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Wrong or missing program icons in windows 7 start menu

Anonymous
2010-02-24T18:57:56+00:00

For unknown reasons my start menu and task bar has started showing the wrong icons. 

For example Office Outlook and several other now has a generic program icon, while some other program icons are mixed up like notepad has the vlc media player icon, the icon for a game (city of heroes) has the Paint icon and so on.

I have no idea what has caused this. The strange thing is that in "all programs" the correct icons are showing but if I right click and add them to the start menu or task bar they get an erronous icon.

Tried system restore but it doesn't work.

if I create a new user account the correct icons show in that accounts startmenu/task bar.

I would preferably trying to get my main account back in order though because it's a lot of work moving to a new user account........

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-08-21T11:33:24+00:00

    I found a solution for this. At least it worked for me (win 7 x64).

    First, open Notepad and paste the below code:

    taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe

    cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local

    attrib –h IconCache.db

    del IconCache.db

    start explorer

    save the file as a .bat file on your desktop.

    Then open explorer and navigate to C:\users\username\appdata\local\ (make sure you've select to view hidden folders) and delete IconCache.db.

    Lastly, double click on the .bat file that you saved on your desktop and all icons should be restored.

    100+ people found this answer helpful.
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  1. Anonymous
    2010-03-02T16:42:13+00:00

    Hi River99,

    If the icons show properly using another user account, it is possible your user profile has been corrupted.  Try the steps in this document to fix your profile. 

    Dena

    Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

    Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

    30+ people found this answer helpful.
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  1. Anonymous
    2011-06-10T18:16:28+00:00

    Please do this press Windows Logo and R together to activate 'Run' dialog box. Type "cmd" on it to run command prompt. Now type "attrib -h /s /d" and hit enter

    attrib -h /s /d

    -h Unhide Hidden file attribute.

    /s Processes files in all directories in the specified path.

    /d Process folders as well

    For full instructions please visit http://reimagerepairreview.com/2011/04/18/remove-windows-recovery-virus-warning-38-infections-found-virus/

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-06-10T23:58:50+00:00

    Sending a shortcut to desktop then moving it to your desired folder works great to fix this.  But sometimes the problem is worse.  I've notice that on some programs, for whatever reason, after they are installed, the .exe loses it's icon.  This has happend to me for programs in both 'Program Files' and 'Program Files (x86)'.  I have found a solution but it requires some knowledge of Resource hacking.  You'll need either 'Reshacker' or 'Restorator'.  Run one of those programs and navigate to the .exe of the program that's lost it's icon (shows generic icon instead).  Open up the icon resource and extract the program icon and save it somewhere as an .ico.  Then use the assign option (Restorator) and assign the icon back to the .exe.  Complicated for some but those who know how to resource hack will get this.  Worked for me.  I installed both Adobe PS CS3 and CS5 and both lost their icons.  This solution fixed them both.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-02-24T19:40:33+00:00

    It appears to be related to moving icons around and putting them somewhere other than the default location.

    Only has happened to me on 64 bit version of Win 7.

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