you guys say explain why IE disappeared completely from the "all programs" list when you click the start button (in XP SP3)?

 

Well, a shortcut isn't quite the same.

It does not explain why it no longer shows up in all programmes.

Actually, did you recently install Windows updates?

Thanks to those - cough... (minor explosion) - in the EU commission any computer with the default browser being IE should display a screen allowing you to select the browser, I believe this includes XP.

(Yes, Microsoft should offer products from the competition)

 

It's very possible that you moved the link in the Start Menu by drag-and-drop, probably by accident, drag-and-drop is very tricky sometimes.
You could look up all IE shortcuts on your computer. Use search for all files and all folder and type in internet*.lnk. See how many you have.