Question ALL Icons Gone [Windows 10]

[emcardle660]

As the title states, pretty much ALL my icons in Windows 10 are gone. From the desktop, through explorer, taskbar etc... I dont have as much as a folder icon, it's literally just text (Tried to upload pictures but getting errors, however I think explanation explains it)

The ONLY type of icon I'm getting is occasional flashing black boxes on the left pane of explorer every now and then, but that's about it

I tried to rebuild icon cache via CMD, tried CCleaner, tried SFC Scan, and DISM but no luck

I was going to try a Disk Cleanup but "Properties" wont appear for me on a drive or just about anything

If anyone has any idea on a fix (that hopefully doesnt involve a reset/restore) it'd be much appreciated, thanks in advance!

Edit: Only icons I can see are in the tiles/start menu, if that helps

 

[Remeca]

Do you have icons in safe mode?

 

[emcardle660]

Do you have icons in safe mode?

Nope I've noticed that my iconcache files have NOT rebuild themselves so I'm guessing that's the issue as to why it didn't solve it, after rebuild them I've essentially just "Deleted" them. Would you know if there is there any way to force the iconcache to rebuild itself?

 

[Remeca]

I assume you did what this guide says:
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-reset-icon-cache-database-windows-10

Kill explorer, delete the icon cache, make sure they're all deleted, restart explorer to rebuild? And this didn't work?

Did you notice when exactly this started? Did anything else change around the same time? Hardware issues, error messages, new hardware, new software, driver updates, etc?

 

[emcardle660]

I assume you did what this guide says:
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-reset-icon-cache-database-windows-10

Kill explorer, delete the icon cache, make sure they're all deleted, restart explorer to rebuild? And this didn't work?

Did you notice when exactly this started? Did anything else change around the same time? Hardware issues, error messages, new hardware, new software, driver updates, etc?

Yeah followed exactly and for some reason it didn't rebuild It only started about an hour ago, the last thing I remember doing before it happened was running CCleaner (which I would usually run once a week or so), I'm not sure if that could have corrupted it, but have no error messages or anything coming up Just seems a bit random, I'm clueless at the moment xD

 

[Remeca]

That does seem to be an issue sometimes caused by CCleaner. Repairing Windows should fix it.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html

 

[emcardle660]

That does seem to be an issue sometimes caused by CCleaner. Repairing Windows should fix it.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html

Nice one looks like there an options there to "repair" and keep all apps, giving it a try now fingers crossed, ty!

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Don’t ever use cleaner. It’s CRAP. Take this as a lesson to never use it again

 

[Nemesia]

Don’t ever use cleaner. It’s CRAP. Take this as a lesson to never use it again

I have been using it for like 10 years without any problems. You have to know how to use it.

If you use it to clean your browsers cache and temp files there is no problems whatsoever. Don't use it to clean your registry and stuff like that.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

And you have been wrong for 10 years and only damaging windows. It is the ultimate form of bloatware nonsense useless garbage that destroys windows

 

[Deleted member 14196]

I’ve been not using it for over 10 years and never have one single problem

 

[Remeca]

But why have the extra process? You can do those things easily with Windows Disk Cleanup and using something like this in Chrome.

 

[Nemesia]

But why have the extra process? You can do those things easily with Windows Disk Cleanup and using something like this in Chrome.

What if I'm a web developer with over 12 browsers installed? Do you seriously think I want to clean all of them manually every night before I go to sleep?

I just use CCleaner to clean the browsers cache all at the same time and that's it. I would never use the other crappy functions of that software. Btw that process is not running until I start the program 1 minute before closing down the computer. I do not let it running.

 

[Remeca]

That's cool if it works for you. I just can hardly recommend it to anybody. I think I have once, but only to find duplicate files, not make any kind of changes to the computer.

 

[emcardle660]

I feel stupid but I just found out what the problem was, so recently I'd added a registry in order to hide my shortcut arrows, and when I ran the "Registry cleaner" in CC, it must've just corrupted the registry I made and hid every icon, I just deleted the registry and every came back xD Ty for the suggestions @Remeca!

 

[Nemesia]

I just want to clarity that I'm not saying CCle

That's cool if it works for you. I just can hardly recommend it to anybody. I think I have once, but only to find duplicate files, not make any kind of changes to the computer.

I totally understand. I do not recommend it either btw. I know CCleaner has been hacked once and they are forcing auto update and they have that monitoring function. This is a program I only start before I close down the comp only checking the box for what I want. I clean and shut it down.

 

[Nemesia]

I feel stupid but I just found out what the problem was, so recently I'd added a registry in order to hide my shortcut arrows, and when I ran the "Registry cleaner" in CC, it must've just corrupted the registry I made and hid every icon, I just deleted the registry and every came back xD Ty for the suggestions @Remeca!

Glad you fixed the problem! Don't use the registry cleaning on CCleaner. It's crap

I would recommend you uninstall that program. Unless you need it like I do to save time you really don't need it. I only use it to clean all the saved form password, temp files and cache from all the browsers I have installed for web development.

 

[Remeca]

I feel stupid but I just found out what the problem was, so recently I'd added a registry in order to hide my shortcut arrows, and when I ran the "Registry cleaner" in CC, it must've just corrupted the registry I made and hid every icon, I just deleted the registry and every came back xD Ty for the suggestions @Remeca!

Ahh yes, messing with the registry and then "cleaning" the registry can cause problems. I wouldn't run any kind of registry cleaner, but there are a couple good freeware programs that can do stuff like that for QOL Windows issues. First thing I do when I install Windows is install a couple of them to safely remove shortcut arrows, modify File Explorer appearance, classic start menu style, etc.

One of the hardest things I've tried to do is remove the Run as Administrator badge from some programs using registry hacks. Almost worked, but really messed up any programs' icon that ran as admin.

 

[emcardle660]

Yeah to be fair I don't really do much on my PC apart from game, so there's usually not much to clear anyway xD Tonight when I ran it, it only cleaned about 40mb, so I think I shouldn't need to clean much at all tbh xD