Refresh Icon Cache Without Rebooting

Question

Normally, to refresh the icon cache in Windows, we have to reboot.

Is there a way to refresh the icon cache in Windows 7/8 without rebooting?

What have you tried? What happened? Why do you need it done? Are you talking about on Windows Explorer, Start Menu, task bar, where? Need more information — Canadian Luke, Nov 03 '12 at 18:20
Yes I did... And that's why I'm asking for clarification. I saw this in the review queue, so I only read the answers now, but remember that this site is meant to also help visitors from Google or other search engines, as well — Canadian Luke, Nov 03 '12 at 18:22
Normally, when we refresh the icon cache in Windows, we have to reboot, but my question and answer does it without a reboot. http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/07/its-ok-to-ask-and-answer-your-own-questions/ — Elmo, Nov 03 '12 at 18:27
Found this Q via Google in December 2017. Thanks for posting this. I liked the answer where it says to make the short batch file. So in the comments I included the process of doing so. Now my Win8.1 icons are fixed. THANK YOU. EXCELLENT QUESTION. — SDsolar, Dec 01 '17 at 23:22

Elmo · Accepted Answer · 2016-04-07T14:28:53.923

388

Yes.

You can just run the following command to clear the icon cache:

ie4uinit.exe -ClearIconCache

For Windows 10, use:

ie4uinit.exe -show

Check this video for a demo.

[tip credit]

edited Apr 07 '16 at 14:28

answered Nov 03 '12 at 17:43

Elmo

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Does not work on Windows 8.1. You have to delete IconCache.db as explained by @Techie007. – Helge Klein Jan 19 '15 at 20:05
@HelgeKlein it doesn't come with IE10... so only pre-IE10 OS'es have it. This includes Windows 7. – JasonXA Sep 07 '15 at 16:58
Definately doesn't work on 8.1. It runs but it doesn't clear the icon cache. – Pharap Nov 08 '15 at 07:15
5

Doesn't seem to work for me in Windows 7 – Joris Groosman Dec 28 '15 at 09:38
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working on windows 7 Pro – deadfish Apr 05 '16 at 07:10
7

For Windows 10, use the argument "show", mentioned in the same page (tip credit). – w32sh Apr 07 '16 at 14:14
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If you want to refresh notification icons too you can use this app : https://github.com/crazy-max/IconsRefresh – CrazyMax Apr 16 '16 at 19:44
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@Crazy Is it just a 1 liner? `SHChangeNotify(SHCNE_ASSOCCHANGED, SHCNF_IDLIST, NULL, NULL);` – Elmo Apr 16 '16 at 21:32
@Elmo Yes it is ! – CrazyMax Apr 16 '16 at 22:38
Does **not** work on Windows 8.1. Sorry. – Apr 22 '16 at 16:03
It didn't work for me in Win 7 (though it seemed to make a refresh) but the kill-explorer-etc thing did. – cdlvcdlv Mar 05 '18 at 10:33
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`ie4uinit.exe -show` worked for me in Windows 10, thanks! So much easier than most of the tutorials telling you to go around deleting a bunch of .db files! – Jez May 24 '19 at 10:41
If you're fancy you can send the 'SHChange' notification with PowerShell too: https://stackoverflow.com/a/49818826/273668 – Henk Poley Nov 07 '19 at 12:39
Did not work for me with Win 10 Home 1909. The icons are still missing for some items in the start menu. – Tigerware Jun 06 '20 at 17:29
There is no ie4unit.exe on Windows 7. – Jason C Jun 12 '20 at 22:32
This sometimes work and sometimes not. Usually after 3 minutes it loads the correct icon, but not immediately. (Win10) – Elron Aug 26 '21 at 06:42
Doesn't work: Windows 10 – Mario Palumbo Nov 08 '21 at 14:41
I had to restart Windows Explorer after running `ie4uinit.exe -show`, but after that, all the icons were back. – blade Feb 12 '23 at 16:07

score 56 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 29 '16 at 20:52

The following way has worked since Vista; It requires an Explorer restart, but no reboot.

