Fix Corrupted Icons And Shortcuts In Windows 10!

When you think about it, Windows 10 is one of the most used PC operating systems. This is achieved using multiple features and usability enhancements that make it such popular among users. However, such a large software is bound to have its errors.

One such error appears right on the desktop, where the icons appear blank or broken. Here, I shall discuss how to fix corrupted icons and shortcuts in Windows 10 easily.

How To Fix Corrupted Icons And Shortcuts In Windows 10?

The icons that you see on the desktop and other areas of the operating system are stored in a separate database as icon cache. This cache data allows the operating system to quickly load them the next time you launch the desktop, or log into Windows.

However, as the icon cache library grows larger, there is a chance that some data in this library may go missing or corrupt. When this happens, you will notice that Windows 10 icons appear blank, or the icons are displayed incorrectly.

Here, I must tell you that there is no simple button or menu that you can press to rebuild icon cache. However, you can rebuild icon cache in Windows 10 using a series of commands in an admin command prompt. Another method involves deleting the icon cache manually, as it shall be rebuilt upon restart.

Let us take a better look at how you can easily clear icon cache in Windows 10.

Method 1: Windows 10 Rebuilt Icon Cache Using Command Prompt

Admin command prompt is one of the most versatile command line interpreters available for Windows. Use the following method in Windows 10 to rebuild icon cache.

1. 1. 1. Open a Run dialog using the Win + R shortcut.
      2. Here, type cmd and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to launch Command Prompt with Admin rights. Click on the Yes button in the User Account Control prompt,
      3. Type the following command to change the directory in command prompt:
         cd %homepath%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer
      4. In this directory, type the following command to bring up the list of available icon cache files:
         dir iconcache*
      5. This should display a number of different icon cache files created and stored on your computer, including:

   iconcache_1280.dbiconcache_16.db
   iconcache_1920.db
   iconcache_256.db
   iconcache_2560.db
   iconcache_32.db
   iconcache_48.db
   iconcache_768.db
   iconcache_96.db
   iconcache_custom_stream.db
   iconcache_exif.db
   iconcache_idx.db
   iconcache_sr.db
   iconcache_wide.db
   iconcache_wide_alternate.db

   6. Next, use the following command to end the explorer process:
      taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
   7. Considering you are in the same directory, enter the following command to delete icon cache in Windows 10:
      del iconcache*

To verify, you can the icon library has been deleted successfully, use the command mentioned in Step 4.

Note: If some database file remains, you might have to take ownership of the folder as you do not have the necessary permissions for acting on it.

Restart your PC to rebuild icon cache and fix corrupted icons and shortcuts in Windows 10.

Method 2: Manually Clean The PC

If you still see Windows 10 desktop icons blank, another method you can try is manually clearing the cache data. To manually clean the PC and rebuild icon cache, you can visit the same folder that you opened using Command Prompt i.e. %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer and delete all the icon database files.

Also, follow this guide to clean junk files in Windows 10.

Wrapping Up

So there you have it. If you see Windows icons blank or broken, now you know how to fix corrupted icons and shortcuts in Windows 10 using the method provided above. Comment below if you found this useful, and to discuss further the same.