Windows 7 - Icon Cache - Rebuild

**Brink**

How to Rebuild the Icon Cache in Windows 7

Information

If one or more of your icons are not displaying correctly, or that your icon cache is corrupted, then you might consider rebuilding the icon cache to reset and reload the icon images into the icon cache.

Note

This is not for any of the following icon issues:

A single shortcut icon that is not displayed properly. You may need to create a new shortcut directly from the source file to replace it instead.
All icons for a specific file extension display the wrong icon. You can restore the default file extension's associations to fix this icon instead.

OPTION ONE

Automatically Rebuild the Icon Cache

1. Click on the download button below to download the Rebuild_Icon_Cache.bat file.

2. Save the file to your desktop, and run it.

3. Click on Run when prompted.

4. You will notice a very quick flash of a command prompt opening and closing.
NOTE: This deletes the IconCache.db file for you automatically.

5. Log off and log on, or restart the computer to rebuild the icon cache.
NOTE: This rebuilds and recreates a new IconCache.db file.

OPTION TWO

Use Command Prompt to Rebuild the Icon Cache

NOTE: This option uses the same command used in OPTION ONE, but you are doing it manually in the command prompt instead.

1. Open the Start Menu, and type cmd in the search box and press enter.

2. In the command prompt, type each command line below one at a time followed by pressing enter after each single line.
CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local

DEL IconCache.db /a

EXIT

3. Log off and log on, or restart the computer to rebuild the icon cache.
NOTE: This rebuilds and recreates a new IconCache.db file.

OPTION THREE

Manually Rebuild the Icon Cache

1. Set Folder Options to Show hidden files, folders, and drives.

2. In Windows Explorer, navigate to:
C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local

3. Right click on the IconCache.db file and click on Delete. (see screenshot below)

4. Click on Yes to confirm. (see screenshot below)

5. The IconCache.db file has now been deleted. (see screenshot below)

6. Log off and log on, or restart the computer to rebuild the icon cache.
NOTE: This rebuilds and recreates a new IconCache.db file.

7. Set Folder Options to Don't Show hidden files, folders, and drives.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

**Barefoot** · 01-23-2010

Thanks Shawn. I read another tutorial that was incorrect in a few places. As always your tutorial is right on. I always like having automatic and manual options. I like to do it manually and I like to try to learn from opening up the automatic files.

**Brink** · 01-23-2010

You're most welcome Barefoot.

itzmelou · 03-31-2010

I don't know what went wrong, but suddenly, some icons in my laptop are displaying strange.
But, when you click on it, it still works and launch the program correctly.
I've tried all the steps above, but nothing seems works.
Do you have any idea what happened and how to solve it?

**Brink** · 03-31-2010

Hello Lou, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You might see if changing the shortcut's icon back to the correct default one a few times may be able to restore it.

If not, then recreate the shortcut's directly from the program's EXE file to see if they display properly.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

itzmelou · 04-01-2010

how about changing the files icon?
i can't find the change option in properties.

**Brink** · 04-01-2010

Lou,

If this it for Office, then you might see if uninstalling and reinstalling the program may restore all of them.

**devildog93** · 04-14-2010

Hi Brink,

I am having a problem with my msconfig.exe desktop shortcut icon, for some reason, it is the only one in my many icons giving me a problem. I am following your tutorial, but I had a problem when I tried to download your Rebuild_Icon_Cache.bat file.

I thought this kind of weird as it is a .bat file which I thought Windows should be able to process. I feel comfortable going one of the other two ways, but should I be concerned that Windows is doing this? Actually noticed it came up as Rebuild_Icon_Cache.download

Maybe this is the problem. Just curious, as I am sure the other methods will work to get my icon back.

OK: now see if I can stump you on this one.

I got my MSCONFIG.EXE shortcut icon back, not with this tutorial but with this one:

Shortcut - Change Icon

OK? Following me so far.

SO anyways, I go to the actual file location of the original msconfig.exe in the Windows>system32 folder, and the EXE file itself has a generic icon.

Funny thing is when I fixed the icon on the shortcut back using the change icon method, the original msconfig.exe file location was the source for the icon image itself. If it can be the source of the icon image for the shortcut repair, why can't it label itself (the .exe file )with the icon.

You can see I have the icon repaired on the desktop now, but the .exe itself is missing the icon it had and is replaced with a generic one.

This defies all logic as it spawned a replacement image from its own filepath
but fails to even display the same image. Weird.

The location of the icon replacement that worked was here, like this

Do you have any ideas?

**Brink** · 04-14-2010

Hello Jay,

For the BAT file issue, try the BAT download in the tutorial below to restore the default associations for it to see if you are able to run a BAT file afterwards.

Default File Type Associations - Restore

Since it's a system file, you might see if running a sfc /scannow command may be able to fix it for you.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

**devildog93** · 04-14-2010

Quote: Originally Posted by Brink

Hello Jay,

For the BAT file issue, try the BAT download in the tutorial below to restore the default associations for it to see if you are able to run a BAT file afterwards.

Default File Type Associations - Restore

Since it's a system file, you might see if running a sfc /scannow command may be able to fix it for you.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Right on, I will give those a try. Thanks.