Desktop Icons, and Windows app icons disappeared

[rockonbazza]

Hi.

I have just bought and installed a Dell U2515H monitor (my previous was 1920 x 1080). All my desktop icons have now disappeared, and now only the names of the icons are on my desktop. I can still access them by clicking on the name. I have noticed however if I right click on the icons, and select “properties” for example – no window opens for the “properties” options etc. Plus no icons showing in folders – i.e. “This PC” folder lists all the folders but no “folder ” icons.

I did download and install custom icons for all my desktop apps when I was running 1920 x 1080. I thought perhaps if I went back into properties and applied the custom Icons again it might work, but as I said above I cant even get the “properties” window to open.

Can anyone help?

Thanks.

[Ed P]

Try right-click on the screen -> view ->show desktop icons

[rockonbazza]

Hi Ed,

I tried that – That option is already selected (tried unselecting and reselecting the option, the names disappear if I uncheck show icons). I tried the option for bigger/smaller icons too but it just makes the name smaller – e.g. for Avast Antivirus – there is no icon, just the name “Avast Antivirus”. If I select bigger or smaller icons, it just moves the names closer together for small icons, further apart for big icons – aaargh!

[Ed P]

Sorry – I misread your post. This is an old problem, but I’m darned if I remember the solution that works every time. As a starter try rebuilding the icon cache it may be corrupt.

Open a command line

then type:

CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local

DEL IconCache.db /a

EXIT

if it barfs at you then maybe Admin mode is required.

[Ed P]

I should have added you need to reboot after deleting the cache as it only rebuilds during the boot process.

[rockonbazza]

Hi Ed.

I tried the above command prompt etc – It says it couldnt find IconCache.db – I went into the appdata/local folder itself and had a look, there is no iconcache.db listed – is that what my issue is then – no iconcache files?

[rockonbazza]

Also, in addition to my reply above, I found a link about missing icons, which showed me how do a similar command to what you said Ed, but in local/appdata/microsoft/windows/explorer. However that didnt bring back my desktop icons. It does give another link to sort out other missing icon issues, but I will have a look at that tomorrow. Strange that just by plugging in a new monitor, with higher resolution that it has caused this issue ( I am assuming that was the cause).

[Ed P]

Did it include stopping Windows Explorer. I found this for Win10 (the other was for Win7)

ie4uinit.exe -show

taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F

DEL /A /Q “%localappdata%\IconCache.db”

DEL /A /F /Q “%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache*”

shutdown /r /f /t 00

Probably best to do this in the bat file shown below:

@echo off
set iconcache=%localappdata%\IconCache.db
echo.
echo Attempting to delete IconCache.db files…
echo.
ie4uinit.exe -show
taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
del /A /Q “%iconcache%”
del /A /F /Q “%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache*”
start explorer.exe
echo.
echo IconCache.db files have been successfully deleted.
goto restart

 

[rockonbazza]

Yep, it was similar to above – but it didnt resolve the issue. . I have just gone into “This PC/my pictures folder – no pictures showing, just the name of the pictures. Yet when I go to save a picture to the folder, I can click “all files” on the save screen and then all the pictures etc show up. I thought the issue might be cos pc is running in tablet mode, which hides icons apparently, but it is not in tablet mode. Running out of ideas at present.

This is what my pictures folder looks like, a mix if .ico files, .png files etc. I right click on them, select properties..nothing happens. I wonder if I should do a system restore to a few days ago? Below that “This PC” folder – same thing  happens, cant select “properties” – no icons or anything either! Desktop is the same, just names of apps/links, no icons.

 

 

[Boris]

Have you tried running sfc /scannow from an elevated command prompt ?

 

Right-click (or press and hold) the Start  button, then select Command Prompt (Admin).
Enter sfc /scannow (note the space between “sfc” and “/”).

Never trust an atom - they make up everything !

[Bob Williams]

I can add to the above, that sometimes you may have to run    sfc /scannow     a couple more times. I don’t know why this should be, but it did help me to fix another, different problem, after advice from No.1 grandson.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Ed P]

Or IF you allow the system to do System Restore to a point before it went scatty that will often work in such cases of corruption.

Failing all else, set up a new user and transfer everything across. Never tried it with Desktop but I don’t see why not!

[rockonbazza]

Scannow didnt find any errors etc. Will try a restore.

 

[rockonbazza]

Windows restore failed – following message popped up :

failed while restoring the directory from the restore point.
Source: AppxStaging
Destination %ProgramFiles%\WindowsApps.
Unspecified error occurred during restore. (0x80070091)

Does that mean anything to anyone. Have 1 more earlier restore point to try (I did a full re-install of windows about 3 weeks or so ago, so not many restore points to choose from!)

[rockonbazza]

Same problem with an earlier restore point – same message popped up. Next stop..windows repair??

 

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>I know from a previous post that you ran something to remove the arrows from your desktop icons. What was that again ?</p>

[rockonbazza]

You sir, are a genius. I thought I had ran that programme prior to my latest Windows 10 installation, but on checking the posts I had made on the forum, and my windows files, I realised I had done it after the latest Win installation. I had used Ultimate Windows Tweaker – I selected restore to defaults on the icons screen, and hey presto – icons all back on desktop and folders etc.

Problem solved. I was positive I had not run the programme on this latest installation. Thanks for all the suggestions and help :good:

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

Glad to be of service 🙂

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