Missing icons Windows 10

Question

I was doing some registry changes on my Windows 10 Desktop computer. I was able to do some with no problems. I restarted occasionally and after one restart, I see that all of the icons on everything are missing. I can see the names of the programs and files, but it's like they have no icons at all.

For example, on the desktop, each item has the same space in between each item like it would normally, but the only highlighted portion of it when I hover over or click an item is the space around the name. On the task bar, the icons there are gone; replaced with the default for exe files. Except with Settings and the Calculator. Those still have their icons.

I changed back the edits I remembered making before I last restarted, along with restarting a few times afterwards to see if the problem was fixed, all to no avail.

Any idea what I may have changed to cause this or what key I could use to fix this problem?

Answer 1

I figured it out after it hit me that I had this problem before. It happened when I added an empty string called "29" to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons. I fixed the problem by deleting the string. On another Windows 10 (a laptop), it removes the shortcut arrow from icons on shortcuts. It also works with Windows 7. For some reason it doesn't work on my desktop. Anyways, the problem is solved.

Answer 2

Exhibit A in why you should not mess around in your registry unless you really know what you're doing, and if you really know what you're doing, you're probably not going to mess around in your registry. And if you absolutely MUST mess around in your registry, backup, backup, BACKUP first!

That said, no, there are too many places you could have made a change that would cause this problem for us to point out one or two specifics that you likely broke.

First step: create a new user account.

If the icons are normal over there, move the stuff you need, count yourself lucky, and don't mess around in your registry.

Second step: do a repair-install of Windows.

Use the built-in functions of Windows 10 to repair your installation. You'll find these under Start > Settings > Update and Security > Recovery.

Once again, if this works, count yourself lucky and don't mess around in the registry.

Final step: Backup your files and do a clean reinstall.

If the previous two methods don't work, then reinstall Windows and don't mess around in your registry.