Short version: Stop all explorer.exe instances, delete the user's hidden IconCache.db file, and restart Explorer.

Long Version (there are other ways as well):

Close all Explorer windows that are currently open.
Launch Task Manager using the CTRL+SHIFT+ESC key sequence, or by running taskmgr.exe.
In the Process tab, right-click on the explorer.exe process and select End Process.
Click the End process button when asked for confirmation.
From the File menu of Task Manager, select New Task (Run…)
Type CMD.EXE, and click OK
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
EXIT
```
In Task Manager, click File, select New Task (Run…)
Type EXPLORER.EXE, and click OK.

instruction steps source

Warning: It's important that Explorer.exe not be running when you delete the IconCache.db file. If explorer is running, it will simply write out the current (corrupt) icons the next time it is shut down (e.g. when you logoff, shutdown, or restart).

Awesome, it works for every windows icon, even configuration ones. Other methods only reset iconcs from files and folders — mikl, Mar 16 '16 at 15:04
What I noticed lately is that the IconCache.db often not necessarily exists, but just restarting explorer.exe as described above solves the problem, too. — anre, Feb 03 '17 at 18:23
This answer deserves all the upvotes and the accepted tick IMO — micsthepick, Jul 05 '18 at 23:03

score 26 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 05 '16 at 03:05

26

Open command console with admin privileges
taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
DEL IconCache.db /a
start explorer.exe via Task Manager

edited Apr 05 '16 at 03:05

David Ferenczy Rogožan

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answered Nov 03 '15 at 22:45

Grumpy ol' Bear

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worked for me, Win 8.1 – Spike0xff Jun 20 '17 at 21:00
This worked for me with Win 10 Home 1909, while the accepted answer does not. – Tigerware Jun 06 '20 at 17:31
It stopped working after I closed the command console. The icons disappeared again. Tried it again, IconCache.db not found and more icons disappeared. – Tigerware Jun 06 '20 at 17:35
Note for those who are NOT running Win10 as admin... these instructions will delete the icons for your admin user, not a standard user. – DAG Sep 14 '20 at 18:31

score 12 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 01 '16 at 18:38

12

Create a .bat file and paste the following lines in it and then run it.

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
del IconCache.db /a
start explorer.exe

answered Jul 01 '16 at 18:38

omerfarukdogan

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That's cool. Works fine in Win8.1 Quick and easy. And with the "QuickEdit" and "Run as Administrator" settings in the taskbar CMD icon, I was able to create the bat file by simply copying your text above, then clicking on the CMD icon. Typed `copy con clearcache.bat` then Enter, then Right-click to paste it in. One more Enter then a Ctrl-Z finishes the job of creating the file. Then I typed `clearcache` to run it. WIndows blinked and all the icons came back fixed. Took a total of 30 seconds for the whole fix. THANK YOU. EXCELLENT ANSWER. – SDsolar Dec 01 '17 at 23:17

score 7 · Answer 5 · edited Feb 21 '23 at 19:00

7

There's a clean way to close the Explorer.exe instance which shows the taskbar and the Desktop icons.

You have to popup the classic Shutdown dialog window. The only common way I found to accomplish this is:

Leave at least one pixel of Desktop background free of overlapping Windows, then click on it to focus on the Desktop itself (the one with the icons).
Press ALT + F4 keyboard shortcut: then the classic Shutdown dialog will appear.
Now, press and hold CTRL+ALT+SHIFT and click on Cancel.

edited Feb 21 '23 at 19:00

Rohit Gupta

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answered Oct 05 '14 at 00:39

the.reversengineer

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Why does this work? What does CTRL+ALT+SHIFT click on Cancel do? – Dean Meehan Sep 02 '15 at 15:36
2

Also this: open the Windows 7 start menu, hold Ctrl-Shift down and right click in the empty space above the Shutdown/Logoff/Restart button (whichever you have configured as the default). A menu appears with "Exit Explorer" as an option. Click it and Explorer terminates. – Fran Nov 12 '15 at 15:38
