I found this quick tip on the Microsoft support website and it is really quite handy. Under Windows XP and on the quick launch toolbar on the taskbar – if the Show Desktop icon disappears (probably due to an over efficient Administrator but let’s not point the finger!) you can restore it by creating a notepad file, saving it to the desktop as desktop.scf and pasting the following text into it

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

When this is done, resave the file then drag it to your quick launch toolbar. Pretty handy stuff.

Visit the original article which also shows the location of the quick launch toolbar files: How to re-create the Show desktop icon on the Quick Launch toolbar in Windows XP.

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