icons won't display on desktop

hi. i hope somebody can help me. i can't get my icons to show up on the desktop. i noticed that when i create a shortcut, it is placed in my desktop "folder", but is not displayed on my desktop. i am running windows xp home with sp2. i am the administrator with two other user accounts. those accounts(limited)display the icons on the desktop, so i'm thinking i must have set something wrong. help! thanks.