New
#170
I tried all the suggestions and what worked for me was to make the new Key and put the 29 string value in and nothing else.It seems after weeks of trial and error I’ve finally found a solution to this desktop icon problem that works for me. I tried all the varying string 29 value remedies and ended up with all the associated errors. Black squares over the icons, white squares over the icons and even no icons at all. Sure they looked like a solution after one restart but the error was soon back again after that. The one method I hadn’t tried was the blank icon fix and it looks like a winner.
So thanks to all the posters here for a solution that appears to be working.
These are the steps I used. Hopefully it will help others.
Before starting download the blank icon from post #105 (page 11). Call it BlankIcon, for ease of identification, and place it in a folder of your choosing. C:\Windows\system32 is where I put mine. Sort of sounds like where it should go although I don’t think it matters.
1. Press windows key + r to open Registry Editor and type in regedit then choose OK
2. When prompted Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your PC?, choose Yes
3. Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
4. Right click on Explorer and using the dialog menu choose New > Key and name it Shell Icons. Press Enter.
5. Click on Shell Icons and in the right pane right click on an empty area, and click on New > String Value. Name it 29.
6. Double click on the 29 String Value to modify it. You should see a blank box called Value data.
7. In the Value data box enter C:\Windows\system32\BlankIcon.ico or the path where you saved your Blank Icon.
8. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager. Scroll all the way down to Windows Explorer. Click once and press restart or reboot the computer or log off and on to complete the task.
I’m guessing this will need to be done every time there’s a Windows 10 major update.
That works so far