Entire Network icon missing in Windows Explorer

[Yarko]

I really love this site, but it needs a better search tool. There are too many posts with cryptic topics to go through to see if a question has already been answered. Well, here is my question:

I have two computers with similar problems.

Computer 1: Windows XP Professional

When I open Windows Explorer and click on My Network Places, the Entire Network icon is not displayed. In order to see it I have to do a refresh. Any way to get the icon to show up immediately?

Computer 2: Windows XP Home

When I open Windows Explorer and click on My Network Places, the Entire Network icon is not displayed. However, even doing a refresh does not get it to display. A refresh used to do the trick, as on computer 1, but now it doesn't work at all. The only way I can see the Entire Network icon is to open My Network Places from the desktop, or to right click My Network Places and select Explore from the context menu. Any ideas how I can get the Entire Network icon to show up immediately in Windows Explorer or at least to get it to act like computer 1?

Thanks for any help!

Yarko

[Yarko]

Bump! Has anyone even seen this issue before?

[TimW]

You have done a good job of explaining ...however...did you ever put the icon on the desktop?
As in ...right click the desktip / properties / desktop / customize and check the network box?

If so, have you gone to start / run / typed "sfc scannow" without qoutes - note the space - and have the xp disc handy.

[Yarko]

You have done a good job of explaining ...however...did you ever put the icon on the desktop?
As in ...right click the desktip / properties / desktop / customize and check the network box?

Yes, I did do that. It doesn't help. It's not the My Network Places that I can't see in explorer. It's the Entire Network icon that I can't see. Even if I do put the My Network Places icon on the desktop and open it from there, I still can't see the Entire Network icon. And even refresh deosn't help in this case.

If so, have you gone to start / run / typed "sfc scannow" without qoutes - note the space - and have the xp disc handy.

I will have to try that later.

Thanks.

[Yarko]

I solved the problem. This is how I did it:

I had created a new shared folder on one of my computers on my network. Then I realized that the Entire Network icon was now displaying on the problem computer along with the new share! So, it occurred to me that the problem might have resulted from my deleting shared folders being listed automatically under My Network Places by Windows Explorer. So I searched the registry for the name of the computer with the shared folders on it. I found the shared folder entries that I had deleted plus the new one that had been created recently under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\WorkgroupCrawler\Shares. So, even though I had deleted these share folder shortcuts that Windows Explorer automatically finds and lists under My Network Places, they were still in the registry, which means that Windows stores somewhere which shares the user wants to see and not see. Instead of trying to locate this display map, I decided to delete the entire WorkgroupCrawler tree to see if Windows would rebuild it when I restarted Explorer. It did. So, now the shares are all back and the Entire Network icon displays as it does on my other computers. Lesson learned:

If you want to see the Entire Network icon in Windows Explorer in Windows XP, don't delete the share folder shortcuts in My Network Places.

Now, if only I can figure out how to get Entire Network to show up in My Network Places immediately rather than having to do a refresh... ::