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One of my computers was showing really bad graphics problems, not only in Windows but also in the BIOS. I replaced the graphics card and most problems went away - except the .LNK shortcut icons in Windows Explorer and on the desktop (see attached image).

What is causing this corruption, and how can I fix it? How do I get the icons to appear properly again?

It seems that the icon rendering itself is broken, not the actual ICO image. I tested this by choosing different icons for some of the shortcuts. The effect was a less damaged icon, but damaged nevertheless. The best case was like the center-left icon in the image: "Neu starten".

This is Windows XP Pro SP3, on an nVidia GeForce 5500FX 256MB card. Previous card was ATI Radeon 9800XXL.

enter image description here

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Maybe the XP Icon Cache (Iconcache.db) is damaged, try deleting this file

C:\Documents and Settings\ [Your Name] \Local Settings\Application Data\Iconcache.db

as described here

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Yes, that solved it! Thank you! – Torben Gundtofte-Bruun Jul 30 '11 at 12:43
You're welcome. – TeX HeX Jul 30 '11 at 12:43
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Its because the image cache was corrupt. It's a file called Thumbs.db and its hidden. Select show hidden and system files in directory properties and then delete Thumbs.db in any folders with corrupt icons.

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