Windows 10: Icons Blank/Missing After Windows Update

I'm having the same issue. My icons look like this:





This is happening only for the following programs:
1. All MS Office Professional Plus 2013 programs
2. Skype
3. Remote Desktop Manager

If I unpin them while running, the icon comes back. If I subsequently pin them, they disappear again




I've tried many different suggestions including rebuilding the icon cache.

This is really unbelievable and pathetic.

-Randall

 

If you are wondering why your icons have gone missing, it's generally a permissions issue. I have seen a huge number of updated machines with this issue.

C:\Users\Public\Public Desktop and C:\ProgramData are the two folders that need to be fixed, perhaps one more if the store icons are an issue.

The Start Menu is under ProgramData, and the applications installed for all users have their icon stored in the Public Desktop.

An easy fix is to grab the permission from a similar machine. If you export the permissions on a working machine you can then import them using icacls.

The text file will look like this:

PublicDAI(A;OICI;FA;;;BA)(A;OICIIO;FA;;;CO)(A;OICI;FA;;;SY)(A;OICIIO;0x1301ff;;;IU)(A;;0x1200af;;; IU)(A;OICIIO;0x1301ff;;;SU)(A;;0x1200af;;;SU)(A;OICIIO;0x1301ff;;;S-1-5-3)(A;;0x1200af;;;S-1-5-3)S:AI

You don't need everything, just that first piece since the permission will be recursive.

The command is icacls C:\ /restore programdata.txt on the machine you are trying to fix.

On the working machine it's icacls C:\ProgramData /save programdata.txt /t /c

Hope this works for you.

 

I just had the problem and found the solution on answers.microsoft.com. I only needed to do the first part.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-desktop/icons-missing-their-specialized-image/3f1f7108-2984-4071-afd8-5bec9cceda38?auth=1

Have you recently installed or uninstalled any software or hardware?
I would suggest you to rebuild the icon cache and check if the issue is resolved.
Rebuilding the Icon Cache Database:
1. Close all folder windows that are currently open.
2. Launch Task Manager using the CTRL+SHIFT+ESC key sequence, or by running taskmgr.exe.
3. In the Process tab, right-click on the Explorer.exe process and select End Process.
4. Click the End process button when asked for confirmation.
5. From the File menu of Task Manager, select New Task (Run…)
6. Type CMD.EXE, and click OK
7. In the Command Prompt window, type the commands one by one and press ENTER after each command:
CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
DEL IconCache.db /a
EXIT
8. In Task Manager, click File, select New Task (Run…)
9. Type EXPLORER.EXE, and click OK.

If the issue still persist, I would suggest you to create a new user account and check.
To create a user account:
1. To open User Accounts, click the Start button, click Control Panel, click User Accounts and Family Safety, and then click User Accounts.
2. Click Manage another account. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
3. Click Create a new account.
4. Type the name you want to give the user account, click an account type, and then click Create Account.