Missing App Icons

Question

Icons for many of my apps aren't showing. I selected one and went to Properties, then to Shortcuts. Clicked "Change Icon", selected a new icon and clicked Apply. Icon didn't change. This happened with several different apps. Anyone know what's going on ?

Thanks

Answer 1

Hi, I'm John! I will help you with this.

To help narrow down the issue:

1. Are the missing icons mainly on your Desktop? If yes, is your Desktop being synced with OneDrive? Please also check the OneDrive cloud icon near the clock on the taskbar. Does it show syncing, an error, or a red X?
2. Do the icons appear correctly in the Start menu/taskbar, or are they missing there too?
3. When did this start happening? Any recent changes before this started, like a Windows update, cleanup tool, OneDrive changes, or moving files?

Any additional info about the issue you can provide will be helpful in diagnosing and resolving the issue.

Answer 2

When changing a shortcut’s icon has no effect, the issue is usually with the Windows icon cache or the shortcut/icon handler, not with the individual apps.

Try these steps in order:

1. Confirm the change-icon steps
   • Right-click the desktop shortcut.
   • Select Properties.
   • Go to the Shortcut tab.
   • Select Change Icon….
   • Pick an icon and select OK, then Apply, then OK.
   • If the icon still doesn’t change, continue with cache repair.
2. Clear and rebuild the icon cache This forces Windows to reload all shortcut icons.
   1. Save open work.
   2. Open Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc).
   3. On the Processes tab, find Windows Explorer, right-click it, and select End task.
   4. In Task Manager, select File > Run new task.
   5. Type cmd.exe, check Create this task with administrative privileges, and select OK.
   6. In the Command Prompt, run:

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

   7. Back in Task Manager, select File > Run new task again.
   8. Type explorer.exe and press Enter to restart Windows Explorer.
   After Explorer restarts, check whether the icons now show correctly and whether new icon changes take effect.
3. Verify the shortcut icon handler in the registry If icons are still wrong or blank, the IconHandler registration may be damaged.

   Editing the registry incorrectly can cause system problems. Back up the registry first. See How to back up and restore the registry in Windows.

   1. Select Start, type regedit, and press Enter.
   2. Navigate to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile\shellex\IconHandler
   3. Check the (Default) value. It should be a CLSID similar to: {00021401-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}.
   4. Go to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00021401-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} and confirm (Default) is Shortcut.
   5. Under that key, open InProcServer32 and confirm (Default) is: C:\Windows\System32\windows.storage.dll.
   If any of these values are different or missing, correct them to match the values above, then restart the PC and test icon changes again.
4. If icons are changed or keep reverting If icons appear wrong or keep changing unexpectedly, increase the icon cache size and recreate it:
   1. Log off the affected account and log on with another account that has administrator rights.
   2. Open regedit and go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
   3. Create a new String Value named MaxCachedIcons.
   4. Set its value to 2048.
   5. Delete IconCache.db from: C:\Users\<User Name>\AppData\Local (replace <User Name> with the affected account).
   6. Log off the admin account and log back into the original account.

After these steps, changing icons via Properties → Shortcut → Change Icon should take effect and previously missing/blank icons should display correctly.

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References:

• Application shortcuts on the desktop, Start menu, and taskbar show blank icons
• Icons are changed unexpectedly in Windows
• How to Arrange or Move Icons on the Desktop