Windows 7 Icons Blacked Out

Cheemag · May 20, 2016

Hello again,

My Windows 7 Pro machine started up with all the desktop icons (except three 'MS' ones) blacked out (black square where the icon should be).

"Rebuild Shell Icon Cache" on right-click menu on desktop does nothing; they're still black. Restarting Windows Explorer doesn't help either.

How to proceed?

Regards

Cheemag

kemical · May 26, 2016

Hi Cheemag,

have you installed anything new recently?

New anti virus application maybe?

Have you made any changes to Windows 7 itself (recently)?

Check on how corrupted your system is by running the system file checker:

Look in the start menu for command prompt, right click on it, choose properties followed by run as admin. Type:
sfc /scannow
Press enter and await results.

RichM · May 20, 2016

Try this "Fixit" tool and see if it works:
Fix broken desktop shortcuts and common system maintenance tasks

Cheemag · May 21, 2016

Thanks, I'll try that. At the moment I'm on the other machine ...

To recover my icons, I'm having to:

Rename the icon cache db file to .OLD;
Rebuild icon cache (from desktop) and
Restart Windows Explorer (from desktop).

Rather a hassle, unless I were to put all that in a batch file ...

I'll try that link later.

Thanks again,

Cheemag

Cheemag · May 23, 2016

The fixit tool didn't work I'm aftraid - it found nothing wrong and the Registry entries for the icons are as they should be.
Anything else I can try?

It happens on this other machine too to the extent that it boots with black icons but within a minute reverts to the normal ones.

I can't understand how, after having effectively deleted the icons db file, it then finds the icons and displays them. The icons must therefore be stored in their correct form and layout somewhere else other than in the icons db file. (?)

Regards

Cheemag
.

Neemobeer · May 23, 2016

Did you remove all the icon cache db files, because are generally one per each icon size.

Cheemag · May 24, 2016

Hello again,

There's only the one in Users\Jim\AppData\Local, it's IconCache.db and renaming it effectively deletes it. Search-Everything found another IconCache.db.old in c:\Users\Jim\AppData\Local\VirtualStore which has an exclamation-mark on its Explorer icon/thumbnail and is identical to the one in ...AppData\Local\. Both of these are two days old which was probably when I renamed it. According to Search-Everything there are only these two on the machine.

I found another workaround by trawling the Net, It's a batch file which basically does what I was doing, wiping IconCach.db (the daft software on this forum won't let me upload it). However, it does not stick and has to be run after each boot. (Could put it in
startup I suppose). So I'm no better off really as this process doesn't retain the icons' positions on the Desktop..

The meat of the .bat file I downloaded is as follows:
delID
echo Attempting to delete Icon DB...
echo.
ie4uinit.exe -ClearIconCache
taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
del "%iconcache%" /A
del "%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache*" /A
echo.
echo Icon DB has been successfully deleted. Please "restart your PC" now to rebuild your icon cache.
echo.
start explorer.exe
pause
exit /B

%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache doesn't exist.

Regards,

Jim

Neemobeer · May 24, 2016

Are only shortcuts (.lnk) files black or are regular icons such as exes, image file types etc also black?

Cheemag · May 25, 2016

Hello again,

The only files not blanked out are the 'Microsoft' ones: Computer, Recycle Bin, Network, Control Panel and a non-MS one, Geek Uninstall. All the others are overlaid with a black square/rectangle - you can just see the edges of the real icons which lie beneath them.

The icons on the taksbar are unaffected.

Regards,

Cheemag

Neemobeer · May 25, 2016

Ok, that isn't normally what they look like when the icon cache is corrupt. Can you post a screenshot?

Sandbox · May 25, 2016

i dont understand how come you did not show then show Hidden System Files the click on C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local folder
and delete the hidden IconCache.db Reboot. This action will purge and rebuild the icon cache. how come as you show on the top looks like its done in dos and whatever. this is one of the correct way
its called purge & rebuild the Icon Cache hope it helps you (good luck)

Sandbox · May 25, 2016

if your not sure let me give you a tool that will rebuilt you icons
Icon Cache Rebuilder: Repair, Rebuild corrupt icon cache in Windows
click on that link it will download the tool

Neemobeer · May 25, 2016

@Sandbox the batch file he ran deleted and rebuilt the cache as stated in reply #6

Sandbox · May 25, 2016

as i see its done correctly the way he run the bat file wrong location i can read thanks
i see a .bat when you run that command if there is something open in localappdata it wont work

Sandbox · May 25, 2016

i dont understand how come everytime i post something it allways gets chalenged what up with that geee lol i feel im in school again

Neemobeer · May 25, 2016

I wouldn't feel bad, I tend not to read all the replies and repost things too

Cheemag · May 26, 2016

Sandbox said:
if your not sure let me give you a tool that will rebuilt you icons
Icon Cache Rebuilder: Repair, Rebuild corrupt icon cache in Windows
click on that link it will download the tool

Thanks, but using that util, on reboot it was exactly the same, black icons. The other util of which I posted a bit of above rebuilds the desktop instantly but it doesn't stick. It has to be run at every boot.

Regards,
Cheemag

Cheemag · May 26, 2016

Sandbox said:
i dont understand how come you did not show then show Hidden System Files the click on C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local folder
and delete the hidden IconCache.db Reboot. This action will purge and rebuild the icon cache. how come as you show on the top looks like its done in dos and whatever. this is one of the correct way
its called purge & rebuild the Icon Cache hope it helps you (good luck)

That's exactly what the batch file part quoted above does.

Regards,

Cheemag

Cheemag · May 26, 2016

Neemobeer said:
Ok, that isn't normally what they look like when the icon cache is corrupt. Can you post a screenshot?

I'm trying to ... wouldn't let me last time ...

Contrary to what Is aid earlier, you can't see the icon behind the black square.

I noticed after running these rebuild iconcache utils, there's no IconCache.db file in the Local directory. So it seems it isn't actually being rebuilt. (?)

Regards,

Cheemag

kemical · May 26, 2016

Hi Cheemag,

have you installed anything new recently?

New anti virus application maybe?

Have you made any changes to Windows 7 itself (recently)?

Check on how corrupted your system is by running the system file checker:

Look in the start menu for command prompt, right click on it, choose properties followed by run as admin. Type:
sfc /scannow
Press enter and await results.

Neemobeer · May 26, 2016

What application are you using to customize the date/time and your icons look different, are you using some kind of customization software and if so try uninstalling it.

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