Even though Show Desktop Icons is ticked in MATE Tweak | Windows panel, Desktop Icons are not shown after User Login. In addition, the Desktop right-click menu is absent. The icons will appear if in the Places menu, Desktop is selected. This will also restore the Desktop right-click menu but does not survive a logout/login or reboot cycle.
A solution, that does survive logout/login or reboot is to use dconf Editor from the System Tools menu and set org.mate.session set auto-save-session true
This might be conditional - I'm using Plank ... my experience is MATE Tweak desktop icons do survive a user login. My Dconf settings ..
My system used to behave as you described, but suddenly about a week ago, the icons & menu disappeared.
I suspect that at that time I triggered an obscure bug which I have not been able to isolate.
Hi Eric,
do a full system update and let us know if it sorts things out!:
I installed a fresh 16.04.1 in a virtual environment, completed all the appropriate links in the Welcome screen. I did not install any of my usual software, and I did not remove to lower panel; so I have a default install. Desktop icons selected With MATE Tweak show up after a reboot.
####I suggest following @wolfman’s suggestion.
Confirmed that my system is up to date using, in a terminal:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
with the result: 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
I added a new user and did not make any changes to the default desktop. Confirmed that the MATE Tweak
setting Show Desktop Icons was enabled. After a logout/login the desktop icons appeared.
There is something in my normal user settings, or perhaps the .cache, that is triggering the disappearing icons.
Hi Eric,
try changing your desktop theme and see if it happens again, it may be theme related?. 
Changed the desktop theme several times. There was no change in behaviour, so it does not appear to be theme related.
Also tried emptying ~/.cache with no change in behaviour.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Okay, try running “dpkg” per the update guide link posted above please!. 
dpkg --configure -a did not produce any messages
Also ran
apt-get --fix-missing install - ‘0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded’ message
apt-get --fix-broken install - ‘0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded’ message
Is there a procedure to reset the mate desktop to the default ?
Hi @Eric49,
try the following terminal command (Ctrl + Alt + t) and log out then back in again:
mate-panel --reset
mate-panel --reset in a terminal had no effect.
To have desktop icons survive have to have auto-save-session set true.
This is not a major issue for me since it has become a preference.
My usual practice is to have 2 Caja windows and 2 terminals open on the same workspace.
Saving the session reduces mouse movement and clicks on login.
