I could however see the correct icons for the shortcuts to Outlook, Word, Excel etc. I could not see the correct icons on my Word or Excel etc files on my Desktop. I followed Prem's suggestions from October 28, Certainly read his, or follow along as I took notes a bit differently that may make it easier for you.
Somehow the other icons that were broken showed up as well. Dunno, but it worked sweet. Other solutions may work for other users but this worked for me. It is worth a shot and is pretty low tech.
I've had the problem with one or two programs and couldn't fix it myself. Pulling the shortcut directly from the. So the find the exact folder name:. I used this one and it worked fine after trying a few others that did not , this was very simple and fast!
Thanks MartaDelia. I hv been googled for this for last three days and tried all suggestions but none of them worked. Thank you so much CrunchyChewie! I had 6 PC's with this problem. It wasn't just the file association icons either. I used your fix, rebooted, and BAM all them were cured of this issue that has been plaguing me since I upgraded from Windows 7 to I deleted all of the icon caches in the AppData many times. In fact, I didn't even have to do that after I used your fix.
Just rebooted and it must have started adding all of the missing icons right away. I did wait for the computer to fully load in everything in the System Tray too before I even tried to look in any of those places I mentioned above. Office Office Exchange Server. Not an IT pro? Sign in. United States English. Ask a question. Quick access. Search related threads. Remove From My Forums. Answered by:. Archived Forums.
Windows 7 User Interface. Sign in to vote. Hi, all of a sudden and for no reason various icons have stopped loading for both the programs and files used by these programs:. Thursday, November 12, AM. Hi, It seems that the file association has been corrupted, I would like to suggest you perform the following steps to reset it. Friday, November 13, AM.
Hi, I would like to suggest you run a System Restore to check the issue. Encyclopedia Brown, Did you perform an upgrade? Run Windows Update to update the Office products. Is your security software a Windows 7 version? If no, remove it or update it and install the Win 7 compatible version. Your subscription will activate the Win 7 version.
I've tried renewing the Icon Cache and running a System Restore to a point before they disappeared and neither of those ideas worked.
I repaired the Office icons by creating desktop shortcuts -- but all of my. I believe I have all the updates for these programs. The disappearing seems to be almost at random. Thursday, November 12, PM.
I, too, have been experiencing this problem, the random icon that is missing and for which Windows substitutes a default icon. I've also gone into properties and have reassigned the icon.
The icon shows up fine in the selection window, but Windows just doesn't accept it. It's only a few icons that have this problem. I'm talking about the program icons, not file-association icons. Saturday, November 21, PM. Yep, same here. New laptop with windows7 home premium x64 and random icon loss. Removed icon cache Darn annoying and it seems no one has a simple explanation or definitive cure. As for it being a file association corruption, i can't see it as the blank icons all open the correct programs..
If I try to change the desktop icon it will work only for that shortcut but the icons in the "all programs" pop up still have generic blank icons and greyed out change icon tabs. Edited by mandc Sunday, November 29, AM added. Sunday, November 29, AM.
I'm having the exact same issue and have tried all of the above solutions with no luck. Friday, December 11, PM. The icons were OK though on the properties tabs of the shortcuts, and I had a greyed out "change icon" option.
Have win7 64bit and office I fixed in in the following way, maybe someone has luck with the same method. I looked at the properties tab the other office icons that remained fine in the same place e.
I went there with a file explorer enabling view of hidden and system files. I then dragged the word-shortcut from there into the start menu all programs, microsoft office , then released it. I got a popup saying that source and destination file are the same, and I pressed OK, so I guess nothing actually was copied, BUT, now the proper icon was restored!
Can't explain it, but it worked for me. Proposed as answer by mpdjr Friday, January 21, AM. Wednesday, December 30, AM. I have had this issue come up as well. For example, Microsoft word shortcut icon was not working along with many others. To fix it I went into Start, default programs, associate file types and re-associated.
Nothing happened. So I then manually browsed to the Word application exe file in the programs, Microsoft office, office12, Winword. I then moved that shortcut to the desktop, renamed it and then pined it to the taskbar. Low and behold all blank icons refreshed and repaired themselves magically. I am fixed, but still do not know why the icons are having this hiccup. Good luck. Wednesday, January 13, AM. To fix this in windows 7, you need to take the following steps: 1.
Go to start and click on computer 2. Click on drive "C:" 3. Double click on the Program Files Folder 4. Double click on the Microsoft Office Folder 5.
Double click on the Office12 Folder 6. Scroll down through that folder past the folders at the top, to where you start seeing individual files. To restore the shortcut you are missing or is corrupted look for the following names for the programs you want.
You may type these names into the search box in the upper right to make things easier. Once you have located the program file for the shortcut you are missing, simply right click and select create shortcut. It will say you can not create shortcut here, and would you like to place it on the desktop, click yes.
Go to your desktop, and right click on the new icon, go to rename and rename it to you desired name. Enjoy your new icon and your newly restored proper icon picture! Sunday, January 31, PM. Thank you, but this solves only half the problem :.
