desktop icons disappear?

Ive been doing my weekly spyware/crap cleanup and after I was finished, all my desktop icons disappeared except my computer, network places, my docs, and internet explorer. I've made shortcuts from the programs/files I usually have on my desktop and when they're created they have the (2) at the end. When I go to rename them (take out the (2)), I get an error message saying that there's already a file with that name and I can't do it. WTF?! halp?

EDIT: on a related note, the favorites in my internet explorer favorites bar are invisible too. I went to put back my favorites and it told me the favorite already existed, would I like to replace it?... wtf

someone PLEASE :confused: :mecry:

My first guess is that the permissions on those shortcuts got fubared somehow.

go to your dekstop folder and under permissions make sure that they apply to all child files and folders.

Repeat with your favourites folder also.

All you need to do when this happens is restart your explorer.exe through task manager. You can fix this running a repair of your OS, or simply renaming your local profile.