Ask a new question

Icons and folders "grayed" out on desktop and in Windows Explorer

A number of my older icons and folders are "grayed" out on the desktop and in Windows Explorer.

These are old icons and folders.  The newer icons and folders are not "grayed" out.  I can access all of the files and folders.  This is throughout all the directories.  It seems to be date related - all of the files/folders before a certain date are "grayed" out.  Everything after that date shows the files in "full color".

 

Hi,

·        Did you make any changes on the computer prior to this issue?

·        How you have checked the date on the files and folders?

Please provide us a screenshot of the issue for better understanding of the issue. For more information, refer this link.

How do I post Screen Shots of my issue into the Answers Forum

As a test, you may create a new user account with administrative privilege and check if the issue persists.

How to create and configure user accounts in Windows XP

Hope the information helps. Please post back and let us know.

Regards
Debleena S
Microsoft Answers Support Engineer
Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

1 person found this reply helpful

·

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn't help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

Disable "offline files"

7 people found this reply helpful

·

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn't help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

There is a piece of malware out there that hides icons on your desktop, favorites, and start menu.  If you've selected the "Show Hidden Files, Folders, and Drives" option under Tools -> Folder Options -> View(Tab) in an explorer window, then these hidden files will show up as "ghosted" or "grayed".  To get them back to normal, right-click on them, select "Properties", then un-check the "Hidden" checkbox.

Likely these files were hidden at one point in time and anything newer was not hidden.

HTH,
   JW

96 people found this reply helpful

·

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn't help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

THIS WAS A GREAT ANSWER! Do you know what kind of malware it is? strange that windows securities didn't pick it up, not only did I have issues with above issue I also had issues with my pst files, and the boot partition it kept saying bad sectors, bad files, etc.. I couldn't get back in my hard drive, so I just found a spare drive and reinstalled everything, that when I noticed the files, icons, folders, etc.. were greyed out when I try to copy them over.

8 people found this reply helpful

·

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn't help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

Lol!

The icons are hidden.  

Right Click and select Properties

uncheck hidden.

Use Windows Explorer

Rick click on Desktop

Select Properties

Uncheck  Hidden

Select Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files

47 people found this reply helpful

·

Was this reply helpful?

Sorry this didn't help.

Great! Thanks for your feedback.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site.

How satisfied are you with this reply?

Thanks for your feedback.

 
 

Question Info

Last updated May 7, 2024 Views 42,586 Applies to: