.Docx files are not showing word icon but only white plain icon (Windows 10)

I'm having the same issue.  I installed Office 365 everything worked fine, when I installed Project Professional 2016; the icon on the DOCX file changed to white plain icon.  I have tried everything I could find to resolve nothing works.

Doesn't seem Microsoft is doing much to resolve this since this seems to have been going on for so time now.

I have the same issue with Office 16 on my laptop. After an Office update recently I noticed that the Word icons (docx specifically) look like a text document icon. I HAVE TRIED EVERY SINGLE RESOLUTION I COULD FIND ON THE INTERNET.

THIS IS A BUG - someone should figure this out ASAP...

That did not help

Fix for Blank Docx icon  with Office 2016 and Office 2019

I tried all suggested solutions with no luck. Deleted icon cache, Reinstall office ,fix office none worked. 

So I looked at the Docx registry settings in a working computer using office 2019 .

I copied the files I listed below  and this worked 100% and now my Docx files have a word icon 

Good luck be safe back up your docx registry key just encase 

I wanted the 2019 docx of office 2019 functionality Using Window 10. After upgrading from Office 2013 to 2019 .

I have found out what I had to do to get back the Right-click New Microsoft Word Document function of Office 2019 in Windows Explorer and on the Desktop.

I found that four keys were missing in the registry in comparison with my other computer’s installation of Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019.

Remember to back up the .docx key by exporting it to a safe folder so that you could have it if necessary.

I opened the registry to – HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT.docx

Steps creating keys are done on the left window pane in the registry.

1)     Below the .docx key I create the first key that was missing by right clicking on the “.docx” key then go down to New, then left click on Key and name it “OpenWithList” without the quotes.

Inside of that key is the automatically created String Value (default)  REG_SZ   (value not set)

2)     Inside of the “OpenWithList” create the second key. Right click on the “OpenWithList” key then go down to New, then left click on Key and name this new key “WordPad.exe” without the quotes.

Inside of that key is the automatically created String Value (default)  REG_SZ   (value not set)

3)     Right click on the “.docx” key then go down to New, then left click on Key to create the third key and name it “Word.Document.16” without the quotes.

Inside of that key is the automatically created String Value (default)  REG_SZ   (value not set)

4)     Right click on the “Word.Document.16” key then go down to New, then left click on Key to create the fourth key and name it “ShellNew” without the quotes.

Inside of that key is the automatically created String Value (default)  REG_SZ   (value not set)

The next thing to do is to create a string value newly created “ShellNew” key but this is done in the window on the right side.

5)     Left click on ShellNew in the left window to select the key. Now in the window on the right side; Right click in the empty space go to New then select String Value. Name the new string “NullFile” without the quotes, Type is REG_SZ Leave the data empty.

6)     Lastly, in the left window left click on key .docx, In the right side window make sure that the data of the (Default) string is Word.Document.16 – To change it, doubleclick on the string named (Default) , a window will open up and you change the data value to Word.Document.16 (My data value was “docx_auto_file”)

You are done. Close the registry.  Test the right click context menu now.

I hope that this will help some people.

In my case windows knows to open files with word, it just don't show me.

All icons are ok but .docx

I even uninstalled the whole office and installed anew and restarted the notebook several times.

I even tried to rebuild the icon cache by erasing files; as provided by some online fixes, however failed in erasing two files!

Any idea?

Hi guys.  

right click the file

select 'open with'

select 'more apps'

select 'wordpad' - the icon will change to reflect

select 'always use this app to open docx'files

now repeat that process but this time.

select 'Word' again

now the correct icon should appear

select 'always use this app to open docx'files