Word Icon Not Showing In File Explorer – How To Solve?

Microsoft’s Productivity Suite is one of the most popular applications in this field and includes dedicated programs for text editing, managing spreadsheets and making presentations. It has garnered this reputation thanks to many features that help in increasing the ease of use of these applications.

Although nearly perfect, there is occasionally a bug or two, which may cause problems with your applications. One such problem as reported by users is the Word icon not showing error, which shows either a generic icon for the word file or shows no icon at all.

When opening the file, the file opens correctly, but the word icon is missing in File explorer. Here I shall discuss how you may resolve the Word file icon not showing in Windows 10 error.

How To Solve Word Icon Not Showing Error?

There are many reasons why you may be facing this error. The most common cause as reported by users is a virus or hidden malware that interfered with the normal functioning of Windows 10. This error can also be caused by a broken or corrupt icon cache, which can display incorrect or no icons at all.

With this slight information about Microsoft Office icons missing, now let us take a look at how to solve if word icons are missing from your File Explorer.

Solution 1: Check For Virus And Malware

Many users have reported that it was, in fact, a hidden malware that was causing interference with the normal functioning of Windows. You may have gotten a virus onto your device from many possible sources like unsecured flash drives, or more commonly, over the internet.

If you own premium antivirus software, it may be a good place to start for solving the Word icons missing an error. Start a full or deep scan for your computer, and let it run and search for any lurking virus or malware on your device.

However, if you do not own a premium third-party software, you can choose from other free options like Avast antivirus or Malwarebytes anti-malware, which can do the basics for free.

Solution 2: Rebuild Icon Cache

The Icon cache is the database file that is used by Windows to keep copies of each icon handy; so that it does not have to go to the original application file each time you load the same application.

Like all other cache files, icon cache is also prone to corruption, and you may be facing this error due to outdated or corrupt cache. In these situations, you need to rebuild the icon cache database in order to solve the Word icon not showing error on your device.

In Windows 7 & 8, you can rebuild icon cache by following these steps:

1. Open File Explorer on your device.
2. Click on Folder Options.
3. Under the View tab, check the box next to Show Hidden system files.
4. Next, open the following folder:
   C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local
5. Locate and delete the hidden db file.
6. Reboot your device.

The method to rebuild icon cache in Windows 10 is slightly different than in Windows 7. However, you can use command prompt to do so easily as well.

1. In Windows 10, you need to navigate to the following folder after enabling Show hidden system files from the view tab under Folder Options:
   C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer
2. Here, delete all the files that start with the name “iconcache_”. Note that you may many files starting with this file name; make sure to delete all of them. If you are able to delete some of these files, you will find a folder that says IconCacheToDelete. This folder shall be removed automatically once you reboot your computer.

3. Reboot your PC.

If this failed to delete the cache files, you can use the Command Prompt to do so as well.

1. Open an elevated command prompt. To do this, open a Run window by pressing Win + R, type cmd and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to launch Command Prompt with administrative privileges.
2. Type the following commands one by one and press Enter after each one of these:

cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

attrib –h iconcache_*.db

del iconcache_*.db

start explorer

3. Reboot your computer to rebuild the icon cache.

This should help you solve the error if Windows was incorrectly displaying Word icons in File Explorer. However, if this failed, here are some other methods that you can use.

Solution 3: Temporarily Change The Default App For .Doc And .Docx Applications

This is a simple hack that has helped some of the users solve this problem on their devices. This involves opening the target .docx file with WordPad to change the file allocation and then reverting it back to the default Word application. Simply follow these steps:

1. Right-click on the target .docx file and select Open with… from the context menu.
2. At “How do you want to open this file” dialog box, click on More apps.
3. Scroll down, select WordPad, and then check the “Always use this app to open .docx files” checkbox.
4. Click OK when done to open the file in WordPad. Do not make or save any changes to this file, as your formatting may go away if you save the changes.

5. Close WordPad.
6. Now right-click again on the .docx document that you changed the attributes for, and select Open with…
7. Select the Word program from the list and then check the “Always use this app to open .docx files“.
8. Click OK when done.

Close Word application and then check if the DOCX files displayed with the right Word icon in Explorer. This should solve your error on your device.

Solution 4: Open File With WINWORD.EXE

This is another simple method in which you can reload the icon cache by attributing the file to the WINWORD.EXE app. Simply follow these steps to do so:

1. Right-click on the target .docx file and select Open with… from the context menu.
2. At “How do you want to open this file” dialog box, click on More apps.
3. Scroll down and make sure the box next to “Always use this app to open .docx files” is checked.
4. Now, click on “Look for another app on this PC” link.

5. Navigate to the following folders or something related:
   Word 20XX (64-bit): C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\OfficeXX
   Word 20XX (32-bit): C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\OfficeXX
6. Select the WINWORD.EXE application.

Now when you open the file, you should see the correct icon displayed.

You can also make this change in the registry, which would make this change more effective.

Solution 5: Change Registry Values

1. Export your registry to make a backup of the same, and keep it secure in case you need to restore it if something goes wrong.
2. Navigate to the following location by pasting this path in the address bar of the Registry Editor:
   Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.12\DefaultIcon
3. Double-click at Default value at the right pane and according to your Word version and architecture (32 or 64 bit), copy-paste the corresponding value in the Value data box:
   • For Word 2016 (64-bit) keep it as C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\wordicon.exe,13
   • For Word 2016 (32-bit) Keep it as C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\wordicon.exe,13

Once you reboot your computer, your error should be solved.

Wrapping Up

If none of the methods helped you, you may have to repair the Office installation, which can be done from the Control Panel. So there you have it. Now you know how to solve the Word icon not showing error on your Windows 10 device using the methods mentioned above. Tell us in the comments if you found this useful, and to discuss further the same.