• desktop icons keep switching to generic and back

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    #2393525

    I recently bit the bullet and upgraded from Win7 to Win10.  All seemed to go well but then my desktop icons (shortcuts and task bar icons) turned “generic” – white square with blue box.

    After some searching found posts saying to rebuild icon files – that didn’t work.

    Others said to run “ie4uinit -show” – that didn’t seem to work but tried again and sometimes it does.

    Rebooting or restarting sometimes works to fix them and sometimes it doesn’t.

    Shortcut/desktop icons can display fine and then for no apparent reason turn to generic.

    All in the “start” menu appear fine no matter what.  A few desktop icons seem to be unaffected (Adobe Acrobat, Quicken) and stay when others turn generic.

    Is this a problem when upgrading from 7 to 10?  Is there a fix/solution that will “stick”??

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    • #2393723

      Usually deleting the old icon cache will clear up this issue, often enough Windows (10) can be recalcitrant so this one really odd suggestion to delete the thumbnail cache (last tip) with the disk cleanup utility may help.

    • #2393819

      Icon cache problems can happen anytime. Windows own Fast Startup can cause Windows to cling to some old data and misbehave immediately or over time.

      To disable Fast Startup use the old Control Panel interface:

      Press Win+R and type control and press enter or Search for Power settings.
      Search for Power Options.
      Click on Choose what the power button does.
      You should be in System Settings and now you can Change settings that are currently unavailable.

    • #2394154

      thanks for the suggestions anonymous.  A bit more information…

      1. Have tried deleting/rebuilding icon cache and it doesn’t do anything/help in my situation. The generic shortcut icons remain.
      2. The shortcut icons can be displaying just fine as I am working and then they go away and become generic.  Sometimes they will come back on their own.  Sometimes not.  Very frustrating.
      3. As noted, sometimes just doing RUN “ie4uinit –show” works to correct the problem.  Sometimes it doesn’t.  Sometimes rebooting works.  Sometimes it doesn’t.  Sometimes after the passage of time (as I continue to work and struggle with the generic icons) they come back and display correctly apparently on their own.
      4. Although I can go to properties of an individual short cut and manually select the correct icon to display, it does not “stick” (i.e., icon displayed goes back to generic.
      5. I have not yet checked/changed startup power as suggested since I don’t think that’s the issue given that this doesn’t necessarily happen at startup.  Computer/Windows can be running just fine and then bam, the icons are blank/generic.
      6. There has never been a problem with thumbnails displaying correctly.
      7. Even when the desktop short cuts show as generic, the icons displayed in the Start Menu are fine.
      8. I have tried deleting a shortcut and then creating a new one.  Doesn’t help!  If shortcuts are generic then the new one is displayed as generic too.
      9. I upgraded from Win7 premium to Win 10 pro.  After the upgrade my desktop looked just as it had under Win7.  Is that the problem?  Some odd upgrade issue?  If so how do I best create a clean/fresh desktop??
      10. Any help/suggestions welcome.  I have been searching for help and thus far nothing has worked and I haven’t found reference to others with a similar situation (where the icons switch back and forth).  Have learned much from Woody’s/Window Watch over the years so hoping the experts here may have a solution!!
      • #2394167

        Making some wild guesses here.

        Have you tried creating another ID and see if the same thing happens? If it’s just common to your ID/profile of a system thing?

        Have you looked in Task Manager to see if there is something you don’t recognize? Startup? Process?

        Malware scan? Like Malwarebytes? Their anti-exploit product?

      • #2394513

        Sorry I’ve been late getting back to you, trying some random ideas…

        Try ie4uinit -ClearIconCache and pressing F5 the changes your icons back to normal.

        Open Task Manager, click on the View menu and change the update speed to high, and then click on Details tab. Do you notice if icons turn generic after a certain program starts?

        Have you recently updated Windows 10?

        Somebody in this other forum was having this issue and they tried resetting thumbnail previews in file explorer.

        Do you use Microsoft OneDrive or any other online (cloud) file back up programs?

        (From experience disabling Fast Startup will always start Windows 10 afresh without any kruft.)

        • #2400577

          Anonymous – my turn to apologize for late reply.  Still wrestling with this problem.

          I had seen the reference you cited above – but that isn’t quite  my problem.  Its not thumbnails that I have a problem with.  Its program/application icons that don’t show as they should (unique for each program) making the taskbar and any desktop short cuts worthless.  Sometimes they are there on reboot sometimes not.

          if I RUN “ie4uinit -show” 3-5 times the icons usually show up correctly and stay until they don’t.  I have not yet found a specific set of conditions or programs that make them turn generic.

          I don’t use MS OneDrive or Google Drive.  I do use DropBox but have not noticed that being a trigger.

          Not quite sure I follow your comment “Try ie4uinit -ClearIconCache and pressing F5 the changes your icons back to normal.”  Can you clarify?

          I have not manually updated Win10 recently – have had this problem since installing it (upgrading from Win7).

           

          • #2400834

            oops – forgot to log in before responding..  that last reply was from me (OP).  Still getting random switching of desktop/taskbar shortcut icon from “program specific” to generic.  Today had to RUN ie4uinit -show 5x to get them back.

      • #2395224

        One last idea, have you checked to see if this happens whenever Google Drive uploads a file?

    • #2394625

      Thanks for the ideas PKCano!

      Ran Malwarebytes.  No problems.

      Checked TaskManager.  No obvious issues there.

      Per previous suggestion of anonymous I disabled power start.  No effect.

      Thought I had another ID/user set up (or I did under Win10) but appears that it didn’t get set-up during the upgrade.  User folders are still there but no user…  Will have to figure that one out but not sure it would help since the change back and forth is unpredictable.

      For example, Icons have been displaying fine all morning and now they are generic!  I didn’t reboot, or do anything unusual.  For today, doing RUN ie4uinit –show returned the icons…  doesn’t always work though.  See two images attached.Generic-Short-Cut-Icons

      • #2409674

        still losing my taskbar & desktop shortcut icon regularly and for no apparent reason.  Sometime they are just fine after a reboot, other times it can take running “ie4uinit -show” 3-5 times to get them to display correctly.  Sometimes they can be fine for days (my laptop/PC is left on unless I travel) and then change to generic.  Sure would love to get this resolved but so far have not found a solution that “sticks”…

    • #2409847

      When you view the shortcut properties, what icon is showing?
      If you click Change Icon, what does it show?

      cheers, Paul

      • #2409877

        well the icons are displaying correctly today…  however as I recall from all my troubleshooting, shortcut properties look correct – correct icon shows even when what is displayed is “generic”.  I had tried “reselecting” the correct icon after clicking Change Icon on a few and that did not change anything.  Will check again and reply back when they next go generic !

    • #2410439

      ok.  Icons are generic.  Checked properties of one shortcut on desktop.  It showed the generic icon.  Selected “change icon” and it showed the correct icon.  Applied.  Desktop short cut now looked right for this one (this has not worked in the past).  Icon in taskbar was still generic as were all others.

      ran “RUN ie4uinit -show” and all generic icons went back to what they should be – both on the desktop and in the task bar.

    • #2410461

      Definitely something weird in icon cache land.

      Have you checked the hard disk for errors? (chkdsk)

      cheers, Paul

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