Folder icons become black squares or boxes in windows explorer

Hi Halmen,

This issue could be either due to some corrupted system files or the Icon Cache database could be damaged by a recent activity on the computer.

It would be great if you can let’s know the recent change that you have made to the computer prior to this issue.

Let’s try the following methods and check if that resolves the issue. Let’s first check if there are any corrupted system files on the computer. You may run an SFC scan and check the result.

Method 1: Run an SFC Scan

The “sfc /scannow” command scans all protected system files and replaces incorrect versions with correct Microsoft versions.

a) Press “Windows Logo” + “X” keys on the keyboard and select “Command Prompt (Admin)” from that menu.

b) On the command prompt window, type the following command, and then press “Enter”

sfc /scannow

c) Follow the on-screen instructions and complete the scan.

If the scan was unable to find any corruption or other integrity issues on the computer and if this issue still persists, then try the next method to rebuild the Icon Cache Database.

Method 2: Rebuild the Icon Cache Database

If you find that one or more of your icons are not displaying correctly, or that your Icon Cache is corrupted, you might want to rebuild the Icon Cache. The Icon Cache or “IconCache.db” is a special database file that Windows utilizes to keep copies of each icon handy. When Windows needs to draw an icon, it uses the copy from the cache instead of retrieving the icon image from the original application file. This helps in making Windows draw the icons faster. The Icon Cache file is located at: “C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\IconCache.db”, where C is the drive where the Operating System is installed. To purge and rebuild the icon cache, you may follow these steps:

a) Press “Windows Logo” + “X” keys on the keyboard and select “Command Prompt (Admin)” from that menu.

b) Copy the following commands and then right click in the Command Prompt window and select the option “Paste” from that menu to paste all the commands there, and then press “Enter”.

                taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F

                CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local

                attrib –h IconCache.db

                DEL IconCache.db /a

                shutdown /r /f /t 00

c) Your computer will restart now automatically.

d) After the restart the Icon Cache will be rebuild automatically and then you may check if the issue still persists.

Hope this is helpful. Please get back to us with the troubleshooting results.

Awesome stuff, perfectly resolved all my black square icons when trying to attach a file to emails on outlook 2016!

Here's the solution (I've tried on windows 10):

Method 1, Clean the Thumbnails (Best one):

1. Go to start and search for "Disk Cleanup".
2. Open it and select the system drive (usually 'C') and click on 'OK'.
3. It will load. Then choose 'Thumbnails' and proceed. Done. :)

Method 2 (May work):

1. Right click on the folder (which one is having the black box) and go to 'Properties'.
2. Uncheck 'Read only'.
3. Open the folder.
4. Open some files. Done. :)

* If it doesn't work try the same thing again (open different files).

Edit ;)

You may like to visit http://www.freegyan.tk/2016/06/problem-windows-os-black-square-behind.html for more methods

Ok, I think I managed to reproduce the problem.

The problem comes everytime I uninstall and install a program. So far I tried uninstalling openoffice, msn messenger and cc cleaner.

The problem will occur once these programs are uninstalled or installed. I'm guessing the installation / uninstallation process messed up the icons? And the only solution is to do a system restore, which is very tedious

Hi diggi10,

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to help you!!

As I understand, when you try to ‘save’, in the save as window, folder icons turn black.

If you answer a few questions, it would help us to resolve this issue.

1. Do you have any anti- virus software installed in the system?
2. Are the blackened icons functional?
3. Have you installed any new theme?

Try to check for the issue in a new user account.

Follow the link below to learn how to create a new user account:

**http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/create-user-account**

Please get back to us with the result.

If you have further questions, please write back to us anytime.

We are happy to help!!

Regards,