Disappearing tile icons and text

comprocks

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Hello everyone,
I ran into a small issue a few days earlier with the Start Screen.
I had upgraded to Windows 8.1 just a few days after it released and after that I re-installed Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013.

It was fine until two weeks ago, when suddenly the 'Lync 2013' tile icon and text disappeared.

Another week passed, I thought 'OK. I didn't use it that much,' and I left it alone. But then the 'Outlook 2013' tile icon and text disappeared.

I am worried as only the Office 2013 tiles' icons and texts are disappearing (so far). No other icons have disappeared yet.
In the zoomed out view, where the groups of tiles can be named, the icons of Outlook and Lync are seen properly.

Stuff I tried:
1. Unpin from Start. Then going to Apps > Right-click on Lync/Outlook 2013 > Pin to Start.
2. Resizing both tiles.
Even after doing this, the icons/text don't show up.

Please help me before more icons vanish....
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro
 
Solution

It did enter my head to try re-installing Office, but must admit it sounded more like a Windows problem. I hope it doesn't re-appear as having to refresh or reset is a real pain. If you select this post as solution it may help someone if the problem appears...

Windows glitch?
First try System File Checker
Winkey plus 'X'
Choose Command Prompt (Admin)
Type sfc /scannow then Enter

It finds and fixes errors in Windows, but doesn't always report them. Run it and see if the fault disappears after re-booting your system
If corrupt files are found that can’t be fixed, try

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Re-run SFC

To view CBS Log

findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log >sfcdetails.txt

Search C drive for sfcdetails.txt or navigate to C:\Windows\System32 and scroll down.

 

comprocks

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Well, unfortunately for me, that did not fix the problem.
I tried sfc /scannow and it said that there were corrupted files it couldn't fix. So, I tried Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth. It said that 'Restore operation completed successfully. The component store corruption was repaired'. After that I ran sfc /scannow again and it said it did not find any 'integrity violations'.

I restarted the PC. After it finished booting, I saw that the Lync 2013 and Outlook 2013 tile icons and texts were still missing.
Thanks for your answer though.
 

comprocks

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Yeah. Well, it was the first thing I tried after the reboot.
 

comprocks

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If I ever get the time to compile a list of the setups of programs I have installed, I will definitely try resetting. It is one way I know would fix the problem (99% sure) but I am hesitant to do it. It is a very tedious task to get the PC back to the state it was in.
I will try re-installing Office 2013 and see if that fixes the problem.

Thanks again for your time!
 

Try Refresh 1st, it leaves your Data alone. Hopefully most of your additional software was d'loaded, in which case be sure to back up your Downloads Folder so that you can easily re-install, especially if you have to resort to Reset...

 

comprocks

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I tried re-installing Office 2013 and it fixed the problem!

[IMPORTANT EDIT: This is not the fix! The tiles disappeared once even after reinstalling. The fix is to update Office 2013 to Service Pack 1]

What if the icons start disappearing again? I can't just keep re-installing....It's a long process especially with a program that's as big as Office Professional Plus 2013.

Keep me posted if you happen to find any solution other than Refresh or Reset though.

P.S: Should I mark this thread as solved? If so, which answer of yours should I pick? Do threads here have some kind of expiry (like Yahoo Answers)?

Thanks!
 

It did enter my head to try re-installing Office, but must admit it sounded more like a Windows problem. I hope it doesn't re-appear as having to refresh or reset is a real pain. If you select this post as solution it may help someone if the problem appears elsewhere!

 
Solution

comprocks

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Well said and thanks for your help. As I said, keep me posted if you find an easier way to fix this problem.
[EDIT] : I updated MS Office 2013 with Service Pack 1 and the problem no longer persists. The tiles had disappeared once but now, after the update, all the tiles are back.