Lost program icons...

I was just working on my computer when suddenly i noticed tht i have lost my Windows Live icon and then found Google earth...Office. I didnt install any pograms or messed up with icons...
Here is the screenshot:

I've had that happen a few times when running the registry cleaner inside CCleaner. If you made a backup of the registry, try restoring it and your icons should come back. It works for me.

Uber Philf said:

Maybe deleting the icon cache will fix it.

Navigate to C:\Users\*username*\AppData\Local

And delete the iconthumb.db (I think that's what it's called)

It will be the only .DB file there, so delete it, then restart explorer, and hopefully that should fix it.

I would think that would make it worse. How can deleting the icon cache recover icons? I've never tried it, but it sounds backwards to me.

Uber Philf said:

Well the situation works, that you delete the cache, will force it to rebuild it, and get the icons from where they are, and not from the possibly corrupt cache.

I understand that, but every time I have been missing an icon it's because the .exe file that the shortcut belongs to no loger has an icon. See what I'm saying?

To the OP...I've also retrieved shortcut icons by going into the folder that contains the .exe file, and seeing if there's another file in there with the same icon that is now missing. If there is, then I simply go to the shortcuts properties, and change the icon to the available one.

ok, i installed a trusted pogram and this thing happend and the system restore sint working...

Sounds like corruption of Icon files. Have you tried reinstalling the programs or repairs and have you used system restore?

SafiAmir said:

ok, i installed a trusted pogram and this thing happend and the system restore sint working...

When you click on them do the shorcuts work or do nothing? What program was it?

Coco15 said:

Sounds like corruption of Icon files. Have you tried reinstalling the programs or repairs and have you used system restore?

That didn't work for me when I was missing icons. Even an application reinstall ended up with missing icons. The only solution I found to work was restoring the registry to an earlier point.