Shortcut icons on desktop re-draw problem?

Willabong · 20 Nov 2017

I have folders on my desktop (windows 10 1709) that contain shortcut icons to all my programs and games. after starting windows and opening a folder with these shortcuts, windows has to re-draw all the shortcuts, this happens in every folder and can take some time to complete.
Is there a registry hack to stop windows deleting the shortcut cashe on re-boot?

I realise that not everyone has their shortcut icons in folders on the desktop, but this is the way I like to organise things, so any help would be appreciated?

margrave55 · 20 Nov 2017

In explorer open C:\Users\<user-name>
Among the listed folders, right-click on Desktop and choose Properties.
Choose the Customize tab.
What does it say in the Optimize this folder for box? One of these:
- General Items
- Documents
- Pictures
- Music
- Videos
I find that certain odd behaviors will go away if you set this to Documents.

This is not specific to the 1709 update. It's been around for years. It might work for you. Or it might be that 1709 has introduced yet another unsolvable bug. I don't know, but it's easy enough to try this fix.

Willabong · 20 Nov 2017

No! Doesn't make any difference?

spunk · 20 Nov 2017

Right click each shortcut choose Properties under the Shortcut tab what does the Target Say? Make sure Target and Start In paths are the same.

Willabong · 20 Nov 2017

There is no "Shortcut" tab in "Properties", with most of the shortcuts, only the Steam games shortcuts have a Shortcut tab, and they have the right path on target and start in?

spunk · 21 Nov 2017

Ok, when you right click and choose Properties, what does Location say? Is there a Location tab? Can you move the shortcut (folder) to the desired location?

Willabong · 21 Nov 2017

The shortcut folders are on my desktop, there are hundreds of shortcut icons to start various games in these folders separated by type, eg: Hidden Object/Space/Racing/ Point and Click etc.
The problem is that after starting the PC and opening a folder, the shortcut icons inside take some time to be re-drawn. So it seems that the shortcut (picture) is being deleted when I close down my PC, and are only re-drawn when I open a folder? The paths to each icon is correct, what I need is to stop Windows from deleting the shortcut information on close down, so that the icons do not need to be re-drawn every time I boot?

topgundcp · 21 Nov 2017

Try to increase the icon cache size as shown in this link:
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/increa...ize-in-windows

EDIT: The value in this link used REG_SZ which is a string and I think it's wrong. Should be D_WORD

Willabong · 21 Nov 2017

Nice try topgundcp, but there is no real change in the speed of the re-draw, with REG_SZ or D_WORD used?

topgundcp · 21 Nov 2017

Willabong said:

Nice try topgundcp, but there is no real change in the speed of the re-draw, with REG_SZ or D_WORD used?

Just so you know, those icons are retrieved from the executable file(s)/video/Music and if they are huge in size will cause such problem. The shortcuts just reference back to the original files so I am not sure if it will build the cache. In addition, it also depends on the quality of your video card.