Is your Desktop Icon Missing

"Show Desktop" is not a normal program and you can't just make a shortcut or reactivate it in a normal way.

What you'll need to do is create a file in Notepad and save it to where Show Desktop should be.

Go to Start/Run and type in "notepad" (without the quotes) then type in these lines:

[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

Next, save the file with the name "Show Desktop.scf" in the folder

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\ Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ Quick Launch

Your actual user account name goes where it says "username".

The Show Desktop icon should reappear next to your Start button and you can close out Notepad.