"Error parsing gtk-icon-sizes string: ''" Desktop grey with no icons

I'm not sure which update did it - but at some point recently something broke my Desktop. I now have a grey background (instead of the gradient colour I had before) and no Desktop icons. Right clicking on the Desktop doesn't produce a menu any more, either.

My theme, sounds etc all seem to have been forcibly changed as well.

Also, when I attempt to start Phpstorm, it hangs on the splashscreen, and console shows:

Error parsing gtk-icon-sizes string: ''

Anyone have a suggestion how I fix it, or even diagnose what the problem is?

I had similar problem with my Xfce. I restarted window manager by typing: xfwm4 --replace but it did not resolved the problem. I checked the xfce troubleshooting section in here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xfce#Troubleshooting and they are also suggest to delete the session folder by typing: rm -r ~/.cache/sessions/ and after that system has to be rebooted, and I have got my desktop back after reboot.

If you had a power failure or some other type of system crash, first try this

xfdesktop &

And other obvious fixes such as clearing your session cache...But if you are still unable to get your icons back, then you might try upgrading to the latest xfce version.

I ran into a very similar problem with xubuntu 13.04 this morning. It occurred immediately after an dist-upgrade and subsequent reboot, thought I'm not sure if this caused the problem. I tried all of the suggestions here and in other threads to no avail - with the exception of the last post.

Finally I decided to give upgrading my xfce version a try:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.12

and because it was required per the developers:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:xubuntu-dev/xfce-4.10

Then:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Upon reboot everything was back to normal. I did not have to reinstall any packages, as was the case for others, to get my beloved desktop setting back. This took up most of my day, so I hope this helps someone avoid this particular trouble spot.