Windows 10: laptop screen dark - no taskbar icons or background apps still show up

The screen on my lenovo thinkpad has suddenly gone black, as has the attached monitor. I can see applications when I start them, but there's no background, no app icons, no taskbar, etc

:)

 

Windows APPS ICON NOT SHOWING PROPERLY on taskbar


It's been couple of days since I upgraded my system to Windows 10 from Windows 7. Everything is working fine except this nasty error. If I pin apps to taskbar or run apps , the app icons on the taskbar are shown as white square. And I am seeing the same thing on Apps & Feature settings list. The icons are there but as the backgrounds are shown as grey-white chequered pattern (for the transparency ), it looks like white squares. Rebuilt the icon cache but to no avail.



And on the start menu everything looks fine.

 

UWP icons dark on taskbar

I have started using some UWP apps and have pinned them to the taskbar. But on some PCs, the icons are dark so they cannot be seen. I can click the spot where I know they are and start the apps, I just cannot see them.

Initially, I thought it was an issue with Start10, but even after fully removing it the problem is the same. Things I've checked:
1) uninstall Start10 and reboot
2) Taskbar Settings -- identical between machine with dark icons and one with normal icons
3) right-click desktop and 'Personalize.' Every setting in Background, Colors, Themes, Taskbar, etc. is identical across machines. Default Windows mode is 'dark' and default app mode is light, transparency effects off, etc.
4) delete iconcache.db and reboot

This is driving me nuts because I cannot find a solution anywhere online. Any help is greatly appreciated! I'm on 1903 most recent non-Insider build, but this was an issue even with 1809. I just never bothered trying to figure it out until now.


I'm attaching a pic of a working one & one with dark icons. On the right-side of each image are icons for the MS Calendar and To-Do UWP apps, you just cannot see them on the second image.

 

UWP icons dark on taskbar

and wanted to post the solution in case anyone has this issue.

It was Start10 causing the issue. You can pick different styles of Start Menu in it -- Win7, Modern, and Win10 Styles. But Win7 and Win10 Styles have different icons for UWP apps. So since I had pinned the UWP apps to the taskbar while running in Win7 style (dark icons against light backgrounds), you could barely make them out. You need to be running in Win10 Style when you pin the apps to the taskbar.

Fix was really simple:
- unpin the UWP apps from the taskbar
- right-click Start10 start icon, 'Configure Star10...' and pick the 'Windows 10 Style'
- re-pin the UWP apps to the taskbar
- switch back to 'Windows 7 Style'