Rebuild Windows 10 Icon Cache
Sometimes your shortcuts lose their icons. Here’s the fix
For whatever reason, sometimes your shortcuts will lose their icons, and give you that ugly, blank white icon. If you don’t want to use third-party software, here’s a super quick fix.
Step 1: Open Task Manager
Open the task manager (run > taskmgr, search for ‘task’, or CTRL+ALT+DEL and open it from there).
Step 2: End Windows
Search for “Windows Explorer”. Do not restart the task, but fully end it by right-clicking on it and choosing ‘End Task.’
Step 3: Open CMD prompt and run the rebuild
You’ll notice that your desktop is now likely a black screen, and you’ve lost your taskbar and all icons. This is good! Open the command prompt from task manager: you can do this by clicking File > Run New Task and then typing cmd. You can run it elevated, but it shouldn’t be necessary.
Once the cmd window is open, simply type:
CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
(this should take you to the correct folder, regardless of your profile name. If it doesn’t, replace %userprofile% with whatever your username is)
In this new directory, type:
DEL IconCache.db /a
(this is telling the system to delete all IconCache.db files, as there are several of them)
Finally, type:
exit
(this closes the command prompt)
Your cmd window should look like this:
Step 4: Restart Windows Explorer
From the task manager screen, click on File > Run New Task, then type explorer.exe. This will relaunch Windows Explorer, and you’ll see your taskbar and icons, as well as your desktop again. Sometimes not all of your usual taskbar icons will appear. In this case, simply restart your system and you’ll be good as new.
And that’s that! Your ugly, broken shortcuts are beautiful once more.
James, also known as Canuck, is a stay-at-home-dad and freelance writer, with interests in video games, technology, horror, and enjoys coffee far too much. He also runs Coffee Chat Entertainment. If you’d like to get in touch, or just chat, he can be reached on Discord, tweeting about whatever on Twitter, and pretending to work on a website at CoffeeChatGaming.com.