If you use the Windows 7 startmenu trick it's important to make sure you close ALL `File Explorer` windows first! Then you can `Exit Explorer` from the Windows 7 start menu. First open command prompt. Next click on the start menu, hold `Ctrl+Shift` and right click right above the `Shutdown` button to expose the `Exit Explorer` sub menu option and click it. In the command prompt, type `CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local` then type `del IconCache.db /a` and last type `explorer`. – Arvo Bowen Apr 05 '16 at 23:26
To get your start menu back, ctrl+alt+del then file: new task and enter `explorer.exe` – jaggedsoft Jul 28 '16 at 21:05
Press `Win` and release it. Then **twice** `Alt+F4`. This way is faster and you needn't to see part of the Desktop to open the classic shutdown menu. – cdlvcdlv Mar 05 '18 at 10:22

score 5 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 05 '18 at 11:48

If you don't want to make a .bat, copy the line behind, press Win+R, paste it and press Enter.

cmd /c taskkill /f /im explorer.exe & del /a %userprofile%\AppData\Local\IconCache.db & start explorer

You can also paste it in the address bar of an explorer window; and, of course, in a command line window (you don't need the cmd /c then) but you won't have the line to easily repeat it in case you need it again.

CAVEAT:

Don't run this line in an elevated prompt unless you're sure you are the only user in the system or you will kill explorer in all open sessions. Therefore, don't press Shift+Ctrl+Enter in the Run dialog box.

By the way, I don't see the need of the cd /d command I see repeatedly. It seems everybody just copy/paste without considering what are the commands for.

Note:

I use & instead of && just in case one of the commands fails, to ensure explorer is restarted.

Mike Kaganski · Answer 7 · 2019-01-06T12:42:51.100

Though not a userland answer, simple call to

SHChangeNotify(SHCNE_ASSOCCHANGED, SHCNF_IDLIST, NULL, NULL);

does that [1]. Possibly someone would create an utility to do just that; currently, using 7-zip and trying to modify file associations (for all users; without elevating permissions; which would fail and tell that operation failed) calls the notifications and rebuilds the icon cache.

Oh, just saw the comments to the accepted answer, where the call is discussed, and a tool for that is mentioned: https://github.com/crazy-max/IconsRefresh.

[1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/api/shlobj_core/nf-shlobj_core-shchangenotify

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Dec 12 '19 at 21:38

2

ie4uinit.exe as suggested by Elmo is a good option because it is available on every system already. I had trouble with it not refreshing sometimes in a complex batch file I have. Nircmd is a great alternative that worked for me.

This is the command I used that worked: nircmd shellrefresh

answered Dec 12 '19 at 21:38

pseudosavant

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I also had the problem that `ie4uinit.exe` didn't always refresh. I tried Nircmd as well and still no solid success. (sometimes works sometimes not) – Elron Aug 26 '21 at 06:45

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 03 '16 at 17:24

0

If you want a complete refreshed icon cache, go to the addressbar of windows explorer and type "C:\Users*Username*\AppData\Local" and then delete IconCache.db.

**Note:**It may be a hidden file. So I recommend turning Show Hidden Files on in Folder Option.

answered Sep 03 '16 at 17:24

Blackie Holeberger

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Please read the question again carefully. Your answer does **not** answer the original question. – DavidPostill Sep 04 '16 at 07:17

score -3 · Answer 10 · answered Nov 27 '16 at 06:44

-3

Not very beautiful but effective:

C:> tskill explorer

answered Nov 27 '16 at 06:44

Beau Key

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That's not enough. You have to delete the icon cache db as well. In any case killing explorer is already covered by the other answers. – DavidPostill Nov 27 '16 at 09:25

Refresh Icon Cache Without Rebooting

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