Windows 11 Taskbar Icons, File Icons, and Explorer Apps Image Preview Missing

Hello,

If removing the PNG handler using the command

reg delete "HKCU\Software\Classes\.png\shellex\{E357FCCD-A995-4576-B01F-234630154E96}" /f  

does not resolve the issue, it is likely that the user profile (HKCU) of your normal account is partially corrupted.

Since the problem does not occur when signing in with the administrator account, the system-wide registry (HKLM) is functioning normally. This strongly suggests that the corruption is limited to the user profile of your normal account.

This was my mistake.

(I added a strikethrough because that part was mixed up with another thread:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5910945/windows-11-taskbar-and-file-icons-missing-for-syst )

Please create a new local administrator account and sign in with it to test whether the taskbar and system app icons appear correctly.

If the icons display normally in the new account, your original user profile is damaged, and migrating to the new profile will be the final and reliable solution.

There are two types of In‑place Upgrade:

Online In‑place Upgrade

Installs the latest updates during the upgrade.

Offline In‑place Upgrade (ISO)

Uses the base OS image without applying the latest updates.

If the issue is caused by a problematic Windows Update, the offline In‑place Upgrade can be more effective because it replaces system components without including the update that may have triggered the problem.

However, in this case, because the corruption appears to be within the user profile (HKCU), neither online nor offline In‑place Upgrade will repair the damaged profile.

Additionally, minor user profile corruption can sometimes resolve itself automatically after certain system events (Windows Update, internal consistency checks, icon cache rebuild, etc.).

Until then, you may continue using the newly created account and monitor the situation.