My folder and application icons on Windows 7 are generic

Question

All of a sudden my folder and application icons are sometimes generic icons, how do you fix this?

Answer 1

Open cmd.exe and type the following command

del %userprofile%\appdata\local\iconcache.db /a:h

now change your screen bit depth to 16 bit and then back to 32 bit.

restart explorer (log off and on again)