I downloaded the free version of Google Earth a while back. It has been working fine, but just now, I noticed that I was down a desktop icon, and the program seems to have disappeared from my system. It is not a virus, this I am sure of. I cannot seem to download another free version...what happened?

EDIT: okay, the program is still there, but the desktop icon is missing. A Google search revealed nothing as to why this is happening. Any ideas?