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92
Normally, to refresh the icon cache in Windows, we have to reboot.
Is there a way to refresh the icon cache in Windows 7/8 without rebooting?
178
92
Normally, to refresh the icon cache in Windows, we have to reboot.
Is there a way to refresh the icon cache in Windows 7/8 without rebooting?
299
Yes.
You can just run the following command to clear the icon cache:
ie4uinit.exe -ClearIconCache
For Windows 10, use:
ie4uinit.exe -show
Check this video for a demo.
5Does not work on Windows 8.1. You have to delete IconCache.db as explained by @Techie007. – Helge Klein – 2015-01-19T20:05:37.057
@HelgeKlein it doesn't come with IE10... so only pre-IE10 OS'es have it. This includes Windows 7. – JasonXA – 2015-09-07T16:58:03.053
Definately doesn't work on 8.1. It runs but it doesn't clear the icon cache. – Pharap – 2015-11-08T07:15:46.003
4Doesn't seem to work for me in Windows 7 – Joris Groosman – 2015-12-28T09:38:07.320
1working on windows 7 Pro – deadfish – 2016-04-05T07:10:57.383
7For Windows 10, use the argument "show", mentioned in the same page (tip credit). – w32sh – 2016-04-07T14:14:46.823
If you want to refresh notification icons too you can use this app : https://github.com/crazy-max/IconsRefresh
– CrazyMax – 2016-04-16T19:44:41.8874@Crazy Is it just a 1 liner? SHChangeNotify(SHCNE_ASSOCCHANGED, SHCNF_IDLIST, NULL, NULL);
– Elmo – 2016-04-16T21:32:06.730
@Elmo Yes it is ! – CrazyMax – 2016-04-16T22:38:45.220
Does not work on Windows 8.1. Sorry. – None – 2016-04-22T16:03:46.837
It didn't work for me in Win 7 (though it seemed to make a refresh) but the kill-explorer-etc thing did. – cdlvcdlv – 2018-03-05T10:33:23.577
2ie4uinit.exe -show
worked for me in Windows 10, thanks! So much easier than most of the tutorials telling you to go around deleting a bunch of .db files! – Jez – 2019-05-24T10:41:59.037
If you're fancy you can send the 'SHChange' notification with PowerShell too: https://stackoverflow.com/a/49818826/273668
– Henk Poley – 2019-11-07T12:39:27.83338
The following way has worked since Vista; It requires an Explorer restart, but no reboot.
Short version: Stop all explorer.exe
instances, delete the user's hidden IconCache.db
file, and restart Explorer.
Long Version (there are other ways as well):
Close all Explorer windows that are currently open.
Launch Task Manager using the CTRL+SHIFT+ESC key sequence, or by running taskmgr.exe
.
In the Process tab, right-click on the explorer.exe
process and select End Process.
Click the End process button when asked for confirmation.
From the File menu of Task Manager, select New Task (Run…)
Type CMD.EXE
, and click OK
In the Command Prompt window, type the commands one by one and press ENTER after each command:
CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
DEL IconCache.db /a
EXIT
In Task Manager, click File, select New Task (Run…)
Type EXPLORER.EXE
, and click OK.
Warning: It's important that Explorer.exe not be running when you delete the IconCache.db file. If explorer is running, it will simply write out the current (corrupt) icons the next time it is shut down (e.g. when you logoff, shutdown, or restart).
Awesome, it works for every windows icon, even configuration ones. Other methods only reset iconcs from files and folders – mikl – 2016-03-16T15:04:46.023
What I noticed lately is that the IconCache.db often not necessarily exists, but just restarting explorer.exe as described above solves the problem, too. – anre – 2017-02-03T18:23:20.763
1This answer deserves all the upvotes and the accepted tick IMO – micsthepick – 2018-07-05T23:03:55.853
16
taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
DEL IconCache.db /a
explorer.exe
via Task Manager1worked for me, Win 8.1 – Spike0xff – 2017-06-20T21:00:48.653
6
Create a .bat file and paste the following lines in it and then run it.
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
del IconCache.db /a
start explorer.exe
That's cool. Works fine in Win8.1 Quick and easy. And with the "QuickEdit" and "Run as Administrator" settings in the taskbar CMD icon, I was able to create the bat file by simply copying your text above, then clicking on the CMD icon. Typed copy con clearcache.bat
then Enter, then Right-click to paste it in. One more Enter then a Ctrl-Z finishes the job of creating the file. Then I typed clearcache
to run it. WIndows blinked and all the icons came back fixed. Took a total of 30 seconds for the whole fix. THANK YOU. EXCELLENT ANSWER. – SDsolar – 2017-12-01T23:17:59.387
6
There's a clean way to close the Explorer.exe
instance which shows the taskbar and the Desktop icons.
