Как сбросить кэш иконок windows 11

При отображении иконок различных программ или типов файлов в проводнике File Explorer, Windows вместо обращения к исходным файлам с иконками, получает копии картинок значков из специальных файлов с кэшем иконок. За счет того, что операционной системе не нужно каждый раз загружать оригинальные файлы иконок, ускоряется работа и прорисовка объектов в проводнике Windows.

В некоторых случаях, при повреждении файла с кэшем иконок, в проводнике (и на рабочем столе) могут отображаться белые иконки ярлыков и файлов, или вместо иконок приложений отображаются стандартные иконки Windows. В этом случае рекомендуется выполнить сброс системного кэша иконок.

На скриншоте ниже видно, что в макете стартового меню Windows 10 вместо значков некоторых приложений отображаются стандартные иконки папок.

Примечание. Некоторые пользователи при появлении такого бага пытаются переустановить проблемное приложение, что помогает далеко не всегда.

Кэш иконок в различных версиях Windows представляет собой один или несколько db файлов, хранящихся в профиле пользователя.

• В Windows 7 это файл IconCache.db в каталоге %userprofile%\AppData\Local
• В Windows 10 и Windows 8.1 – это множество файлов, имя которых начинается с iconcache_ (iconcache_16.db, iconcache_32.db, iconcache_48.db и т.д. в соответствии с размерами иконки в пикселях) и хранятся в каталоге %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

Не путайте файлы кэша иконок с файлами thumbs.db, которые содержат кэш эскизов изображения и видео в папке.

Сброс кэша иконок в Windows с помощью утилиты ie4uinit

В Windows есть специальная встроенная утилита ie4uinit (IE Per-User Initialization Utility), которую можно использовать для быстрого сброса кэша иконок.

• В Windows 10:
  ie4uinit.exe -show
• Для Windows 7:
  ie4uinit.exe -ClearIconCache

Эту команду нужно выполнить через меню Win+R -> команда -> Enter.

Команды абсолютно безопасные, но помогают восстановить нормальное состояние кэша иконок далеко не во всех случаях.

Скрипт удаления файлов с кэшем иконок в Windows

Чтобы сбросить кэш иконок, достаточно удалить db файлы с кэшем. Но предварительно нужно завершить процесс проводника File Explorer, чтобы он не блокировал доступ к файлам iconcache. Рассмотрим, как сбросить базу данных кэша иконок без перезагрузки Windows.

1. Закройте все запущенные приложения;
2. Откройте окно командной строки (
   cmd.exe
   или
   powershell.exe
   ) с правами администратора;
3. Запустите диспетчер задач
   taskmgr.exe
4. В окне Task Manager перейдите на вкладку Details, найдите процесс explorer.exe и завершите его (End Task);
5. Также вы можете завершить процесс из командной строки:
   taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
6. Затем последовательно выполните следующие команды для удаления кэша иконок в профиле пользователя (в зависимости от версии ОС):

Для Windows 10/ 8.1 (просто скопируйте этот код в окно командной строки или сохраните как текстовый файл reset_icon_windows.bat).

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer


attrib –h iconcache_*.db
del /f IconCache*
del /f thumbcache*
cd /d  %userprofile%\AppData\Local\
attrib –h IconCache.db
del /f IconCache.db
start C:\Windows\explorer.exe

В моем случае скрипт не смог удалить только файл
iconcache_idx.db
(Access is denied), но это не повлияло на итоговый результат. Кэш иконок был успешно сброшен.

Для Windows 7:

cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
del /f /a s IconCache.db
start C:\Windows\explorer.exe<

Последняя команда в обоих случаях перезапустит процесс проводника Windows (
explorer.exe
), который при запуске пересоздаст файлы с кэшем иконок (в соответствии с заданными файловыми ассоциациями).

If your icons appear blank or look corrupted or do not refresh correctly, when they should, then it is quite possible that your icon cache database may have become corrupted on your Windows 11/10 PC. The same thing applies to Thumbnails too. If they do not display correctly, then they may have become corrupted. In such a scenario, you may need to delete the cache files in order to rebuild the Icon cache and clear the Thumbnail cache.

