I have a production box at a customer's site that has a problem. All of our maintanence is done remotely. When I remote into the box I just see a black background and only four icons are showing. There are usually about 13 icons on the desktop. All applications appear to be running normally. I reviewed some of the other black screen reports and could not find any that sound like the exact same problem. There are a bunch of boxes that were built using the same image, so I'm concerned we are going to see this problem occurring elsewhere. So, I'm not sure restoring to a previous point would solve the actual problem.

When I have seen something like this (not remotely) it is often caused by a virus. Is there some way you can do a thorough scan of the system? I guess this may be tricky remotely.Steve

It is unlikely that it is a virus because the box is so isolated. I did check the theme and it was set to theme-unknown. I changed the background back to Classic and that worked, but the icons were still missing. Under C:\Users\Username\Desktop the icons were still present. So, I just copied them back onto the desktop. I'm just wondering what could have caused this because this box sits on a network and runs mostly untouched.

Very strange! Who can fathom the mysteries of Windows based computers?? :-) I'm glad you were able to sort it out.Steve

Hi, The issue could be incorrect theme when remote into the box. The theme-unknown will change the icon onto your desktop. You can check the Desktop Icon Setting. The four icons are the default icons. If you check the option below, it will allow the theme to change the desktop icon. Right click desktop -> Personalization -> Change desktop icons in the left pane. Regards, NikiPlease remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

That could be what happened. But do you know of any reason why it would spontaneously change settings? I doubt anyone changed the settings on the box and it was set to show the classic background.

Hi, That could be the reason. Please check if the issue occurs after setting the box correctly. Regards Niki Please remember to click "Mark as Answer" on the post that helps you, and to click "Unmark as Answer" if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

May i know the same black screen u can see in safe mode and other users mode ? This issue could be caused by a virus or some drivers application get corrupted!!! when u log in remotely try to use this steps and see if u r able to see other 13 icons 1. Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc on the keyboard to bring up Task Manager. 2. Click File -> New Task (Run…) 3. Type explorer.exe and then press Enter. or try to clean the pc using any system cleaner.. Please remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.