Desktop shortcut icons become white squares

I have a 17 month old Acer TC-780 computer running Win-10 home edition, 16-GB RAM and a HP 1920x1080 monitor.
I have a lot of short cuts to files and programs on my desktop. Every couple days the short-cuts become white squares rather than the icons that they are suppose to be. Eventually- after a couple hours- the short-cuts return to normal. But this happens over and over. Can someone tell me how I can fix ts problem?

Thanks much-
Nat Kayale

bro67 said:

If you are using any third party utilities to clear out stuff in Windows, the icon cache would need to be rebuilt, which is what is going on.

No, I have not installed any such program- just widows as it came with the computer.

I did add an additional 8-GB Ram stick which shows ok in the stats and I'm not having any other problems.

See this post. Icon cache keep rebuilding itself W10 Pro 64 Bits

With this batch script you can rebuild icon cache.

Code:

@Echo Off & Cls

Cd %~dp0

net sess>nul 2>&1||(powershell start cmd -ArgumentList """/c %~0""" -verb Runas & exit)



Mode CON  LINES=15 COLS=79 & Color 0E
  
  Echo.
  Echo.
  Echo.
  Echo.
  Echo.
  Echo  ╔══════════════════════════════  READ ME   ════════════════════════════════╗
  Echo  ║                                                                          ║
  Echo  ║   PLEASE SAVE AND CLOSE ALL FILES BEEN WORKED ON AND CLOSE ALL PROGRAMS  ║ 
  Echo  ║   THAT ARE STARTED BY YOU                                                ║ 
  Echo  ║                                                                          ║
  Echo  ║                                                                          ║
  Echo  ║   WHEN YOU ARE READY PRESS ANY KEYBOARD KEY TO EXECUTE THE BATCH SCRIPT  ║  
  Echo  ║                                            	                           ║ 
  Echo  ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
  Echo.
	  
  Pause > Nul 

	
Taskkill /IM Explorer.exe /F

:: Repair system icons do not appear in the notification area.

 Reg Delete "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify" /v  IconStreams /f 2>&1 >Nul 

Cls

 Reg Delete "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify" /v  PastIconsStream /f 2>&1 >Nul 

Cls

Ping /n 2 127.0.0.1 > Nul


Del /F /Q /A %LOCALAPPDATA%\IconCache.db 1>Nul 2>Nul

Del /F /Q /A %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\*.db 1>Nul 2>Nul

Del /F /Q /A "%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Application Data\IconCache.db" 1>Nul 2>Nul 

:: Repair Blank Shourtcut Icons
Reg Delete "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\User Choice" /f

:: Configuring Settings for Windows Disk Cleanup Tool
 
Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Active Setup Temp Folders" /v "StateFlags0064" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\BranchCache" /v "StateFlags0064" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Downloaded Program Files" /v "StateFlags0064" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Internet Cache Files" /v "StateFlags0064" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Memory Dump Files" /v "StateFlags0064" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Old ChkDsk Files" /v "StateFlags0064" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Recycle Bin" /v "StateFlags0064" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Service Pack Cleanup" /v "StateFlags0064" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Setup Log Files" /v "StateFlags0064" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\System error memory dump files" /v "StateFlags0064" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\System error minidump files" /v "StateFlags0064" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Temporary Files" /v "StateFlags0064" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Temporary Setup Files" /v "StateFlags0064" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Thumbnail Cache" /v "StateFlags0064" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Update Cleanup" /v "StateFlags0064" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\User file versions" /v "StateFlags0064" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Windows Defender" /v "StateFlags0064" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Windows Error Reporting Archive Files" /v "StateFlags0064" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Windows Error Reporting Queue Files" /v "StateFlags0064" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Windows Error Reporting System Archive Files" /v "StateFlags0064" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Windows Error Reporting System Queue Files" /v "StateFlags0064" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f 2>&1 >nul

Reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Windows ESD installation files" /v "StateFlags0064" /t REG_DWORD /d "2" /f 2>&1 >nul



Cls

Mode CON  LINES=5 COLS=48 & Color 0E
Cls
Echo.
Echo.
Echo.
Echo.
Echo.
Echo.
Echo              Please Wait..
Echo.
Echo.

:: Starting Windows Disk Cleanup Utility
CLEANMGR /sagerun:64 

Start Explorer.exe

Cls & Mode CON  LINES=11 COLS=42 & Color 0E 
Echo.
Echo.
Echo    THIS COMPUTER WILL REBOOT 
Echo.
Echo.
Echo    PLEASE SAVE ALL WORK IN PROGRESS
Echo. 
Echo.
Echo    PRESS 'ENTER' KEY TO RESTART COMPUTER
Pause >Nul

Shutdown  -r  -t 0  -c "REBOOTING SYSTEM" 2>&1 > Nul

Exit

Thanks for the links to the other info but I'm not eager to play with the registry. I was hoping the solution was simpler- after all- why do I this problem if other people don't?

One thing I've noticed is despite 16-GB, the RAM often reaches near full (~90%) and then the computer stops and dumps most of it onto the HD cache. But shouldn't the OS not be letting the RAM get so full in the first place? I think the term is poor memory management.

As I noted I did add an additional 8-GB of RAM. Could be that the OS is not set up to handle that much and I would be better off going back to the original 8-GB?