Corrupted Icons on Windows Vista

Hello, I am using Windows Vista Home Premium and today I'm experiencing
strange icons behavior. Some system icons in explorer are just black (
desktop, Computer and others) and some shortcuts have black boxes instead of
arrows. I tried to find ShellIconCache file but it seems Vista doesn't use
it. Oh and I checked system for viruses and spyware - nothing found. I also
tried to change to standard color theme but it didn't help. Is there any way
to rebuild Vista icon cache?
I'll appreciate any help.
Regards

Change the color depth to 16-bit then change it back to 32-bit.

This will force the icons to update.

Thank you for your answer but it didn't help. When changed to 16-bit color
scheme the icons look ok but when changing back to 32-bit they look like
before - black or with black box istead of shotcut arrow.

Change the color depth to 16-bit then change it back to 32-bit.

This will force the icons to update.

Try this

Launch an elevated CMD window, ie Right click, Run as Administrator...
Shutdown Explorer Process from the Task Manager
In the CMD window go to C:\Users\<ProfileName>\AppData\Local
Do the following command: attrib -H IconCache.db
Do the following command: del IconCache.db
Do the following command: start explorer

This should rebuild the Icon Cache...

Perhaps you have a suggestion for another similar problem. If I paste in
photos on entries in my Windows Contacts, the photos are of poor quality.
Specifically, the top half of the photo is faded and the bottom half looks
pretty good. I've noticed the same thing for the "administrator photo"
after you click on "start". You can change the default icon and replace it
but I've found the same problem; that the top half of the icon is faded.
This happens no matter the size of the photo file or the file type. I have
friends using Vista who have the same problem. My Vista came as the
installed operating system on my new Sony notebook. Any suggestions?

This fix works perfectly.. thanks.. strange that these could get corrupt so easily >_< i dont remember doing anything... just normal shut downs... and when i open it becomes like that... :P

[QUOTE=OKuma;2648147]Try this

Launch an elevated CMD window, ie Right click, Run as Administrator...
Shutdown Explorer Process from the Task Manager
In the CMD window go to C:\Users\<ProfileName>\AppData\Local
Do the following command: attrib -H IconCache.db
Do the following command: del IconCache.db
Do the following command: start explorer

This should rebuild the Icon Cache...

OKuma

[QUOTE=airwind;2929849]This fix works perfectly.. thanks.. strange that these could get corrupt so easily >_< i dont remember doing anything... just normal shut downs... and when i open it becomes like that... :P

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OKuma

Try this

Launch an elevated CMD window, ie Right click, Run as Administrator...
Shutdown Explorer Process from the Task Manager
In the CMD window go to C:\Users\<ProfileName>\AppData\Local
Do the following command: attrib -H IconCache.db
Do the following command: del IconCache.db
Do the following command: start explorer

This should rebuild the Icon Cache...

OKuma

---

hi,

I have the same problem. Am a complete novice to command prompts.....this might be a silly question, but...how do you do this step:


"In the CMD window go to C:\Users\<ProfileName>\AppData\Local"



how do you GO TO a specific folder through cmd window??

on running the cmd.exe as an administrator, i end up with: "C:\system32\" whatever i type in front of it, it says: bad command or something.

could anyone please give step by step instruction....

much appreciated

Thank you for your suggestions. I followed the suggestions and it worked.
But every time I shut down/restart the desktop icons are blacked out again.
Even on explorer some are blacked out. It seems like the ones I created are
corrupted, like shortcuts of folders.
I've changed the color depth, deleted the cache, restarted, but still, if I
shut down and then start again, they icons will revert back to black.
Any suggestions?
Thanks, Tom
--
tct@usa dot com


"OKuma" wrote:

> Try this
>
> Launch an elevated CMD window, ie Right click, Run as Administrator...
> Shutdown Explorer Process from the Task Manager
> In the CMD window go to C:\Users\<ProfileName>\AppData\Local
> Do the following command: attrib -H IconCache.db
> Do the following command: del IconCache.db
> Do the following command: start explorer
>
> This should rebuild the Icon Cache...
>
> OKuma
>
>
> "Yannek" <Yannek@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:2E8F8832-C842-471A-A716-76ECD3510E2B@microsoft.com...
> > Thank you for your answer but it didn't help. When changed to 16-bit color
> > scheme the icons look ok but when changing back to 32-bit they look like
> > before - black or with black box istead of shotcut arrow.
> >
> > "OKuma" wrote:
> >
> >> Change the color depth to 16-bit then change it back to 32-bit.
> >>
> >> This will force the icons to update.
> >>
> >> OKuma
> >>
> >> "Yannek" <Yannek@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> >> news:74D00396-A4AB-4E08-8982-04173FD50555@microsoft.com...
> >> > Hello, I am using Windows Vista Home Premium and today I'm experiencing
> >> > strange icons behavior. Some system icons in explorer are just black (
> >> > desktop, Computer and others) and some shortcuts have black boxes
> >> > instead
> >> > of
> >> > arrows. I tried to find ShellIconCache file but it seems Vista doesn't
> >> > use
> >> > it. Oh and I checked system for viruses and spyware - nothing found. I
> >> > also
> >> > tried to change to standard color theme but it didn't help. Is there
> >> > any
> >> > way
> >> > to rebuild Vista icon cache?
> >> > I'll appreciate any help.
> >> > Regards
> >>
>

I had the same problem where deleting the IconCache would fix it until I rebooted and then they'd come back.

The problem turned out to be the UltraVNC Mirror Driver. I uninstalled it and the problem went away. I recommend going to the Device Manager and seeing if there are multiple devices there and removing anything that isn't the physical video card. If there is only one, maybe uninstall the old one and then reboot and reinstall it. Hope that helps!

Me too... On UltraVNC Mirror Driver... uninstall UVNC... still had issue.... then deleted Mirror Driver still left behind in Dev Manager.... then reinstalled latest UVNC 1.05 cause I need it, with Mirror Driver and no problems... whew! Those few black icons where annoying me! Thanks choobs!!!

Hi, I see the posts are old, but just to put my 2 pennies worth in. My office icons were corrupted so I went to all programs, selected Mircrosoft office, then selected diagnostics and let it run. After 10 minutes, when it had finished, the icons all reappeared, repaired so to speak. I suppose this won't do it for all icons, but in my case only my office icons were done for.