I have done this far too many times, accidentally delete the Desktop icon from the Windows Explorer. As you can see in my screenshot below there is no Desktop icon/link
This article is about how would one restore the Desktop icon/link in the Windows Explorer again.
Right-click in the space shown below, and then select “Show all folders” from the context/pulldown menu that appears when you right-click, the Desktop icon should re-appear. Th screen shots below outlines the steps as well.