Disappearing shortcuts

I switched on this morning and all my shortcuts had disappeared.
Still there was the systems tray, toolbar and the sidebar.
After 2 system restores the shortcuts re-appeared.
I left the desktop switched on for about an hour, and when I returned, the
shortcuts had gone again.
It took another systems restore to get them back.
Is there any way I can avoid this happening again ? I did google the problem and it appeared that "broken shortcuts" were the problem. The solution was to turn off the "maintainance" ?
I really do not want to interfere with that, and hope that there is an alternative preventative measure . . . . . . . . please.

What product are you using for maintenance? If a shortcut points to a file that is no longer in that folder with that filename that that is a BROKEN LINK and serves no purpose; that does not sound like your situation as your shortcuts do point to an item that still exists..

Thank you for your reply.
I have not adjusted any maintainance settings on my desktop since I bought it with W7 installed a year ago.
Since the last system restore my shortcuts have always appeared at start-up, but out of position.
Thinking back, I installed "Icon Restore" recently. I could never get the instruction that was supposed to appear, to appear when clicking on either the Recyle Bin or My Computer. I re-installed it a couple of times to no avail. Since the current problem I have un-installed every trace of it.
Thanks again for your interest.
shmendrik

I read one comment that Icon Restore only works on a 32-bit OS so if you have 64-bit it may cause problems or it simply might not install. I have a 64-bit OS so I won't be installing it myself.

In general, regardless of 32 or 64-bit OS, I would suspect weird things happening with icons and having a desktop icon app would be suspicious, so maybe you might try deleting it and see if the problem persists.

This doesn't help "solve" your problem but...

As a working alternative to Icon Restore I've used (know of being used) Jamie O'Connells' Desktop Icon Save and Restore with no issues on 32bit XP, 64bit Windows 7, 32bit Windows 7 and 32bit Vista machines all without any issues.

Oh yes, and it's free.

You appear to be quite right about "icon restore". It is showing as 'installed' but I can get no response from the icons on my 64 bit system.
Thank you

Thank you.
I have now installed and set 'Desktop Icon Save and Restore'.
Ta again

shmendrik