How to Rebuild the Icon Cache in Vista

[Arzaan]

I am using Windows Vista. I shocked when i booted up Windows Vista machine and saw many of the icons were completely different than when I had shut the machine down.Icons for images where not the same, shortcut icons had changed, and many icons were just missing altogether. So could any body help me out in rebuilding the Icon cache in vista

[Anand D.]

It happens some time if you have large number of icon on your desktop.If you find that one or more of your icons are not displaying correctly, or that your icon cache is corrupted, then you should consider to rebuilding your icon cache.Just go through these simple few steps:-

1. Unhide the system files.

2. Open a Windows Explorer window.

3. Go to C:\Users\(User Name)\AppData\Local

4. Right click on IconCache.db and click on Delete.

5. Click on Yes to confirm the deletion.

6. Close the window.

7. Empty the Recycle Bin.

8. Restart the computer.When you go back, you will notice the Size of the IconCache.db file is smaller, and the Date Modified is now the current date.

Thats it,, the icon cache has been rebuilt.

[Orlando]

Open Windows Explorer, and configure your Folder Options > Views to show Hidden / System Files.

Next go to C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local folder and delete the hidden IconCache.db file.

Reboot.

This action will purge and rebuild the icon cache.

[karan_star]

I think you need to Kill Explorer.exe process. To do that foolow this steps:-

1. Click Start button > Hold down Ctrl+Shift & Right Click on empty area in the Start Menu > Click “Exit Explorer”.
   
2. Click Ctrl+Shift+Esc keys and open Task Manager.
   
3. Click File > New Task > cmd.exe > OK. This will open the command prompt.
   
4. Type cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
   
5. Click OK
   
6. Type attrib –h IconCache.db
   
7. Click OK
   
8. Type del IconCache.db
   
9. Click OK
   
10. Type start explorer
    
11. Click OK.

Your Vista Icon Cache would have been rebuilt.