This post will show you the location of these cache files so that you can delete IconCache.db and thumbcache.db files, in order to rebuild the Icon cache and clear the Thumbnail cache in Windows 11/10.

The Icon Cache or IconCache.db is a special database file that Windows utilizes to keep copies of each icon handy. When Windows needs to draw an icon, it uses the copy from the cache instead of retrieving the icon image from the original application file. This helps in making Windows draw the icons faster. Things were different in Windows XP, and they are different in Windows 7/8. Things changed again from Windows 8.1 onwards. In Windows 11/10, you need to do the following.

If you needed to rebuild the Icon Cache in Windows 7/8, you needed to do the following:

• Open File Explorer > Folder Options > Views to show Hidden System Files.
• Next, go to C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local folder
• Delete the hidden IconCache.db file. Reboot.
• This action would purge and rebuild the icon cache.

But this is not enough in Windows 11, Windows 10 or Windows 8.1. You will have to navigate to the following folder:

C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

Here you will see a lot of files like iconcache_32.db, iconcache_48.db, iconcache_96.db, iconcache_256.db, iconcache_1024.db, iconcache_1280.db, iconcache_1600.db, iconcache_1920.db, iconcache_2560.db, iconcache_exif.db, iconcache_idx.db, iconcache_sr.db, iconcache_wide.dd, iconcache_wide_alternate.db, etc.

Delete them all to purge and rebuild your icon cache in Windows 10. If you were to be able to delete some of them, you would now be able to see a new folder created named IconcacheToDelete, which will disappear when you reboot your computer or restart Windows File Explorer.

If you find that you are unable to delete these files, do the following.

First, close all open programs. Next, open Task Manager, look for the process Windows Explorer, right-click on it and select End process. Next, from the File menu > select Run new task. Type cmd.exe, check the Create this task with administrative privileges box and press Enter.

This will open an elevated command prompt window.

Now type the following commands one after the other and hit Enter:

cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer attrib –h iconcache_*.db del iconcache_*.db start explorer

This will rebuild your icon cache in Windows 11/10.

TIP: See how you can stop Windows from deleting the Thumbnail cache on every shutdown, restart or boot.

Clear Thumbnail cache in Windows 11/10

Windows Thumbnail cache or Thumbs.db files are hidden data-files in the Windows operating system, which contain small images, displayed when you view a folder in “thumbnail” view, as opposed to tile, icon, list, or detail view. Windows keeps a copy of all your pictures, video and document thumbnails so that they can be displayed quickly when you open a folder. In Windows XP you see these ‘hidden’ files thumbs.db files scattered all over the place. In Windows Vista and later, the thumbnails ‘thumbcache’ are stored at C:\Users\Owner\AppData\Local\Microsoft Windows\Explorer – which is the same where the icon cache files are stored.

If you want to delete and clear the Thumbnail cache, you will have to follow the same procedure as mentioned above, but finally, use these commands:

cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer 
attrib –h 
thumbcache_*.db 
del thumbcache_*.db 
start explorer

Please let us know if this worked for you and helped you resolve your problem.

TIP: FixWin 11 for Windows 11/10 lets you reset the thumbnail cache. You will find the fix under the System fixes tab.

Windows 10 users may want to use Thumbnail and Icon Cache Rebuilder, which lets you purge and rebuild Thumbnail & Icon Cache in a click.

If your desktop or explorer icons load slowly when they start the Windows PC, you may want to increase Icon Cache size and see if it helps you. See this post if your Desktops icons are slow to load.

We may face the icon cache corruption issue sometimes in Windows 10/11 and earlier OS. The icon cache corruption causes the wrong icons to show up for certain programs or in certain areas of the Windows shell, or no icons at all. For example, your pinned taskbar shortcuts may show up with the wrong icon.

My earlier post Incorrect icon shown for a file type tells you how to refresh the shell icons using Default Apps. In some cases, the old icon may still show up after changing the file type association.

