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#1
Broken icons for native Windows app search
I'm having an odd problem that when I search for native (!) Microsoft apps from the start menu, the result presents with a broken icon. I say "native", because this happens with "Settings" and "Clock", but not with "Excel".
However, this problem does manifest itself if partial names are typed. See screenshots/examples below.
I'm running on Win 10 Pro - 21H2 - Build 19044.1865.
If I search for Settings/Clock, I get the following broken icons:
I do know though that the icon is there, because I can right-click the (broken) icon and Pin-to-Start, and it appears fine--as it does in the Start menu:
However, other searches for non-native/Windows apps work fine:
BUT, it seems that in some cases, the icon is broken if there's a small, partial match, but the icon presents itself when there is a more complete match:
I have tried a lot of things to try to fix this.
I read somewhere that Google Drive might be a culprit, so I uninstalled that (though I need it for work) but continue to have the issue.
I've read about deleting the icons from the iconcahe (%homepath%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer)--that was without success.
I've tried to restore the system health with:
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
sfc /scannow
I've also tried:
Win-R
ie4uinit -show
No luck. In all cases, I've done a restart after each attempt.
I've run out of ideas short of a full reinstall.
One thing that might be a culprit is that I think this problem may have started when I plugged my laptop to use my external monitor. However, I can't be sure, and even if I use my laptop in stand-alone mode, I still get these broken icons.
Thinking this might have been the culprit, I tried--without success--to go to a restore point before I ever plugged it into the external monitor and continued to have the same issue whether I was plugged into the external monitor or not.
What's going on, why, and any ideas on how to fix it?