Icon Cache - Rebuild

How to Rebuild the Icon Cache in Windows​

   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 in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.

   Note

This will not help with any of the following icon issues:

• A shortcut's icon that is not displayed properly due to the source of the shortcut being moved or deleted. You may need to recreate a new shortcut directly from the source (ex: program's exe) file to replace it instead.
• All icons for a specific file extension display the wrong icon. This may be due to setting the wrong association for what program to open the file extension instead. You can restore the default file extension's associations to fix this icon instead.

OPTION ONE

Automatically Rebuild the Icon Cache

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

Download


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

3. Click/tap on Run when prompted.

4. Follow the instructions in the command prompt to rebuild the Icon Cache. (see screenshot below)

5. Restart your computer to generate a new IconCache.db file.

6. If the icons are still not displaying properly, then download and merge the ICO option in this tutorial for Windows 7 or Windows 8 to restore the default associations of .ico (icon) files.

OPTION TWO

To Manually Rebuild the Icon Cache using the Command Prompt

1. Close and save anything that you are working on. This command will kill explorer and restart the computer when completed.

2. Open a command prompt in Windows 7 or Windows 8.

3. In the command prompt, Copy and paste each command line below exactly as is one at a time and press enter after each command.
:warn:WARNING: The last command will restart the computer, so be sure to close and save anything that you are working on first.

• ie4uinit.exe -ClearIconCache
• taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
• DEL "%localappdata%\IconCache.db" /A
• DEL "%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache*" /A
• shutdown /r /f /t 00

4. The IconCache.db file has now been rebuilt.

5. If the icons are still not displaying properly, then download and merge the ICO option in this tutorial for Windows 7 or Windows 8 to restore the default associations of .ico (icon) files.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Change the Icon Cache Size in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8
• How to Clear and Reset the Thumbnail Cache in Windows 7
• Restore Default Windows 7 File Extension Type Associations
• How to Change or Restore Default Windows 7 Desktop Icons
• How to Restore Windows 7 Default User Folder Icons
• How to Change the Default Icon of a File Extension in Windows 7
• How to Reset the Favorites Favicons in Vista and Windows 7

 

[drugo]

You're most welcome Dgonline, and welcome to Seven Forums.

thanks for the bat , it really very useful

but does the sp1 fix this issue?

 

[Brink]

Hello Drugo, and you're welcome.

Usually you would have to rebuild the icon cache due to it getting corrupted by one thing or another, and it's really not something that SP1, a Windows Update, or hotfix will be able to fix.

 

[drugo]

Hello Drugo, and you're welcome.

Usually you would have to rebuild the icon cache due to it getting corrupted by one thing or another, and it's really not something that SP1, a Windows Update, or hotfix will be able to fix.

yes i got it
but microsoft did not release a hotfix to fix it

 

[Brink]

I'm not aware of one. Unless the icon cache was found to be corrupted by something specific all the time, there will usually not be a hotfix for it.

 

[hexaae]

As far as I've experienced you don't have to force the manual delete of iconcache.db...
You can simply run the system Disk Cleanup utility and choose to delete thumbnail icon preview. Windows will reset all caches exactly as the "brutal" method!

Please, can you help me with this issue: missing XML icon?

 

[Brink]

Hello Hexaae,

Thank you, but unfortunately the "icon cache" is different than the "thumbnail cache".

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/10797-thumbnail-cache-clear-reset.html

 

[hexaae]

Hello Hexaae,

Thank you, but unfortunately the "icon cache" is different than the "thumbnail cache".

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/10797-thumbnail-cache-clear-reset.html

I know it may sound strange and Thumbnail != program icons, but as a personal experience I've solved the same problems forcing a refresh of program/menu/startbar corrupt icons too (not just the explorer thumbs) clicking below "Cleanup System files" with admin rights. Then I've realized it's the same as the brutal manual method reported everywhere on the web, except you use a system program. I'm 99% sure

 

[anginprov]

Still problems

Hi, I have the generic Icon issue as well. So far I have tried the following (in no particular order):

1) deleting the iconcache.db file (manually)
2) increasing the icon cache to 4 MB through the registry editor
3) restarting in safe mode
4) system restore (a whole other issue--this fails to perform now)
5) installing a 3rd party icon packager program (hey, worth a shot)

Should also note that right-clicking on icons is a dead-end because the change icon button is grayed out.

Have run chckdsk, rebooted countless times in every mode under the sun...what gives?

Angela

 

[Brink]

Hello Angela, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Do you have the generic icon issue for any specific file extension type, shortcut, or is this for all files?

 

[anginprov]

It's a smattering: MS Office shortcuts (they are still usable) and files, Skype, Itunes, some Dell bloatware that I don't use or care about. Also, Adobe PS but NOT AI (??).

 

[Brink]

It's a smattering: MS Office shortcuts (they are still usable) and files, Skype, Itunes, some Dell bloatware that I don't use or care about. Also, Adobe PS but NOT AI (??).

See if the correct icon will display if you create new shortcuts directly from the EXE files of the programs.

 

[anginprov]

If it's of interest, I'm on a Dell Latitude e6510 with a clean install. This machine has been buggy and crashy from the start, but was diagnosed by my Univ's tech guys as having bad video drivers, so they reinstalled (nVIDIA).

Yes, I mean it works in that I can get shortcuts that look like the programs again. That wasn't so much my concern as much as the root cause of the problem? On some other sites folks have reported the program files disappearing after awhile.

Also, thanks for your help!

 

[Brink]

That's great news Angela.

It could have been caused from a number of things, but I would guess that some sort of issue with the shortcut's target location, or association may have been it.

 

[EtHANBB]

Wow ... amazing what mess can one .db file make. Thx man ... worked like charm!

 

[Brink]

Great news. You're most welcome Ethan.

 

[Dilbert8056]

The icon cache file can be deleted manually, it is never locked. With earlier versions of windows, to rebuild the file, one has to change colour depth twice, logout and login again. I still do this on win 7 as it takes less time than to restart and find the file has not been recreated.

Dil

 

[WildHare]

This worked for me as well, I had to use the manual solution, because the .bat didn't work. For some reason, I had an error with:
cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local

So, I followed the instructions and instead of that line, I typed:
cd AppData (enter)
cd Local (enter)

And then I followed the rest. My user profile name has two spaces and a & sign in it, so I figured it was just a little too much for cmd to understand. Thanks for the tutorial!

 

[Boomerang1]

Thanks

Worked first go for me. Thanks very much for this info.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Boomerang1 and WildHare, and welcome to Seven Forums.

 

[Khronikos]

Add me to the list. I knew it was something simple but utterly too complex for me lol. Thanks.