To render the icons for various shell objects like folders, special folders, and files, Windows caches the icons in database files so that Windows doesn’t have to read the file or folder icon and extract them every time. Occasionally, you’ll see icon-caching bugs in Windows resulting in incorrect, missing, or out-of-date icons being shown for programs and desktop shortcuts and other areas of the shell.

To resolve the incorrect icons issue, you may want to clear and rebuild the icon cache database completely. This post explains how to accomplish the task using different methods. The instructions apply to all versions of Windows, including Windows 11.

How to Clear and Rebuild the Icon Cache in Windows

Let’s see how to clear the icon cache completely and let Windows rebuild it automatically.

1) Clear & Rebuild icon cache using ClearIconCache.exe Utility

Clear Icon Cache (ClearIconCache.exe) utility from Leo Davidson will cleanly exit Explorer, delete the shell icon cache (IconCache*.db), and localized thumbnail cache (ThumbCache*.db), and then restart Explorer.

Leo Davidson is a trusted source — he is the one who wrote the famous PDF x64 thumbnail & preview fix for Windows some years back. And he’s the owner of FileTypeDiag and many other useful portable tools.

With Clear Icon Cache, you double-click the program, and it takes care of the details for you. Clear Icon Cache works in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10. Though Windows 11 isn’t mentioned, it should work on Windows 11 without any issues.

To run the utility in noninteractive or silent mode, run ClearIconCache.exe /QUIET

As said earlier, the utility also clears the thumbnail caches on the computer.

RELATED: How to Restart Explorer Gracefully Using Shortcut or Command-line

2: Clear & Rebuild the Icon Cache Database Manually

The icon cache database files are located in your %LocalAppData% folder with file names prefixed with iconcache_ – each icon size has a separate cache (database) file.

The file names look like this:

iconcache_16.db
iconcache_32.db
iconcache_48.db
iconcache_96.db
iconcache_256.db
iconcache_768.db
iconcache_1280.db
iconcache_1920.db
iconcache_2560.db
iconcache_exif.db
iconcache_idx.db
iconcache_sr.db
iconcache_wide.db
iconcache_wide_alternate.db

To clear the icon cache manually, follow these steps:

1. Close all folder windows that are currently open.
2. Launch Task Manager using the Ctrl + Shift + Esc key sequence.
3. In the Task Manager Process tab, right-click on the Explorer.exe process and select End Process.

   Note: It’s even better if you exit explorer gracefully. See instructions for Windows 7 and Windows 10 to know how to quit the Explorer.exe shell process gracefully. Don’t restart a new explorer.exe process yet!

4. Click the End process button when asked for confirmation.
5. From the File menu of Task Manager, select New Task (Run…)
6. Type CMD.EXE, and click OK
7. 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

8. Additionally, in Windows 8, Windows 10, and Windows 11, the icon cache database is also stored in %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer. To clear them, you must close all running applications, and run these commands in the Command Prompt.

   CD %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer
   DEL IconCache*.db /a
   EXIT

   If you receive Access is Denied error when deleting the IconCache*.db files, then one or more of the open programs is using the icon cache database. Close all programs and try again, or try clearing them from Safe mode.

9. In Task Manager, click File, select New Task (Run…)
   
10. Type EXPLORER.EXE, and click OK.

Editor’s note: Instead of using Task Manager to exit Explorer.exe in Step 3 above, an even better way to do this is to terminate the Explorer.exe Shell cleanly using the method described in the article Terminate and Restart Explorer.exe Process Cleanly in Windows 7. If you’re using Windows 8, Windows 10, or Windows 11, check the article How to Exit Explorer and Restart Explorer in Windows 10/11.

Method 3: Automatically Clear & Rebuild the Icon Cache Using Script

This method uses a small script that I wrote to clean up the icon cache completely. Once done, the script restarts the Explorer shell for the change to take effect.

