Windows 10: Missing Taskbar Icons

Upgraded from 7, then reinstalled over the upgrade. Freebie version both times.

Tried that, no go. Plus, I also have what I believe is the underlying issue of not seeing Metro Icons at all, either in the taskbar or in other system areas, like Apps & Features under Settings.

 

Sounds like the Upgrade to Repair which was the first 10 install to follow the initial upgrade still came out not quite as well as hoped! It boils right back to getting a clean install going first especially now that the upgrade install is no longer necessary as well as having already seen 10 activated. I just activated an Insider Preview build on a VM using a key for a change while that was an upgrade over the previously unactivated Insider build over the 10240 RTM! and so far not once glitch seen while physical upgrade installs seem to end up about 33% success rate without bugs of one type or another.

I now that can be a real pain in der kister to hear! Many wondered how to get 10 on clean from the start until the guide was posted. They didn't want to run into these kinds of problems. This is why I suggested trying the refresh method of first removing the item completely to then see it put back on fresh to get a fresh icon going.

If a few icon files got corrupted or lost or never even put on as they should even following the repair install this would avoid a complete full install just to get them in plain view. Sometimes however when things end up simply becoming unsolvable that may your only option. Think that's tough! Many a year back it was XP Bugs are Us Forever! where you learned fast how to have a disaster recovery plan at all times! There wasn't hardly any system imaging options available besides Norton Ghost or Acronis back then you had to buy separately when you thought you had everything running 100%. Clean installs to fix things were about the only option!

 

I just had a similar issue right after installing Win10 over Win7. I went online with MSFT support and they uninstalled Classic Shell (which I had loaded to get as much of Win7 back as possible) and the issue went away.

I then Re-Installed Classic Shell and right-clicked on the Start button to select Settings. Changing the COLOR of the start bar revealed the missing elements! The start bar was defaulted to all white and the system icons are all drawn in white.

 

I've never had Classic Shell installed, so I don't think that's my problem with this issue. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

 

The issue wasn't so much classic Shell itself, but that the Theme left me with a white taskbar and no way to change its color. At least classic Shell allows you to change the taskbar color out side of the personalize feature of windows 10.

Hope you can resolve your problem. None of the suggestions I found on the web did.

I can't believe Microsoft took away the tailorability that we used to have in windows XP and Windows 7

 

is your problem already solved? It's my problem too and I can't find any solutions on the internet.
See below an example of my problem

 

Your taskbar image is not the same issue as I had. Mine had gaps where apps were active, but no icons or readable text. My issue was that the active app was shown in white on a white background, thus becoming "invisible". Changing the taskbar background color allowed the white placeholders to be seen.

 

Uninstall the offending app. Restart computer. Reinstall the app. No need to reset all taskbar apps.