Windows 10: Windows 10 - Desktop icons became black squares

Discus and support Windows 10 - Desktop icons became black squares in Windows 10 Customization to solve the problem; Desktop icons became black squares, the whole icon, not just the shortcut arrow. The only one that didn't change was the recycle bin.I've tried doing a... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Customization' started by Tsukono, Aug 30, 2024.

  1. Tsukono Win User

    Windows 10 - Desktop icons became black squares


    Desktop icons became black squares, the whole icon, not just the shortcut arrow. The only one that didn't change was the recycle bin.I've tried doing a clean boot and then rebuilding the icon cache but that didn't work. I also tried using Autoruns, explorer tab, options tab, hide all Microsoft and windows entries, uncheck the rest, reboot. But that also didn't work The icons do come back after rebuilding the cache using the .BAT Rebuild_Icon_Cache.BAT file provided in the link above, but it's only temporary, as the icons go black when I reboot my computer I found out the issue seems to

    :)
     
    Tsukono, Aug 30, 2024
    #1

  2. Windows 10 desktop Icons are blotted with small black square

    Original title: My desktop Icons are blotted out with a small black square in them in Windows 10

    My desktop Icons are blotted out with a small black square in them in Windows 10
     
    MarianneCusick, Aug 30, 2024
    #2
  3. howardg Win User
    PDF icons on desktop turn into black squares

    Windows 10 - Desktop icons became black squares 316434d1611787214t-pdf-icons-desktop-turn-into-black-squares-prefs.png

    Windows 10 - Desktop icons became black squares 316435d1611787214t-pdf-icons-desktop-turn-into-black-squares-default-app.png


    Here are shots of my defaults for file types and the preference for the Adobe Reade app.
     
    howardg, Aug 30, 2024
    #3
  4. sammy Win User

    Windows 10 - Desktop icons became black squares

    How to remove arrows from desktop icons in Windows 10 without getting black squares?

    Part 1 - Remove arrows once (will break on reboot or re-login)

    • Type regedit in the Windows search bar and select regedit at the top of the list.
    • In the regedit program, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
    • Right click on the Explorer folder, hover over New, then click Key. Name it Shell Icons and click enter or whatever to create it.
    • Click the new Shell Icons folder. In the right pane, right click on the empty space, hover over New, and click String Value. Name it 29.
    • Double click the String Value 29 you just created and give it the following value data: %windir%\System32\shell32.dll,-50
    • May or may not have to reboot I forget. Check your desktop icons first to see.

    Part 2 - Fix the black squares problem

    When you reboot or login after Part 1, where the arrows once were there will now be black squares. To permanently fix the black squares problem, a short script will run automatically every time you login to fix the icons before you see them. Non-programmers can easily follow these simple steps.

    • Open Notepad.
    • Paste in the following and save it to the desktop as fixdesktopicons.bat (name not important, file extension .bat is important). Basically it deletes the corrupted part of the icon data.

    • Press Windows key + r
    • Type shell:startup and press OK. This will open a folder where you can put scripts that you want to have run automatically whenever you login.
    • Copy the script (.bat file) from your desktop and paste it into this folder you reached by doing shell:startup.
    • Reboot the computer for changes to take effect.

    Now whenever you login or reboot there will be nice icons with no arrows and no black squares either.
     
    sammy, Aug 30, 2024
    #4
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Windows 10 - Desktop icons became black squares

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