Generic Windows icons

September 26, 2008 8:35 PM

How can I restore Windows XP Start Menu icons that have gone generic? You can see a screen shot here . I have tried TweakUI, and I'm at my wit's end about what to do.

In the screen shot - you can see generic icons for "Help and Support", "Search", and in the task bar a generic icon for "Control Panel"

posted by feelinggood to computers & internet (5 comments total)

Do they work when you click on them, or do they produce an error?
posted by B(oYo)BIES at 8:46 PM on September 26, 2008

Try deleting the iconcache.db file. It might have become corrupted.
Deleting will cause it to rebuild.

* Go to Start and select Settings
* Choose Control Panel and open up Folder Options
* Click on the tab, "View" and locate Hidden files and folders
* Select the radio button which says, "Show Hidden Files and Folders"
* Also uncheck Hide protected operating system files
* Go to C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data and delete, or rename (iconcache.old) iconcache.db
*Reboot

You can also try this.
posted by B(oYo)BIES at 8:56 PM on September 26, 2008

There is an icon rebuild function in TweakUI for XP - this might help.
posted by karizma at 10:42 PM on September 26, 2008

Before I posted this, I had tried with no success:
1. The TweakUI repair icon fix
2. The delete/rename iconcache.db trick
Neither worked.

I looked at your suggestion, B(oYo)BIES, but it turns out that Windows XP Pro SP3 has no file called shelliconcache. I've looked for it on my computer, on another computer we have around running XP Home, and on a third computer belonging to another person. No sheliconcache.

To explain things further:
Yes - if I click on them they work. No lost functionality.
I have found out that this is a User problem. None of the other users on this computer have this problem - they show the correct icons. So I logged on as another user, copied the iconcache.db file from them and pasted it into my user space. This didn't work either.

I have searched Google with many different search terms, but I can't seem to find anyone else with this same problem.
posted by feelinggood at 8:29 AM on September 27, 2008

To make things even weirder: if I go into the Start Menu properties and choose "Classic" start menu, the correct icons show up. When I switch back, they're gone.
posted by feelinggood at 8:35 AM on September 27, 2008