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
    2018-07-18T14:20:31+00:00

    WOW!

    Solved straight away.

    THANK YOU

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-05-29T16:15:20+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.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2018-01-09T21:54:41+00:00

    Just wanted to say a BIG THANK YOU, for this solution. I've tried deleting the icon caches and all that mumbo jumbo, but this was the only thing that solved my issue with icons not showing up properly in my windows search results.

    Oh, that's on Win 10 v1709

    Thank you so much, once again!

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-12-06T01:53:00+00:00

    Its Dec 5 2017 and after installing a new game Battlefront 2 star wars from origins and or turning on Windows 10 night light I lost all my icons pictures that oddly enough was all game related.  The windows 10 night light options was greyed out also.  I dont know if this is all coincidence but it happen all at once.  I had to reinstall my NVidia driver to fix night light problem and did this fix from MS tech response and it still works great.  I dont like messing with my system but I decided to do so because I seen a lot of comments from others.  This worked great for me.  I dont know what happen.  I do notice when powering up my very new pc not even a year old that it doesnt fire up right.  The password or login screen makes weird usb connection noises it never did before and the login screen box lags behind and the other things like calendar and date and weather stuff doesnt fire up right.  I literally did nothing last night except finish installing my game and then I turned off my pc.  The only thing new was is I turned on windows 10 night light for the first time.  I regret doing so as I see so many comments of people having problems with this feature.

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