Rebuild Icon Cache in Windows 10

andyouf · 18 Dec 2018

@ddelo It really is the best. Knowledge is amazing, members are great, Brink's tutorials (and a .bat file or two from you and shout out to Bree and Ed) have saved me with issues and/or taught me ideas countless times in the detail that I love with multiple remedy options, clarity, and conciseness.

UI, layout, notification systems all great. Like really, really great. Front page is clean and easy to understand as are settings some of which are really cool. I feel like I should be paying a fee for the support here. MS support reps will actually reference TenForums in replies to users. When I Google/Bing a question the best results come back here.

I've asked questions at other forums when I was trying to find a good one that usually had no response or shaky information that didn't really address the issue. Threads about UWP apps (I don't remember just using that) would devolve into some sort of YouTube thread where it turns into arguing, politics, whatever.* No juvenile bickering here and a refreshing break from politics and social issues to focus on tech. Also, everyone made their avatars festive for Christmas which is hilarious (Foghorn Leghorn and aliens in Santa hats) and great.

*There's a term for this that I cannot find. Longer a thread is the more likely it is to inevitably turn into a bunch of insults.

Example in action: Just accidentally left this page. Lost my reply. Replies are auto saved. Pushed the restore button. Life is a bit easier. Saved me twice this week. Simple feature but I don't see it around much.

Brink · 18 Dec 2018

Lycanroc said:

Hi. I had solved the problem and I was trying to use this to try something else on another thread. I just didn't do something correctly there. The .bat file isn't to blame, it should be fine.

That's great news. I'm glad you got it sorted.

bgbdbill67 · 17 May 2019

I know this is an old thread but I've running your batch file twice. It has worked fine for a few minutes but then it reverts back to having some files with the red X's. I saw something on another forum but I don't understand it. maybe you guys can understand since on the other forum i get no response. 0

Your Windows Shortcut icon likely got changed.

Try resetting the icon back to its default. In the following key, set the string value 29 to %windir%\System32\shell32.dll,-16769: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons.

Logoff for the change to take effect.

Source: Option 3 of Seven Forums - Shortcut Arrow Change, Remove, Restore

Note: While written for Windows 7 and 8, this should work in Windows 10 as well.

If this would work, is it possible to write a batch file for it? thank you for listening

Brink · 17 May 2019

Hello @bgbdbill67, and welcome to Ten Forums.

Please go ahead and post a screenshot showing these files with a red X just to help make sure of what they may be for.

Could they be for a shared or network file or shortcut that is currently not available or being synced to? For example, while a drive or network is not connected to, or OneDrive file/folder not being synced.

Bugs Bunny · 08 Nov 2019

An alternative to Shawn Brink's batch file:

@echo off & cls & echo. & echo. & echo.
Choice /m "Did you save all your work? The computer must restart!"
If %errorlevel%==2 goto Cancel
Taskkill /im explorer.exe /f 1> nul
Cd /d "%localappdata%" & Del /a /f /q Iconcache.db 2>1>nul
Takeown /f "%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer" /r /d y 1> nul
Icacls "%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer" /grant administrators:f /t 1> nul
Cd /d "%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows" & Rmdir /s /q Explorer
Shutdown /r /c "The Computer will restart within 10 seconds" /t 10
Cls & exit
:Cancel
Cls & echo. & echo. & echo.
Echo The process is aborted.
Timeout /t 2 /nobreak 1>nul
Cls & exit

The behaviour is roughly the same, but adds a ten seconds delay to make sure all running (???) background processes have time enough to roll back their temporary datas to disk before restarting -not taking into account of the "Please wait" delay while restarting the computer. Create a batch file and copy/paste it to the system32 folder. Best and easiest location. Simply run it from a command prompt opened as admin.

Kinds regards,
B.B.

ICIT2LOL · 08 Nov 2019

I have a mention to this thread but don't know why??

Bugs Bunny · 08 Nov 2019

Some add-ons

If you didn't known...
Worried with retyping the name of a batch file?
Click on the little C:\_ on the top left corner; select Edit-Mark; click twice on the name of the batch file and press Enter; select Edit-Paste and press Enter to run the batch file.
If a name contains spaces, it must must enclosed with quotes to be run. Avoid spaces and replace them with an underline to keep readability!
About blank icons: if they were customized, open the related registry key and check for both pathes and names. Most probably moved or renamed (or .ico file damaged).
Last trick about customized icons not always displaying properly: add ",0" (zero) without the quotes to the end of the data line in the registry key.
Good night and good weekend, it's late now in my country.
B.B.

Callender · 08 Nov 2019

Bugs Bunny said:

An alternative to Shawn Brink's batch file:

@echo off & cls & echo. & echo. & echo.
Choice /m "Did you save all your work? The computer must restart!"
If %errorlevel%==2 goto Cancel
Taskkill /im explorer.exe /f 1> nul
Cd /d "%localappdata%" & Del /a /f /q Iconcache.db 2>1>nul
Takeown /f "%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer" /r /d y 1> nul
Icacls "%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer" /grant administrators:f /t 1> nul
Cd /d "%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows" & Rmdir /s /q Explorer
Shutdown /r /c "The Computer will restart within 10 seconds" /t 10
Cls & exit
:Cancel
Cls & echo. & echo. & echo.
Echo The process is aborted.
Timeout /t 2 /nobreak 1>nul
Cls & exit

The behaviour is roughly the same, but adds a ten seconds delay to make sure all running (???) background processes have time enough to roll back their temporary datas to disk before restarting -not taking into account of the "Please wait" delay while restarting the computer. Create a batch file and copy/paste it to the system32 folder. Best and easiest location. Simply run it from a command prompt opened as admin.

Kinds regards,
B.B.

I wouldn't mess about with taking ownership or permissions unless you can post how to restore original permissions.

Bugs Bunny · 09 Nov 2019

Callender, you can use this batch and keep the wolf from the door. Before, System was the only one to have full control. Now, both Administrators AND System have full control. And I can swear you that my computer still works perfectly.
B.B.

Nutter Butter · 12 Jul 2020

Thank you Brink for your valuable tutorials. I'll leave this post, just in case it might helps others.

I had two desktop icons go bad and I revisited to rebuild the icon cache. This time though the .bat method didn't work. I even run it multiple times and followed the instructions to the letter. Always run it as administrator. I located the multiple iconcache* files (in the %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\ folder) and I noticed that their file date was older so I realized that the .bat file didn't manage to actually delete them.

So I tried method 2 and it worked! I cannot understand why it didn't work but I'm reporting in case anyone else has the same issue or in case you would like to investigate.

Windows 10 1909 (18363.900) x64