Shortcut arrow icons gone after Windows 8.1

Did this update fix the issue. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2964804/en-us

See if it is installed and let me know if it fixes it.

I haven't been able to reproduce after the update. Hope it does work

I doubt its a driver problem because i just updated to the latest (Nvidia) Drivers i still get the issue.Sometimes it happens,sometimes not! If i keep restarting the machine it will always work right,if the system boots fast (fast boot, needs about 2 shutdowns) then the bug comes!It has to do something with Explorer.exe since they also brought this with the latest update! http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/a007e827-9c50-4cb5-ac4a-6228f900e322/start-button-and-charms-stop-working-in-windows-81?forum=w8itprogeneral#50dcca98-5066-44eb-9d16-020edae8d470

I was trying to run some Xperf tests to see what is taking so long during startup on a PC and after it was done I was running over the results.

I know the icons were covered by the shortcut icon. I closed the folder and opened it a few seconds later and it was gone and wouldn't come back. It did show up when I went over it with the mouse and each one did the same thing. I know that the shell32.dll was loaded completely well before, that is the file that contains the image. So my only guess is that when explorer creates the window to display the directory contents it iterates through the files to see which are shortcuts and something happens then. I would guess shell32.dll is busy doing other things and the method call to get the image times out so it stops waiting for an image and forgets about it.

So this could be any number of things guessing would list almost every piece of the computer. I thought I had a machine that I could test on but I couldn't get it to duplicate with out opening the folder the second the desktop is created.

I will try and find out what causes this now that I have a better idea when it happens. I checked the resources and the disk, ram and gpu were pretty wide open so my guess is it is an issue in processing the thread. But if I find out what causes it I will report it, too.

Wow, thanks for all the hard work in investigating this. I sure hope you'd find the culprit.

Btw, re-registering the shell32.dll did not fix the issue, just wanted to let you know that.

Wouldn't it be better if you'd have another pc without the issue to compare the thread processing and resource loading?

I was trying to run some Xperf tests to see what is taking so long during startup on a PC and after it was done I was running over the results.

I know the icons were covered by the shortcut icon. I closed the folder and opened it a few seconds later and it was gone and wouldn't come back. It did show up when I went over it with the mouse and each one did the same thing. I know that the shell32.dll was loaded completely well before, that is the file that contains the image. So my only guess is that when explorer creates the window to display the directory contents it iterates through the files to see which are shortcuts and something happens then. I would guess shell32.dll is busy doing other things and the method call to get the image times out so it stops waiting for an image and forgets about it.

So this could be any number of things guessing would list almost every piece of the computer. I thought I had a machine that I could test on but I couldn't get it to duplicate with out opening the folder the second the desktop is created.

I will try and find out what causes this now that I have a better idea when it happens. I checked the resources and the disk, ram and gpu were pretty wide open so my guess is it is an issue in processing the thread. But if I find out what causes it I will report it, too.

No this is a peer to peer forum for help with issues with limited help from Microsoft.

So if you hit f5 it will pop up immediately but no matter how long you wait before opening the folder it will never overlay the shortcut icon? What about opening one folder then if no icon shows either reopening that same folder (while the first one is still open) or opening a new folder does the new one have the icon?

After you hit f5 and the icon shows when you open folders thereon do they always contain an icon?

I wish I knew exactly when the shortcut icon is loaded. It sounds like during the explorer boot phase something is hanging. Or something prior to is causing it to hang. Old drivers especially the graphics driver are a big cause in the personal computing side.

http://support.microsoft.com/Product/windows/windows-8-1 then go to the bottom right ask answer desk. Try these below; these are things they will ask and you should try them first.

Try Safe Mode and Clean Boot

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/advanced-startup-options-including-safe-mode#1TC=windows-7

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135/en-us

Updating the graphics driver is something else that can cause it.

Update Every other driver including chipset drivers.

Using shell programs like windows classic shell will definitely effect this. And changing your theme in Personalize may show if it is an issue with a specific theme.

I don't know if I mentioned this but you can scan and fix systems files by an elevated command prompt

Window key + X select command prompt admin > click yes if UAC controls are active > type dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

Here is some more info on slow loading icons. Basically anything that loads before the icons can cause it which is basically everything. That is why it is hard to say if it is a user machine issue or an OS issue.  

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/10608.desktop-icons-loading-very-slow-in-windows-7.aspx

When opening a new (same) folder it does show the arrow icons on the shortcuts that are in the folder. The first opened folder still doesn't show the icons though.

Notice that there are also shortcuts on the desktop (not in a folder) that don't show the icons even when opening folders.

After hitting F5 the shortcuts always show the arrow icons afterwards.

I already tried Safe Mode, deleted the iconcache.db and did the DISM command (without finding any corruptions) all without result.