To render the icons for various shell objects like folders, special folders, and files, Windows caches the icons in database files so that Windows doesn’t have to read the file or folder icon and extract them every time. Occasionally, you’ll see icon-caching bugs in Windows resulting in incorrect, missing, or out-of-date icons being shown for programs and desktop shortcuts and other areas of the shell.<\/p>\n
To resolve the incorrect icons issue, you may want to clear and rebuild the icon cache database completely. This post explains how to accomplish the task using different methods. The instructions apply to all versions of Windows, including Windows 11.<\/p>\n
Clear and Rebuild the Icon Cache:<\/strong><\/p>\n If refreshing the icons using ie4uinit.exe<\/strong> or Default Apps doesn’t help, you’ll have to clear the icon cache completely.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Let’s see how to clear the icon cache completely and let Windows rebuild it automatically.<\/p>\n Clear Icon Cache (ClearIconCache.exe) utility from Leo Davidson<\/a> will cleanly exit Explorer<\/a>, delete the shell icon cache (IconCache*.db), and localized thumbnail cache<\/strong> (ThumbCache*.db), and then restart Explorer.<\/p>\n Leo Davidson is a trusted source — he is the one who wrote the famous PDF x64 thumbnail & preview fix for Windows some years back. And he’s the owner of FileTypeDiag<\/a> and many other useful portable tools.<\/em><\/p>\n With Clear Icon Cache, you double-click the program, and it takes care of the details for you. Clear Icon Cache works in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10. Though Windows 11 isn’t mentioned, it should work on Windows 11 without any issues.<\/p>\n To run the utility in noninteractive or silent mode, run As said earlier, the utility also clears the thumbnail caches<\/a> on the computer.<\/p>\n RELATED:<\/strong> How to Restart Explorer Gracefully Using Shortcut or Command-line<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n The icon cache database files are located in your The file names look like this:<\/p>\n To clear the icon cache manually, follow these steps:<\/p>\n If you receive Access is Denied<\/i><\/b> error when deleting the IconCache*.db files, then one or more of the open programs is using the icon cache database. Close all programs and try again, or try clearing them from Safe mode.<\/em><\/li>\n Editor’s note:<\/b> Instead of using Task Manager to exit Explorer.exe in Step 3 above, an even better way to do this is to terminate the Explorer.exe Shell cleanly<\/b> using the method described in the article Terminate and Restart Explorer.exe Process Cleanly in Windows 7<\/a>. If you’re using Windows 8, Windows 10, or Windows 11, check the article How to Exit Explorer and Restart Explorer in Windows 10\/11<\/a>.<\/p>\n This method uses a small script that I wrote to clean up the icon cache completely. Once done, the script restarts the Explorer shell for the change to take effect.<\/p>\n\n
![\"tips](\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/icotip.gif\")
Before proceeding, try a simple fix like the ie4uinit.exe<\/a> refresh method. In many situations, all that you need to do is refresh<\/strong> the icons without the need to clear and rebuild them.<\/p>\nHow to Clear and Rebuild the Icon Cache in Windows<\/h2>\n
<\/a>1) Clear & Rebuild icon cache using ClearIconCache.exe Utility<\/h3>\n
![\"clear](\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/cleariconcache-utility.png\")
<\/p>\nClearIconCache.exe \/QUIET<\/code><\/p>\n
\n<\/a>2: Clear & Rebuild the Icon Cache Database Manually<\/h3>\n
%LocalAppData%<\/code> folder with file names prefixed with iconcache_<\/code> – each icon size has a separate cache (database) file.<\/p>\niconcache_16.db\r\niconcache_32.db\r\niconcache_48.db\r\niconcache_96.db\r\niconcache_256.db\r\niconcache_768.db\r\niconcache_1280.db\r\niconcache_1920.db\r\niconcache_2560.db\r\niconcache_exif.db\r\niconcache_idx.db\r\niconcache_sr.db\r\niconcache_wide.db\r\niconcache_wide_alternate.db\r\n<\/pre>\n
![\"clear](\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/icon-cache-localappdata-folder.png\"){kind=icon}
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CD \/d %userprofile%\\AppData\\Local\r\nDEL IconCache.db \/a<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
%userprofile%\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Explorer<\/code><\/b>. To clear them, you must close all running applications, and run these commands in the Command Prompt.\nCD %userprofile%\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Explorer\r\nDEL IconCache*.db \/a\r\nEXIT<\/pre>\n
\n<\/strong>![\"task](\"https:\/\/www.winhelponline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/w10-taskmgr-explorer-task.png\")
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\n<\/a>Method 3: Automatically Clear & Rebuild the Icon Cache Using Script<\/h3>\n
Contents of the Script – Cleariconcache.vbs<\/h4>\n