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I have a strange problem. My icons seem to disappear randomly on my Windows 7. They were there a while back, now they ain't.

It happens often and quite randomly. Anyone know a fix?

enter image description here

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Are you sure the path to the executable is still valid? – Ryan Oct 20 '09 at 23:16
Yes, quite sure. – Don Salva Oct 21 '09 at 6:07
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5 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

I figured it out. Here's the answer:

  1. Run "regedit"
  2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
  3. Change "Max Cached Icons" to 10000 or more. Upper and Lowercase SENSITIVE!
  4. If it doesn't exist create it as new "string"
  5. Reboot

After that

  1. Go to "C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local"
  2. Delete IconCache.db
  3. Reboot again
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@NoCanDO: YesWeCan! – Ivo Flipse♦ Mar 12 '10 at 7:35
Oh, it doesn't work for me. – ablmf Aug 20 '10 at 21:27
I have found that if you try to delete the IconCache.db file while explorer.exe is running, the icon cache will not be rebuilt. You need to open a command prompt, kill explorer.exe with task manager, delete the icon cache file and then start explorer.exe with the task manager. – user13141 Aug 24 '10 at 13:44
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up vote 2 down vote

I found the cause of the misteriously disappearing Windows 7 desktop icons and the reason why Show desktop icons now and then gets unchecked.

It’s INFRARECORDER !! Try for yourselves, when you start Infrarecorder and close it again, go have a look at “Show desktop icons”, it is unchecked (but the icons are still there). Check it on again and start Infrarecorder…. it is unchecked again.

This Windows 7 “bug” is irritating me since the beginning and now I found the cause: It’s Infrarecorder which is causing this problem.

Test it, please let me know and spread the news :-)

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:From Anders: I would never have figured it out since I very seldom use Infrarecorder:) It seems people are aware at the forum: infrarecorder.org/?p=114 – KronoS Feb 25 '11 at 23:45
:From Rogier: In My case it was infra recorder as well. Very strange behaviour. (Also not too happy with the program itself, so its bye bye to IR) – KronoS Feb 25 '11 at 23:47
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up vote 0 down vote

Assuming that the paths are still valid, try right clicking on the shortcuts and go to the "shortcut" tab. Click on the change icon button, and see if the icon you want is in the list (if there is any list at all).

I don't know why Windows is losing track of the icon (It's happened to me a few times), but hopefully this will provide a workaround.

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I did. Doesn't help at all. – Don Salva Oct 21 '09 at 6:08
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up vote 0 down vote

It could also be that your C:\Windows\Installer folder is empty. In this folder Office or Windows Live software installs its icons and stuff...

When this is the case, you can try to copy the {...}-folders (with some kind of identity) to your own machine.

Edit: Added a link to a forum-post: http://www.sevenforums.com/microsoft-office/49813-microsoft-office-2010-icons-missing.html

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up vote 0 down vote

You can easily bring all the icons on the desktop as described in the following: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3659-desktop-items-hide-show.html

Yes, it is tru, it is an InfraRecorder that makes them disappear.

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protected by random♦ Feb 25 '11 at 23:55

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