Windows – Blank White icon in Windows 8.1

iconswindows 8.1

Many of the icons in my Win 8.1 have become blank! I followed the instructions here, but nothing changed. I also did sfc /scannow, and everything was ok. How can I resolve the problem?

Edit: I guess my issue is due to uninstalling ObjectDesktop. It might have removed an important DLL

Best Answer

I contacted ObjectDesktop, and got this solution:

Access your System Registry (XP - Start-> Run, Vista/7/8 - WinKey +R) and in the run box type regedit. Then go to the following Key;

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shellex\IconHandler

On the right side of the screen, if it has a value of {611AD258-4138-4348-A534-9856FA6BA398} you need to rename that registry key from 'IconHandler' to something else, IconHandlerX works. Then reboot your PC and the Icons should come back.

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Windows – Blank white desktop icons on new Windows 7 install

From Fix Blank or White Shortcut Icons on Desktop.

To refresh and reset the icons cache, go to the following folder:

C:\Users\AppData\Local\

To see the hidden AppData folder, go to Organize -> Folder and Search Options -> View tab, and select "Show hidden files, folders and drives", and uncheck "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)".

Once inside the folder, delete IconCache.db. Create a new file named IconCache.db, and set it to Read Only attribute in Properties (if the file is not read only, the cache won’t be reset). Then restart the computer. Remove the Read Only attribute of IconCache.db file, and the icons cache will be refreshed.
This step will restore the desktop shortcut icons to their lawfully icons.

EDIT

I tried it, and the same behavior is on Vista. Properties of such an icon has the same tabs as the command prompt (cmd), so I think the white page icon is a generic cmd prompt, and Windows treats these as shortcuts to cmd rather than themselves. That's why it's impossible to set their icon.

As another experiment, I created a shortcut to cmd.exe, then modified it to add the parameters of "-k old-prog.com". This time the icon-change worked, but the program didn't ! My conclusion is that the 32-bits cmd.exe cannot run these programs.

I think this is some weird effect of 16-bits emulation on Windows. Apparently the 16-bits cmd.exe doesn't accept icon changes. As 16-bits is now totally abandoned in Windows 64-bits, I don't think there is much point in reporting it to Microsoft.

Windows – Cannot install Windows 8.1 Update Kb2919355. Windows Update Error 80073712

Error 80073712 = ERROR_SXS_COMPONENT_STORE_CORRUPT

I debugged this the last days several times. The fix is to run those 2 commands from a cmd, started as admin:

32Bit Windows:

dism /online /remove-package /packagename:Package_for_KB2919355~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~~6.3.1.14

dism /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup

64Bit:

dism /online /remove-package /packagename:Package_for_KB2919355~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.3.1.14

dism /online /cleanup-image /startcomponentcleanup

reboot and try to install the Updates again.

When it still fails, you can use the new Refresh/Reset feature (which removes all desktop applications but repairs the Windows Core) or the old InPlace Upgrade to repair Windows completely. This also keeps all desktop applications.

Best Answer

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