Office Icons are all missing/replaced by generic white icons

Anonymous
2010-08-03T08:01:12+00:00

For some reason all my office products (word, excel, outlook, access etc.) icons in the start menu and desktop task bar have all been replaced by the generic white icons.

I am unable to uninstall or repair this. I believe (from what I've read on the internet) that it is connected to the "C:\windows\installer" folder and the Office installer files.

Can this problem be solved without having to re-install windows ( as that is the only way I think its possible to be albe to reset the office suite).

Cheers,

Jurgens

Microsoft 365 and Office | Install, redeem, activate | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2011-09-24T16:39:18+00:00

I had the same issue as everyone here and I think I've FINALLY figured out a solution!

Go to c:/Program Files/Microsoft Office/Office 14

Right click on each program icon individually and unpin from BOTH your Taskbar and/or Start Menu. (e.g. EXCEL.EXE, MSACCESS.EXE, MSPUB.EXE, OUTLOOK.EXE, POWERPNT.EXE, WINWORD.EXE, etc.)

Then right click and select  "Pin to Start Menu" (not to Taskbar).

Do this for each program you want to eventually make it onto your Taskbar.

Now go to Start and then for each program (that should now show in start menu with the actual Microsoft Office icon), right click and select "Pin to Taskbar".

You can then Remove each one from the Start Menu if you wish by right clicking again and selecting "Remove from this List".

Your icons should now be back to their original format.

I've rebooted my system several times so far and the icons have remained.

Hopefully this will work for everyone else as well!

Good Luck!!!

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-10-09T10:40:27+00:00

    went to c: program files/microsoft office/Office14 grabbed an office icon created shortcut on desktop, runned it, aparently office installer went on, recovered all the icons, even those on start menu.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-09-29T08:35:46+00:00

    I tried a lot of things to try and sort my Windows 10 Start menu icons out. Most of them were appearing with a "Blank piece of paper" icon. They worked fine, just looked broken. 

    After many different attempts...... this is what worked for me... (Purely by chance I might add)

    I headed over to my Start Menu folder where all of the shortcuts were stored..

    C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

    Scrolling down the list, I got could see all the programs (with their correct icons) that were not showing correctly in the start menu. I selected them... and CUT them out, PASTED them into a newly created folder on my desktop... "Old Shortcuts"

    I was told some of these shortcuts are system files... so I simply skipped those ones and left them where they were.

    Clicked on the Start menu to have a look, and they had gone. 

    I copied them all back in again from the "Old Shortcuts" folder on my desktop..... Looked at the Start Menu and it rebuilt before my eyes with all nice new shiny icons.

    As I said, this worked for me... many other things didn't. Hope it helps someone else out there.

    Cheers

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-09-27T14:04:40+00:00

    Go to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office15

    Create shortcuts of all Office apps and pin the shortcutsto the taskbar.

    This solved it for me. :)

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-02T09:09:29+00:00

    I had the same issue as everyone here and I think I've FINALLY figured out a solution!

    Go to c:/Program Files/Microsoft Office/Office 14

    Right click on each program icon individually and unpin from BOTH your Taskbar and/or Start Menu. (e.g. EXCEL.EXE, MSACCESS.EXE, MSPUB.EXE, OUTLOOK.EXE, POWERPNT.EXE, WINWORD.EXE, etc.)

    Then right click and select  "Pin to Start Menu" (not to Taskbar).

    Do this for each program you want to eventually make it onto your Taskbar.

    Now go to Start and then for each program (that should now show in start menu with the actual Microsoft Office icon), right click and select "Pin to Taskbar".

    You can then Remove each one from the Start Menu if you wish by right clicking again and selecting "Remove from this List".

    Your icons should now be back to their original format.

    I've rebooted my system several times so far and the icons have remained.

    Hopefully this will work for everyone else as well!

    Good Luck!!!

    This was the Solution for me

    THNX!!

    Was this answer helpful?

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