Folder icons displaying incorrectly

Question

I have an issue that some of the folder icons became shrink and turned into black background. May I ask what is the main cause and how to resolve them? Thanks

Answer 1

The issue with folder icons displaying incorrectly, such as appearing shrunk or with a black background, is often related to problems with the icon cache in Windows. Here are steps to resolve this issue:

1. Clear the Icon Cache:
   • Open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc).
   • Find and end the task for Windows Explorer.
   • Open a command prompt with administrative privileges.
   • Run the following commands:

          CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
          DEL IconCache.db /a
     

   • Restart Windows Explorer from Task Manager.
2. Register Shell Experience Host:
   • Open Windows PowerShell as an administrator.
   • Run the following command:

          Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Where-Object {$_.InstallLocation -like "*ShellExperienceHost*"} | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}
     

   • Restart your system.

Following these steps should restore the folder icons to their correct appearance.

Answer 2

Hello, thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

Rebuild the Icon Cache using the Command Prompt (Administrator) window:

Save all of your files and close all the applications.

Execute these commands one by one and click Enter for each command.

ie4uinit.exe -show​

taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F​

DEL /A /F /Q "%localappdata%\IconCache.db"​

DEL /A /F /Q "%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache*"​

See if the icons are displaying correctly after executing the command lines.