Windows and Icons white/blank

martinlest · 24 Feb 2011

I know I am not alone with this problem, but haven't been able to find a solution online - last encountered it some months back, but today it is back again. Folders 'show' as white squares (invisible) and many files lose their default icons and go blank as well. It's not just the icon picture - a whole batch of bmp files have been affected: if I right-click on them and choose Properties, the information tells me they are 1x1 pixel (they are not), or on others I am told that the bmp file is a folder containing 100s of MBs of files. (Wrong!).

Clearly Explorer has had (another) nervous breakdown. This occurred today as I was working as usual - no new programmes or alterations to the system. Last time a System restore fixed it, but has anyone sorted out what the problem is here?

System restore didn't help this time - same thing. Even worse, my bmp files are being destroyed as I open the folder. For a split second they show as they should when I open the containing folder, then they go white and register as 1kb in size. If I choose to overwrite the folder with a backed up copy, without opening it, the replace files dialogue shows all files as being their original size however (i.e - no instance of do I want to overwrite the 'corrupt' 1kb file with the proper 2MB file, or whatever. The sizes and dates of the files show as being all the same.

Thanks,

Martin

martinlest · 24 Feb 2011

.. and now I can't undo the Restore as System restore no longer shows any option to undo it. Beginning to get really fed up with this!

mitchell65 · 24 Feb 2011

First thought is a virus! Is your A/V up to date and running?

martinlest · 24 Feb 2011

Yes, I wondered that but 'Microsoft Security Essentials' reports no problems and is up to date.

M.

mitchell65 · 25 Feb 2011

Perhaps try running Malwarebytes and CCleaner. You could also try a sfc /scannow, that can do no harm.

martinlest · 25 Feb 2011

Nothing helped - I also ran a full virus scan overnight (it scanned almost 8,000,000 items) - nothing found at all, all clear.

Luckily I make images of the C drive at least once a month, using the Win7 utility, and I had one 10 days old. So I restored the C drive using the backed up image - it only took about 3 minutes to complete (33GBs of data) and now the problem has gone. But I have no doubt it will reappear yet again at some stage, so I will make sure I make regular images of my C drive & registry..

How does one get Microsoft to look into this (my Win7 came from the people who made the PC and they are not interested in such matters) - as I say, I am not the only one who has suffered from this by any means?

Martin

Orbital Shark · 25 Feb 2011

If it happens again you may want to check the event logs to see if anything untoward appears, just type event into the start box.

Also,

Icon Cache - Rebuild

might be able to help too

OS

martinlest · 25 Feb 2011

Hi, thanks. I did try the icon cache rebuild last time this happened, to no end. Doubt there'll be anything recorded, but worth a look next time..

M

substream · 06 May 2016

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I am having this EXACT same problem. I've found other people with semi-similar problems, where only thumbnails are broken, or where icons have permanently broken, but this is unique.

A bit more detail: This only happens in the open/close/save file browser window, never in actual Explorer windows. Also, it only happens once every ~10-12 times I go to browse for a file. Most of the time, everything works as normal. I've found that, when it does happen, I can just hit "cancel", then try again, and it will come up perfectly fine.

This is getting really frustrating, and I mostly have to browse for images to open or attach, and when this happens, it obviously doesn't show thumbnails (or icons of any kind).

I'll post a screenshot next time it happens.

Any ideas??

substream · 13 May 2016

Well, crap! This time it did happen in a regular Explorer window.

As soon as I selected "Extra Large Icons" (default is "List" mode), I got the blank icons. I hit F5 to refresh, and then it gave me a couple of the blank, white page icons, but that's it. Screenshot attached.