I'll continue to try to find something Thursday, February 4, PM. Now, when you right click on a file with a blank icon, you should now get the option "change icon" from your right-click menu.
Do the same for every different MS Office File type, ex. Good luck!! I'm having a similar issue, but it is not related to the actual shortcuts. All of my. When selecting that.
However, I'm having to change settings in Explorer to show extensions of files so that I can locate certain files. Listing the folder in details, the documents is noted as a "Microsoft Office Word document Just my icons are different. They were great until a few weeks ago. Suddenly happened. Wednesday, February 10, AM. I too am having issues with my icons dissapearing. Random icons just suddenly and unexplainedly change to default icons. I first noticed The Google Earth icon and the Agis icon on my desktop had changed.
I was able to redirect it to the program exe and the icon reappeard on the desktop icons but the start menu items are still defunct because the Change Icon button is grayed out and doesn't work.
Please fix this problem it's quite annoying Monday, February 15, AM. Edited by pydon Saturday, March 6, PM update. Saturday, March 6, PM. Anyone else confirm this utility works? Proposed as answer by paddybut Tuesday, July 27, PM. Tuesday, April 6, PM. Always seemed to have this issue with 7.
You need to increase the cache size and this should get rid of corruption: 1. Reboot and you should be good to go. Monday, April 12, AM. Ok, I dont know alot about computers but this worked for me Saturday, April 17, PM. Windows 7 Pro. I did some googling and came up with the following link:. What this icon seems to indicate, is that this is a type of link, which replaces the directory name with another path.
Apparently this is to allow programs using old operating systems, XP or example, to automatically store data in the new locations used by the current OS. I am not an expert, just found this, on the web, so my description may not be exact. I would like to resurrect this discussion because I have an icon in Windows Explorer which appears to have a meaning but I am not sure what it is.
I suspect this is an icon that was assigned by Windows for some reason when I created or changed the file but I cannot remember what special properties this folder has.
For example the following is a snip of the icons automatically created by Windows and Explorer. It is possible to change the icons properties to something different, however it appears that each icon is generally designed to have a special meaning. For the most part the icons are self explanatory and do an excellent job at helping identify the purpose and content of each folder.
However not always or perhaps senility has obscured what the spyglass icon I am curious about represents. Can anyone find a listing of the Stock Windows Explorer Icons and meanings. And hopefully post a link for all future viewers of this thread? I have not found a comprehensive list of icons and explanations yet, at least not one that covers the icon that I have a question about. But user Eric called to complain that under the list of folders bearing everyone's name, his would change My Documents and other users, who need to save to his folder, could not find it.
He's rename it to Eric and that would stick for "awhile" then it would change back to My Documents. Today I remapped him a bit differently and hope it sticks. In the process we noticed that some user folders have a different icon.
Most are a vertical yellow file folder, while his and a few others are a vertical yellow folder with a file poking out. As a complete SWAG, maybe those with a file poking out have an actual file in the folder, vs.
At the time of writing this is an old thread, yet it has not been answered properly; and it's about time it was. Unfortunately I can;t provide that answer, but I do want it. I landed here because I had exactly the same question as the original poster. I've been professional IT for 42 years. I have a team of ten people, all with 12 - 30 years experience.
A user came to us with a question about what an icon meant, and none of us could work it out. Plenty of different possibilities, no definitive answer. Of course there should be a list of all standard icons used and what they mean. As suggested above, just like the keys on a map. I can't believe that Microsoft have a team of developers who just use whatever icon they feel like.
There must be some guidelines as to what to use. The original question was clear. I hope the map analogy works. Let's have a definitive list from Microsoft. Maldon1 Great answer! This kind of alleged documentation provided by MS would not have been tolerated when I was a programmer.
All I'm trying to do is find out what a blue question mark in a white circle means in the device manager. Someone asked what that is over in social.
They answered what they presumed to be the question. Office Office Exchange Server. Not an IT pro? Select the file IconCache. When you are prompted, click Yes. Close all processes and restart the computer. If the problem persists after you remove the cache file or if the problem occurs because the uninstallation of the program associated with a file type, follow these steps to restore file associations:.
Click Start , click All programs , and then click Default Programs. Click Associate a file type or protocol with a program. A list of the different types of files, a brief description and the program configured to open are displayed. In this example, the file type whose icon is missing is the file with the. To correct this error, click Change program.
In the Open with windows, select the program that corresponds to the list, and then click OK. Note: If the program you want is not in the "Recommended programs" list, click the arrow in the box Other programs to see other options. I'm using Windows 10 on a PC and the latest version of Word. This thread is locked. You can follow the question or vote as helpful, but you cannot reply to this thread.
I have the same question Report abuse. Details required :. Cancel Submit. Previous Next. If you can open your Word, please follow the steps below to recreated a shortcut for Word: 1. If you can't launch your Word normally, please share with me more info as below: 1. What have you changed before this issue happens? Thanks, Neo. How satisfied are you with this reply? Thanks for your feedback, it helps us improve the site. Stefan Blom MVP. In reply to johnfinger1's post on April 4, Besides, please also share with me screenshot of issue related shortcuts.
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