Recycle Bin icon completely transparent

The only way that I could find the Recycle Bin on my desktop was by the icon label. The actual icon is 100% transparent, and the Properties for the icon didn't have any way to change the icon. The windows wallpaper is the rockclimbing picture.

Any ideas?

Bree said:

See if this helps...

Rebuild Icon Cache in Windows 10

I used the BAT file and it worked. Thank you.

I have been around Windows since the days of Windows/286, where I used Windows only to run Excel, and all other programs were still DOS, and I'm impressed that a simple BAT file could fix such a weird problem. If only we had some BAT files to fix all the many problems with networking.

Bree said:

It may look weird, but the cause is specific (corrupt icon cache) and the cure (delete it and let windows rebuild it) fairly straight forward.

But what causes an icon cache to become corrupted?

I don't recall ever having to rebuild an icon cache and was wondering if reassigning an icon to a specific program would be the cause? I mean to say, I couldn't easily corrupt the Recycle Bin icon unless I went into the registry. How in the heck could that one become corrupted when it isn't tied to any programs cache-wise?

For example, deep within the Registry at this location:

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\DefaultIcon

That location shows the two possible states of the Recycle Bin Icon - Full or Empty

To make the icon transparent, you would have to modify its binary data values in its default state value.

EyeInTheSky said:

But what causes an icon cache to become corrupted?

To make the icon transparent, you would have to modify its binary data values in its default state value.

As the OP for this thread, I recall changing the icon type for some folders a few days earlier. I guess I won't do that again.

x509 said:

As the OP for this thread, I recall changing the icon type for some folders a few days earlier. I guess I won't do that again.

Thank you for the clarification and honesty!

I was just thinking out loud a little bit and trying to recall what corrupts an icon cache in the first place. Only a couple of things could do it and the Recycle Bin isn't just corrupted without help whether it is intended or not; but I never would've guessed that changing icons for other folders would corrupt or make transparent the Recycle Bin icon.

Very odd to say the least and glad you got it situated!

EyeInTheSky said:

Thank you for the clarification and honesty!

I was just thinking out loud a little bit and trying to recall what corrupts an icon cache in the first place. Only a couple of things could do it and the Recycle Bin isn't just corrupted without help whether it is intended or not; but I never would've guessed that changing icons for other folders would corrupt or make transparent the Recycle Bin icon.

Very odd to say the least and glad you got it situated!

Thanks. To be clear, my icon change may or may not have been the actual cause of the Recycle Bin icon corruption. I mentioned my prior change in case someone smarter than me saw the connection.