Icons on desktop

I tried the steps. Set max cached icons size to 4096 kb. Rebooted couple times. No adverse affects but not really any different. Maybe I am expecting too much. I do have quite a few shortcuts on the desktop. It's not horrendous. As soon as I login the desktop displays and most of the icons are instant but a few stragglers always take a couple secs more to change from the generic white paper icon. During use I will keep an eye out, it didn't happen much but sometimes I see all icons refresh, only takes a second or two and I suppose doesn't affect my work or usage. Just seems a bit lame. As mentioned software installations seem to trigger it mostly but I suppose it's quite rare. I think Windows 7 did the same during updates of software or installs so perhaps it's nothing new. The only difference that when Windows 7 logged in and displayed the desktop icons they were all instant. Although the Windows 7 machine did take three times longer overall to boot from cold so maybe has more opportunity to get its house in order!

i would be very curious to find out the default icon cache size in Windows 10, I liaised with Brink and speculated it's still at 500 kb like previous Windows versions but that's not confirmed

cheers, Wayne

Ok I tried the DWORD based on the registry file suggested. It makes no diff. Maybe because the limit of 8192 kb is set too high and so windows 10 ignores it?

I think I know what is to blame for the initial slow(ish) display of desktop icons. And also some folders gradually displaying the .exe icons (mainly my downloads folder which has quite a few .exe files in it of varying degrees and sizes). It's Windows Defender. When I open the downloads folder I see a surge of cpu activity at about 15% whilst the exe icons generate. I opened task manager and saw the antimalware service executable was running at this percentage and then reduced to zero once when all the icons finished. So it seems this is the culprit and no amount of diddling with Maxed Icon Cache or rebuilding it will make a difference. That explains why after boot subsequent browses to the downloads folder are instant because Defender is happy with it. I guess it's doing what it should be doing but it's a tad annoying. I could try another service but I preferred Defender as it's integrated and in my mind of all the suites one could choose from Defender should play nicest with Windows (after all it's another MS product). Whilst not satisfied with the outcome it's nice to know why.

EDIT

Yep it's Defender confirmed, I rebooted. Disabled Defender real time scanning and opened my downloads folder. Every icon populated in a micro second. Obviously will switch it back on. Question is whether this should be considered a bug or intended behaviour!

Cheers,
Wayne

Nice registry tweak, I wondered why my 8 gadget pack was always a few secs delayed in starting. Now its more or less instant. Much better. Unfortunately it made no diff to the icons displaying. I'll have to ponder if worth living with or replacing Windows Defender

It's not widespread issue looking at google but it has been raised by someone else here:
W10 Windows defender still slow my exe icons from real-time - Microsoft Community

Thanks