Contents of the Script – Cleariconcache.vbs

'cleariconcache.vbs
'Clears the icon cache databases to lets Windows rebuild them fresh.
'for Windows Vista, 7, 8, Windows 10, Windows 11.
'Written by Ramesh Srinivasan.
'Written on Jan 31 2016
'Updated on Apr 01 2016
'Reviewed on Aug 02 2022
'https://www.winhelponline.com/blog/

Option Explicit
Dim WshShell, objFSO, strICPath1, strICPath2, strmsg, rtnStatus, Process, iDirtyFlags, iDirtyFlags2
Const DeleteReadOnly = True
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
strICPath1 = WshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%LOCALAPPDATA%")
strICPath2 = strICPath1 & "\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer"

ExitExplorerShell
WScript.Sleep(3000)
ClearIconCache
WScript.Sleep(2000)
StartExplorerShell

Sub ExitExplorerShell()
	strmsg = "Explorer Shell will be terminated now."
	strmsg = strmsg & " Please save all your work and close all programs."
	strmsg = strmsg & "Icon cache may not be cleared if programs are using them. Want to continue?"
	rtnStatus = MsgBox (strmsg, vbYesNo, "Clear the Icon Cache")
	If rtnStatus = vbYes Then
		For Each Process in GetObject("winmgmts:"). _
			ExecQuery ("select * from Win32_Process where name='explorer.exe'")
	   		Process.terminate(1)
		Next
	ElseIf rtnStatus = vbNo Then
		WScript.Quit
	End If
End Sub

Sub StartExplorerShell
	WshShell.Run "explorer.exe"
End Sub

Sub ClearIconCache()
	If (objFSO.FileExists(strICPath1 &"\IconCache.db")) Then
	On Error Resume Next
    	objFSO.DeleteFile strICPath1 &"\IconCache.db", DeleteReadOnly
	On Error Goto 0
    	If Err.Number <> 0 AND Err.Number <> 53 Then
    		iDirtyFlags = 1
    	End If
	End If
		
	If objFSO.FolderExists(strICPath2) Then
	On Error Resume Next
    	objFSO.DeleteFile(strICPath2 & "\icon*.db"), DeleteReadOnly
	On Error Goto 0
    	If Err.Number <> 0 AND Err.Number <> 53 Then
    		iDirtyFlags2 = 1
    	End If    	
	End If

	WshShell.Run "ie4uinit.exe -ClearIconCache"
	WshShell.Run "ie4uinit.exe -show"
End Sub

If iDirtyFlags = 1 Then
	rtnStatus = MsgBox ("Some programs are still using the IconCache.db in LOCALAPPDATA. Close all programs and try again", vbOKonly, "Clear the Icon Cache")
End If

If iDirtyFlags2 = 1 Then
	If iDirtyFlags <> 1  Then
		rtnStatus = MsgBox ("Some programs are still using the cache in Location 2. Close all programs and try again", vbOKOnly, "Clear the Icon Cache")
	End If
End If

If iDirtyFlags = 0 And iDirtyFlags2 = 0 Then
 	MsgBox "Successfully cleared the Icon Caches.", vbOKOnly, "Clear the Icon Cache"
End If

Set WshShell = Nothing
Set objFSO = Nothing

How to Use?

1. Download cleariconcache.vbs or create the VBScript file manually using Notepad.
2. Save all your work and close all programs, so that icon cache files are not locked by any program.
3. Double-click the script file cleariconcache.vbs
   
4. Click Yes when you’re prompted to restart the shell.

   Optionally, when the following dialog shows up, you can manually terminate the explorer shell gracefully (instead of the script doing it forcefully). See instructions for Windows 7 and Windows 10/11 to know how to quit the Explorer.exe shell process gracefully. Don’t restart a new explorer.exe process yet! Once done, click Yes.

   

   If the Icon Cache database files can’t be deleted, some programs are using them. Close all applications and try rerunning the script.

   

   It should be able to delete the icon cache files.

   

After clearing the cache, the Explorer shell should start automatically and rebuild a fresh set of icon cache.

I hope you were able to fix icon rendering issues on your Windows computer by clearing the icon cache completely.