Hello @swagboy69,
If these are icons for shortcuts, then it could be an issue with what you selected to use for the shortcut overlay icon.
If these are not icons for shortcuts, then there is some other issue at play here.
For now, you might see if rebuilding the icon cache and clearing the thumbnail cache below may help.
Rebuild Icon Cache in Windows 10
Clear and Reset Thumbnail Cache in Windows 10
Hi @Brink,
Thanks for the prompt reply!
Unfortunately, those blank icons are actual folders, not shortcuts or any type of link/junction.
I've tried both rebuilding/resetting both the icon and thumbnail caches several times over the months, but I'll give it another shot now; it can't hurt, but I'm not expecting different results.
In the meantime, are you aware of any registry keys I could check manually to try to whittle down possible issues? I've already manually searched the registry via the "find" tool for any entries with ".ico" in them, and tried to correct any obvious mistakes.
Thanks for your help.
Since this has just recently happened, you could also do a system restore and select a restore point dated before this happened to undo it.
System Restore Windows 10
@Brink,
Unfortunately this issue has been plaguing me for at least 6 months, likely longer. I have a heavily customized Windows setup, using many of the great tips and tricks here at this site; so I'm loathe to do a full-scale fresh install.
It's not like I use photoshop THAT often, but still.
I'm going to try using different icons for folders, maybe that will help; although that wouldn't explain why photo thumbnails are also blank.
Here's a better picture that shows both folders and image files blank:
Thanks!
@swagboy69,
Just to verify, does this usually only happen for or in folders that have a high amount of large size image files in them?
If so, it could be an issue of overloading the cache for thumbnail previews.
As a test for this, temporarily turn off thumbnail previews using option 1 below to see if these icons show the default icon afterwards or still blank.
Enable or Disable Thumbnail Previews in File Explorer in Windows 10
@Brink,
- No, the icons/thumbs become blank when browsing any Explorer windowvia the Open/Save dialogue from any program. Your suggestion was one of the 1st i tried, didn't change anything, and i didn't expect to since folders don't have thumbnails in that sense
- The simplest way I can explain this would be: when browsing Explorer via any programs Open/Save dialogue, all files that I see via this 'Open/Save' dialogue no longer have icons (for files) nor thumbnails for image files. Within the view of that 'Open' dialogue, no file of any kind has an icon or thumbnail. Navigating to other directories has no effect; neither does navigating to another drive filled with completely different types of files. It's the same result — every item in the every folder simply does not have an icon/thumb! Eek!
- Folders with lots of files, folders with just a couple, folders with nothing but .dlls, whatever — none of them will show icon/thumb when browsing via 'Open/Save'. It's system wide, Likely a registry issue from me fiddling around.
Quite a mystery, I admit! I usually love this kind of detective solving, but I'm at a loss for ideas! Sigh
Well, normally I would recommend a repair install for an icon issue, but it can't hurt to try if wanted without losing anything.@Brink,
- No, the icons/thumbs become blank when browsing any Explorer windowvia the Open/Save dialogue from any program. Your suggestion was one of the 1st i tried, didn't change anything, and i didn't expect to since folders don't have thumbnails in that sense
- The simplest way I can explain this would be: when browsing Explorer via any programs Open/Save dialogue, all files that I see via this 'Open/Save' dialogue no longer have icons (for files) nor thumbnails for image files. Within the view of that 'Open' dialogue, no file of any kind has an icon or thumbnail. Navigating to other directories has no effect; neither does navigating to another drive filled with completely different types of files. It's the same result — every item in the every folder simply does not have an icon/thumb! Eek!
- Folders with lots of files, folders with just a couple, folders with nothing but .dlls, whatever — none of them will show icon/thumb when browsing via 'Open/Save'. It's system wide, Likely a registry issue from me fiddling around.
Quite a mystery, I admit! I usually love this kind of detective solving, but I'm at a loss for ideas! Sigh
It could undo some of your customizations though.
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade
Hi All
Final got this to work thanks to Edwin for the blank icon and oldMike65 for the concise instruction that i was able to follow, worked wonderfully, thx.
I want to restore the shortcut arrow on Windows 10. I ran your registry update, restarted computer, and arrows were back. As soon as I refresh my desktop the arrows are gone. Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons has one entry named (Default), (value not set). Then tried adding a 29 using %windir%\System32\shell32.dll,-16769. Got large arrow, but when I rebooted the arrow went away again. Any ideas?
Hello Marilyn, and welcome to Ten Forums.
Since you are wanting to restore the default shortcut arrows, see if this below may be able to.
1) Delete the 29 string value in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons key.
2) Download and merge the .reg file for the lnk item in the table in option 2 of the tutorial below. This will restore the default associations and registry entries for shortcuts.
Restore Default File Type Associations in Windows 10
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