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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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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
    2017-11-08T00:23:14+00:00

    I tried this and worked initially. The icons were restored, but after like 10 minutes the icons disappeared again. Any ideas?

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-10-17T22:45:04+00:00

    Nothing worked for me exept this solution

    This tutorial show you how to **reset the windows register** for a particular extension file. 

    My problem was appearing with Atom text editor, I couldn't see the icon on file (in windows explorer) anymore when Atom was set as default editor for this file type. (My problem was only with Atom).

    Atom was the default text editor for my .html file. I downloaded the default html register and merge it to mine (run the reg file).

    An alert appear saying that the html register was changed, windows associated back Microsoft Edge to default html file handler.

    And then I set Atom as default html editor again **and icons appear !!**

    The only html register fix all my problem, I was able to see atom's file icon again on all the atom's associated extensions, and on all the new associated extension.

    *NOTE*

    I deleted %userprofile%\AppData\Local\IconCache.db before but it didn't work at this time, maybe the two combined makes it work for me.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-08-02T00:33:22+00:00

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-01T12:49:49+00:00

    Worked on Windows 10 too at least for program apps.  Internet shortcuts still don't have image icons.

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