Blank start menu icons on Windows 10

My start menu icons look like this:

I'm using Windows 10 from Windows 7.

How can I make the normal icons appear (not just the shown generic blank icons)?

I use Windows 10 Creator Update 1703 and after moving a folder I had some blank icons too.

I tried a lot of things like the "IconCache.db" deletion procedure without success...

The only solution I found that refreshes the start menu icons is to change the link files (*.lnk) "last update date" attribute.

Create a "RefreshMenuIcons.bat" file containing:

@echo off
for /R "%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\" %%f in (*.lnk) do copy /b "%%f"+,, "%%f" 1>nul
for /R "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\" %%f in (*.lnk) do copy /b "%%f"+,, "%%f" 1>nul

Run the "RefreshMenuIcons.bat". That's all; there is no need to reboot.

If you want to run it from a command prompt, you have to use this syntax:

for /R "%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\" %f in (*.lnk) do copy /b "%f"+,, "%f" 1>nul
for /R "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\" %f in (*.lnk) do copy /b "%f"+,, "%f" 1>nul

For more details about the commands used see Updating the Date and Time Stamps on Files on Microsoft web site.

1. Through File Explorer go to

   C:\Users\*Your USER ACCOUNT*\AppData\Local
   or use the environment variable
   %localappdata%
   (make sure hidden files/folders are visible)

2. Delete iconCache.db (hidden file)

3. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc
4. Restart Windows Explorer (alternatively, you can reboot the PC)
5. The icons should be back to normal. This will resolve the issue, but not the root cause - so you may have this problem again... Welcome to the new Windows 10...

If you know how to create a .bat file - you can simply use this (copy/paste removing the - and space before each new line):

ie4uinit.exe -ClearIconCache
taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
DEL "%localappdata%\IconCache.db" /A
shutdown /r /f /t 00

Copy/paste the text to a .txt file - rename the .txt to a .bat - run the batch file, and the icons will be restored. ie4uinit.exe is the Internet Explorer repair tool which should still be on your system (Windows standard executable file).

Well, I just restarted the explorer using task manager and the icons came back.

How to do this

You can open task manager in two ways:

1. Press CTRL+SHFT+ESC or
2. Right Click on the task bar and choose Task manager.

Then click on More Details at the bottom left if it doesn't shows the Processes tabs.

Scroll down the list of processed to find Windows Explorer. Select it and click on Restart at the bottom right.

Note: Your desktop and task bar will be gone for a moment when you this. They will reappear automatically. When all icons on the task bar has appeared, click on the start menu to see if your icons has come back.