You have to popup the classic Shutdown
dialog window. The only common way I found to accomplish this is:
Leave at least one pixel of Desktop background free of overlapping Windows, then click on it to focus on the Desktop itself (the one with the icons).
Press Alt + F4 keyboard shortcut: then the classic Shutdown dialog will appear.
Now, press and hold CTRL+ALT+SHIFT click on Cancel
.
Why does this work? What does CTRL+ALT+SHIFT click on Cancel do? – Dean Meehan – 2015-09-02T15:36:09.910
2Also this: open the Windows 7 start menu, hold Ctrl-Shift down and right click in the empty space above the Shutdown/Logoff/Restart button (whichever you have configured as the default). A menu appears with "Exit Explorer" as an option. Click it and Explorer terminates. – Fran – 2015-11-12T15:38:12.207
If you use the Windows 7 startmenu trick it's important to make sure you close ALL File Explorer
windows first! Then you can Exit Explorer
from the Windows 7 start menu. First open command prompt. Next click on the start menu, hold Ctrl+Shift
and right click right above the Shutdown
button to expose the Exit Explorer
sub menu option and click it. In the command prompt, type CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
then type del IconCache.db /a
and last type explorer
. – Arvo Bowen – 2016-04-05T23:26:26.450
To get your start menu back, ctrl+alt+del then file: new task and enter explorer.exe
– jaggedsoft – 2016-07-28T21:05:21.550
Press Win
and release it. Then twice Alt+F4
. This way is faster and you needn't to see part of the Desktop to open the classic shutdown menu. – cdlvcdlv – 2018-03-05T10:22:06.120
2
If you don't want to make a .bat
, copy the line behind, press Win+R, paste it and press Enter.
cmd /c taskkill /f /im explorer.exe & del /a %userprofile%\AppData\Local\IconCache.db & start explorer
You can also paste it in the address bar of an explorer window; and, of course, in a command line window (you don't need the cmd /c
then) but you won't have the line to easily repeat it in case you need it again.
CAVEAT:
Don't run this line in an elevated prompt unless you're sure you are the only user in the system or you will kill explorer in all open sessions. Therefore, don't press Shift+Ctrl+Enter in the Run dialog box.
By the way, I don't see the need of the cd /d
command I see repeatedly. It seems everybody just copy/paste without considering what are the commands for.
Note:
I use &
instead of &&
just in case one of the commands fails, to ensure explorer is restarted.
0
Though not a userland answer, simple call to
SHChangeNotify(SHCNE_ASSOCCHANGED, SHCNF_IDLIST, NULL, NULL);
does that [1]. Possibly someone would create an utility to do just that; currently, using 7-zip and trying to modify file associations (for all users; without elevating permissions; which would fail and tell that operation failed) calls the notifications and rebuilds the icon cache.
Oh, just saw the comments to the accepted answer, where the call is discussed, and a tool for that is mentioned: https://github.com/crazy-max/IconsRefresh.
[1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/api/shlobj_core/nf-shlobj_core-shchangenotify
0
ie4uinit.exe
as suggested by Elmo is a good option because it is available on every system already. I had trouble with it not refreshing sometimes in a complex batch file I have. Nircmd is a great alternative that worked for me.
This is the command I used that worked: nircmd shellrefresh
-1
If you want a complete refreshed icon cache, go to the addressbar of windows explorer and type "C:\Users*Username*\AppData\Local" and then delete IconCache.db.
**Note:**It may be a hidden file. So I recommend turning Show Hidden Files on in Folder Option.
1Please read the question again carefully. Your answer does not answer the original question. – DavidPostill – 2016-09-04T07:17:49.933
-2
Not very beautiful but effective:
C:> tskill explorer
2That's not enough. You have to delete the icon cache db as well. In any case killing explorer is already covered by the other answers. – DavidPostill – 2016-11-27T09:25:23.247
Found this Q via Google in December 2017. Thanks for posting this. I liked the answer where it says to make the short batch file. So in the comments I included the process of doing so. Now my Win8.1 icons are fixed. THANK YOU. EXCELLENT QUESTION. – SDsolar – 2017-12-01T23:22:02.250
1What have you tried? What happened? Why do you need it done? Are you talking about on Windows Explorer, Start Menu, task bar, where? Need more information – Canadian Luke – 2012-11-03T18:20:05.463
1Yes I did... And that's why I'm asking for clarification. I saw this in the review queue, so I only read the answers now, but remember that this site is meant to also help visitors from Google or other search engines, as well – Canadian Luke – 2012-11-03T18:22:01.610
1
Normally, when we refresh the icon cache in Windows, we have to reboot, but my question and answer does it without a reboot. http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/07/its-ok-to-ask-and-answer-your-own-questions/
– Elmo – 2012-11-03T18:27:37.987