Desperately Need Help - Difficult Issue

[pcbrat]

I am running Vista Home Premium and suddenly the icons on the right click
context menu in explorer and on desktop are white. Does anyone have any
suggestions? Have done no recent installs nor do am I infected. I have
rebooted and tested memory and that is fine. Any ideas on this one?
Thank you
in advance. Haven't played with the registry today either.


see screenshot at neospyce.com/iconsmissing.jpg

 

[Richard Urban]

Try this.

Delete the iconcache.db file in C:\Users\XXXXuser\AppData\Local, where
XXXXuser is your account name.

Reboot.

The icon cache will be rebuilt and the icons should again be what they are
intended to be.

Get back to us and let us know please.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

 

[pcbrat]

first off, let me say a great big thank you for responding. i followed
your instructions, but unfortunately, to no avial. it didn't work. i
would be willing to try anymore ideas that you have. grins and thank you
again.

pcbrat

 

[Peter Foldes]

I have looked at your screenshot of this issue that you are describing.

Is it still the same after a reboot of the system

 

[pcbrat]

Yes, it is still the same. I even tried it twice, rebooting after
deletion of iconcache.db both times.

 

[Lang Murphy]

I am running Vista Home Premium and suddenly the icons on the right click
context menu in explorer and on desktop are white. Does anyone have any
suggestions? Have done no recent installs nor do am I infected. I have
rebooted and tested memory and that is fine. Any ideas on this one? Thank
you
in advance. Haven't played with the registry today either.


see screenshot at neospyce.com/iconsmissing.jpg

Looks like the icons are not only white, but they don't look like they're
the correct icons, white or not. Do you have a system restore point to which
you can roll back your system?

Lang

 

[Becca]

Well, now here is a bit of a puzzler. This issue has been going on for
about a week, so as per your suggestion, I tried a system restore (which
I was hoping to avoid) and went back as far as 2 1/2 weeks. Guess what?
It did absolutely no good, so I decided to Undo the system restore and
go back to a more recent time (after the icon issue started) of June 30.
So, just out of sheer curiosity, I checked my Context Menu again, and...
WAHLAH! The icons are now back in tact. I am at a loss for an
explanation, because the icons were corrupt on June 30 (actually about 1
week before). Who knows? I certainly don't understand it. But, I guess I
better not look a gift horse in the mouth. At any rate, thank all of you
for your help and suggestions. Grins.

 

[Spirit]

So you need to figure out what caused it........ a program you loaded? Some
setting
you made? A registry entry. Maybe an Update? Remove a program?

 

[Becca]

If you will read my original post, you will see that I have already
covered those areas.

 

[Spirit]

Yes you did HOWEVER you have now been able to resolve the issue
and maybe now you can figure out the cause........... since it might happen
again at a time when a restore is less than convenient.

 

[Lang Murphy]

If you will read my original post, you will see that I have already
covered those areas.

Yeah... I looked around but can find no way to "save" specific restore
points... something I'd think you'd like to do with the restore point that
fixed this problem. Glad -you- fixed it, though; congrats!

Lang

 

[Huib]

Hi,
For information.
I had the same problem after just for testing starting the PC in
saftety-mode.
Not only the icon wgere white and changed but also the sidebar whas white.
Rebooting didn't help only after re-installing the latest restore point it
was ok.

regards
Huib

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

So you need to figure out what caused it........ a program you loaded?

A useful tool for this would be Shell Extensions Viewer from Nirsoft
at www.nirsoft.net (avoid the ".com" site, it's a squatter).

This will let you reversiibly disable shellintegrations that go beyond
simple file associations (they have a tool for that, too) to work via
CLSIDs within these menus, as well as "file gropers" that act when
folder contents are listed, etc.

Sort by product name and start by exclusing the non-MS stuff. Work
slowly and carefully on a test-to-fix basis, as the tool will show you
everything, including stuff you may need for Explorer to work at all!

This will only apply if the problem comes back, of course ;-)

Context:

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The most accurate diagnostic instrument
in medicine is the Retrospectoscope