15
3
Upgraded to Windows 10 a couple of weeks and just noticed that almost all of the icons on my desktop have a small red X in the lower-left corner. The recycle bin and some documents seem to be the exceptions.
Don't know if this occurred right after the upgrade or more recently.
Any ideas on what this is supposed to indicate?
Brad Patton
Posted 2015-09-10T18:42:01.270
Reputation: 9 939
10
Sounds like the Icon Cache needs to be rebuilt.
According to Windows 10 Forums,
The icon cache can sometimes become corrupted causing the icons of files to display incorrectly or distorted. When this happens, the icon cache needs to be deleted to reset and automatically recreate it.
There is also a tutorial there to walk you through it.
CharlieRB
Posted 2015-09-10T18:42:01.270
Reputation: 21 303
3Just deleting C:\Users(User Name)\AppData\Local\IconCache.db seemed to clear it up. Thanks. – Brad Patton – 2015-09-10T19:09:58.540
24
Right click desktop and choose "refresh". It will redraw all your icons and remove the gray (or red in your case).
JF Gagnon
Posted 2015-09-10T18:42:01.270
Reputation: 351
1This is the correct answer. – Nick Hodges – 2018-09-23T22:48:26.740
No, this didn't work for me. – personal_cloud – 2019-07-28T18:50:25.993
Worked great for me! Did not have to delete anything. – htm11h – 2020-01-06T13:48:52.370
0
Your Windows Shortcut icon likely got changed.
Try resetting the icon back to its default. In the following key, set the string value 29 to %windir%\System32\shell32.dll,-16769: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons.
Logoff for the change to take effect.
Source: Option 3 of Seven Forums - Shortcut Arrow Change, Remove, Restore
Note: While written for Windows 7 and 8, this should work in Windows 10 as well.
Steven
Posted 2015-09-10T18:42:01.270
Reputation: 24 804
-1
Press F5 while you are on the desktop (this should refresh the desktop and all icons).
hoggar
Posted 2015-09-10T18:42:01.270
Reputation: 143
4This was previously suggested by another answer, and two additional answers, that was deleted due them being a duplicate of the existing answer. – Ramhound – 2018-11-14T01:25:36.283
This is the simpliest way so I really don't see the reason why it is bad. – hoggar – 2018-11-18T12:09:57.727
@Ramhound I don't see the answer this has been suggested?! Is it deleted? – Albin – 2018-11-18T12:35:56.690
@Albin, I had the same question, but apparently f5 is a shortcut to refreshing the desktop, which JF Gagnon's answer and two deleted ones suggested already via a different route (rt-click menu). So this answer would make more sense as a comment on, or edit to supplement, Gagnon's answer. – fixer1234 – 2018-11-18T14:21:40.383
@Albin - No, Clicking Refresh and hitting F5 both Refresh the desktop. – Ramhound – 2018-11-18T14:48:16.120
Instead of downvoting and telling the answerer to edit the other question, you could edit the other question yourselves. As it is, it is not a duplicate. – ANeves – 2018-12-06T14:51:31.900
I'm not allowed to answer due to insufficient reputation, but in my case this problem was not caused by the icon cache, but by an automatic update to OneDrive. The problem is solved by turning off Files On-Demand as described here
– personal_cloud – 2019-07-28T18:56:26.583