Windows 7: Program icons are GONE!!

I was experiencing problems with the icons for the front and back buttons in the explorer.exe . I ran the sfc /scannow command and it fixed that issue. However, after reboot All programs assosiated with Microsoft (Word, PowerPoint, MSN, etc.) I don't know what's going on but ITS REALLY annoying me.

I ran the /scannow didn't do anything with my icons. I found a tutorial on icon cache. It fixed it to the point where it is an .exe file but still doesn't have the original icon

screen shot example :



I also believe it's happening with Adobe and Skype.

These icons belong to software that's installed through Windows Installer, i.e. the setup is MSI-based. If you reinstall the applications, your icons will come back.

The icons you have shown in the image are the shortcuts of Microsoft Office programs in the Start menu. These are just shortcuts and not the actual programs.

You can replace these icons with new shortcuts freshly created from the same applications in Microsoft Office folder in Program Files. The new shortcuts will have proper icons.

This procedure can be used for any other program like Adobe Acrobat Reader or Skype.

Ok, it's not just those icons. It is Network Magic and a bunch more. I found the original .exe of each program made a short cut on my desktop and the icon was back. However, when I pin it to the task bar it still shows as no icon. I made a system restore point before I messed up my PC. I will post the error for that in the Backup&Restore help because that most likely will be the easiest solution.

Do what Corazon suggested ! It is the easiest way to get the lost icons back ... otherwise you may try to put icons back in C:\Windows\Installer manually using a program like resource hacker .... but that is really difficult .

One more easy choice of fix is using a system image made prior to this scenario, not a restore point . So , first do as per Corazon's suggestion, and when everything is normal, make a system image using Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup . So that in future you can fight such a situation easily.

Finally, prevention is better than cure . This mess occurs due to running some aggressive third party junk/registry cleaner. TuneUp Utilities is a well known victim Avoid any of those programs, and use only CCleaner for junk or registry cleaning . If you do so, I hope this situation will not occur once again

I restored my PC to the time where to files were intact but receiving errors in MS Office 2010 I uninstalled it. Trying to reinstall the file I encountered anther error explaining I had left over files on my PC from the uninstall. I do not know where these files are and what they are named. Could someone help me out with this?

Download and install Revo Uninstaller Freeware , see if ms office is shown there , or otherwise, run CCleaner .

I used Revo Uninstaller to uninstall Microsoft Office in the first place. & I used TuneUp utilities to remove the files.