Windows 10: Touch keyboard has many missing emojis, replaced with blank squares

The emoji panel of the Win10 touch keyboard has lost several emojis and replaced them with empty squares. Other symbols are affected as well. They were all there a few days ago. What could've happened? Are the emojis drawn from a particular font that may have been corrupted?


What I've tried: sfc /scannow, restoring default font settings, clearing cache, nothing worked. Screenshots below (note even the symbols on the tabs are missing):



:)

 

Windows touch keyboard has replaced some emojis with blank squares


The emoji panel of the Win10 touch keyboard has lost several emojis and replaced them with empty squares. Other symbols are affected as well. They were all there a few days ago. What gives?

UPDATE: Just discovered possibly related issue with Windows Defender UI, icon overlays displaying blank squares:

 

How to fix emoji keyboard not showing up using shortcut

Hi,

This issue is often caused by a corrupted or missing data file. To better isolate if this is a user profile specific or an emerging issue, we suggest that you create a new user profile and try to use the same keyboard shortcut to get the emoji keyboard to
show up. Here's the link for the steps on how to:
Set up accounts.

In the meantime, we'll give you the steps for a workaround to access the emojis. Here are the steps:

• Right-click on the Taskbar.
• Select the Show touch keyboard button option and a keyboard icon will show up on your
  Taskbar.
  
• Click the keyboard icon and select the emoji button.

Let us know how it goes and we'll assist you further if needed.

 

no emoji button on Touch Keyboard in Windows 10

I can get the touch keyboard but it doesn't show the smiley emoticon .. how do i enable emoticons on it ?