My earlier post Incorrect icon shown for a file type in Vista (March 31, 2008) tells you how to refresh the shell icons in Vista. In case the solution posted in that link does not help, you may want to clear the icon cache database. The icon cache can be cleared by deleting the hidden file named IconCache.db in the following location:
Note: %userprofile% represents the path to user profile folder.
Rebuilding the Icon Cache Database
1. Close all folder windows that are currently open.
2. Launch Task Manager using the CTRL+SHIFT+ESC key sequence, or by running taskmgr.exe.
3. In the Process tab, right-click on the Explorer.exe process and select End Process.
4. Click the End process button when asked for confirmation.
5. From the File menu of Task Manager, select New Task (Run…)
6. Type CMD.EXE, and click OK
7. In the Command Prompt window, type the commands one by one and press ENTER after each command:
CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
DEL IconCache.db /a
EXIT
8. In Task Manager, click File, select New Task (Run…)
9. Type EXPLORER.EXE, and click OK.
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- How to Fix Image Thumbnails Not Displayed in Windows 7 and Vista?
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Thank you, this was a quick and easy fix.
Wow this works after reading other countless article. Thanks for the tips.
Thanks! Great tip and easy to follow.
Thanks for having such a simple and straight-forward way to fix this situation!
You rule!
Thank you very very much. I am not sure why after installing my first updates on a fresh install of windows that I would have messed up icons, but this worked like a charm to get them back. Thank you very much again.
Thanks a lot. Best opinion what I could found :)
Thanks, I had some corrupted icons and this fixed the problem. Just to simplify your steps a bit however you can type Explorer right in the command prompt that you have open instead of closing it and doing it from the task manager.
There’s an easier way if you have the free Sysinternals tool MOVEFILE.EXE (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897556) with the following command:
movefile “%userprofile%\AppData\Local\IconCache.db” “”
…This will clear the icon cache just for your login (the current user), and you must reboot before you’ll see the changes.
And for @Scott: As you visit each of those websites, IE will download the icons and update the favorites listing for you. But you probably already know this by now since it’s been a couple months since your question.
Better method:
Open notepad, paste this exactly:
TASKKILL /f /im explorer.exe
CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
DEL IconCache.db /a
START explorer.exe
EXIT
Save it as “fix icons.bat”, with file type “All types”.
Run the batch file any time your icons are screwed up.
The reason this is better is that it automatically kills explorer.exe, deletes the icon cache for you, and restarts explorer.exe.
This worked like a charm. Thanks!! It annoyed me to death but wasn’t worth a fresh install. Thanks for this solution!