Icons missing their specialized image

Anonymous
2010-02-09T23:59:53+00:00

Some of the shortcuts on my desktop and start menu are missing their images. For example I have the Windows Live icon that is pinned to the taskbar but it is showing the default MS OS image (the one when the OS does not reconize the file the shortcut targets). Six out of 8 icons on my desktop are missing their images. The shortcuts work fine. No problems. The OS is up to date as far as downloads are concerned.

I turned off my computer Friday (2/5) and turned it on Sunday 2/7 and the icons were messed up. Like I said not all the icons are messed up. It is like the images the shortcuts pointed to were deleted somehow.

I would appreciate your help.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility

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Anonymous
2010-02-10T21:58:26+00:00

Hi tagger1961,

Have you recently installed or uninstalled any software or hardware?

I would suggest you to rebuild the icon cache and check if the issue is resolved.

Rebuilding the Icon Cache Database:

1.  Close all folder windows that are currently open.

2.  Launch Task Manager using the CTRL+SHIFT+ESC key sequence, or by running taskmgr.exe.

3.  In the Process tab, right-click on the Explorer.exe process and select End Process.

4.  Click the End process button when asked for confirmation.

5.  From the File menu of Task Manager, select New Task (Run…)

6.  Type CMD.EXE, and click OK

7.   In the Command Prompt window, type the commands one by one and press ENTER after each command:

CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local

DEL IconCache.db /a

EXIT

8.  In Task Manager, click File, select New Task (Run…)

9.  Type EXPLORER.EXE, and click OK.

If the issue still persist, I would suggest you to create a new user account and check.

To create a user account:

1.      To open User Accounts, click the Start button, click Control Panel, click User Accounts and Family Safety, and then click User Accounts.

2.      Click Manage another account. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

3.      Click Create a new account.

4.      Type the name you want to give the user account, click an account type, and then click Create Account.

For further information, visit the below mentioned link:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/Windows7/Create-a-user-account

If the issue is solved in new user account, you may have corrupted profile.

Below is the link  to troulbleshoot a corrupted profile, you can follow the steps mentioned in the link.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/Windows7/Fix-a-corrupted-user-profile

 Hope this information helped!

 Thanks and regards,

 Fouzan – Microsoft support.

 Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum 

 http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-%20US/answersfeedback/threads and let 

 us know what you think.

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-09-20T13:17:08+00:00

    If you simply resize the icon to medium then back to small it resets the icon image.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-06-19T17:03:06+00:00

    I have had this problem intermittently – but for only a couple of the icons at a time.  (All the rest would be fine.)  I’d fix them, only for it to happen again later.  Although I think it was something else that caused it in the past, I recently started using CCleaner, which I just discovered has a default setting to “clean” the Thumbnail Cache.  I think that might be what caused it to happen again, today.  Just like before, it has only affected a couple of icons.   I un-selected that, so that when I use CCleaner in the future, it won’t clear the cache. 

    Then I stumbled on a really easy fix for the icons missing their pictures, which is especially handy if the problem is only limited to a few icons.  I have only tried it in Windows 7, so that is what I describe here.  A similar approach would work in other OS versions, I would think --

    • In the Start Menu “Search programs and files” box, type in the name of the program for which the desktop shortcut lost its image.
    • When it appears in the list, right-click and follow this path (starting with the first menu that pops up):  1) Hover over ”Send To” – this will bring up another menu; then, 2) Left-click on“Desktop (Create Shortcut)”

    ****The new desktop shortcut (which will appear on the desktop) will have its specific image back.  It will also have the same name as the old one that lost its image, but with a “(2)” after the name.  You thus have two icons for the same program, one with an image and one without.  Delete (move to the trash bin) the one without the image and then change the name of the remaining icon (with the image) to remove the “(2)” from it.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-01-16T16:09:47+00:00

    This was perfect; thanks for posting--hope this become a windows update in the future.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-08-03T17:53:09+00:00

    Thank you for posting the fix. Worked perfectly.

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