Windows 8 desktop and explorer icons don't work - default icons shown

Question

I'm starting to see a very interesting issue. Some icons are being shown as 'default' icons despite the fact that they launch fine with their proper associated programs. This is in the traditional desktop mode, not the Metro mode. I've attached a screenshot, one showing the Outlook 2013 icon in the taskbar and the other showing a PDF icon in Windows Explorer.

How do I fix this to get the proper icons displayed? Again, the application launches just fine.

Update

Rebuilding the icon cache doesn't seem to help on Windows 8. i.e.

• delete c:\users\<username>\AppData\Local\IconCache.db
• reboot
• same problem as before.

The icon cache rebuilder tool doesn't seem to allow me to rebuild the cache either:

Solution 1

Unfortunately, none of the responses helped. The issue was corruption within the C:\Windows\Installer folder (folder empty). For some reason all shortcuts were using icons that lived inside the installers there instead of the actual programs themselves. I guess this is a weird Windows 8 issue. I had to reinstall the programs to get the installer folder populated and then the path to icon files worked and the icons came back. It's pretty hard to have all the installers also live on your hard drive when you have an SSD (they aren't that big). Painful.

Solution 2

After having this problem myself for weeks, I finally figured out the way fix it.

1. Delete the value in Default in your registry for: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shellex\IconHandler\
2. Delete your c:\users\<username>\AppData\Local\IconCache.db as others have posted before.
3. Kill explorer.exe and run a new instance of explorer.exeto refresh it.

And that should fix your problem, or at least it did for me while everyone else's answers failed.

Solution 3

This worked for me:

Right click on one file in File Explorer -> Properties -> Change Icon

My Excel icons had somehow got changed to Adobe Acrobat icons; I uninstalled Acrobat and then they changed to Windows Explorer icons!

I changed the icon on one file as above, back to Excel, and it changed all the other similar file icons at the same time

Comments

[Karan]

Try rebuilding the icon cache.

[DeepSpace101]

@Karan: That doesn't help

[DeepSpace101]

Doesn't work in Windows 8 - updated the Q with the screenshot

[DeepSpace101]

I can't assign icons, see superuser.com/questions/566575/…

[Amicable]

@sid That's a .docx file. I was describing doing it to a shortcut which has a different Properties menu, so instead try modifying the Program Menu shortcut to Microsoft Word (assuming that what you are using to read .docx files)

[Amicable]

@sid This is where it should be located C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs, it might be slightly different on Win8. I don't have access to a win8 machine right now to check.

[DeepSpace101]

Similar issue. I've updated that question too

[harrymc]

Try maybe this solution.

[harrymc]

The missing files were probably erased by a disk "cleaner". Avoid such programs, and certainly not in C:\Windows except for C:\Windows\Temp.

[Commander]

This one worked. I've tried EVERYTHING I could find for many hours and this one is the one that did it.