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.
Related Posts
- How to Clear the Thumbnail Cache in Windows 7 and Windows Vista
- How to Clear IE Temporary Internet Files Cache for a Particular Domain
- Deleted Files Are Shown When Performing a Search in Windows Vista
- Quickly Clear the Google Chrome Cache Using Script
- Thumbnail Preview Not Shown for Pictures in Vista?
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Thank you! Some random icons disappeared and this fixed it easily!
omg this worked thank you so much it fixed my broken program icon now not some dumb idiotic looking thing there its back. thanks so much proof that there still are nice people left in this world.
Just perfect, thank you!
Thanks! This works wonders
That works… Hi5
Very awesome, very to the point without jibber jabber, you are proof that the internet is not yet completely useless!
This is NOT compromising right click context menus’ icons under windows 7 as im tested, ive changed my winrar’s icon everything is ok but when i right click a file ive seeing old icon of winrar :(
To do all this create a .bat and run it so that it can automatically delete the cashe and restart Explorer.
Open notepad and copy the instructions below:
taskkill /F /IM explorer.exe
cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
attrib –h IconCache.db
del IconCache.db
start explorer
Save the file as RefreshIcon.bat
doubleclick on the file to run. Works every time for me in Win 7!
more BFU:
Go to your user dir on C:
open folder AppData (its hiden, maybe u have to show em first)
open folder Local
cut file Iconcache.db, paste it elsewhere
run ctrl+alt+del, on process tab terminate process explorer.exe
new task – explorer.exe
your icons has been restored!
You are a champion thank you so much for this information!