The same goes for the thumbnail cache, which keeps a preview of images, videos, and documents. There are several ways to do this. The most common involves using the command line. Or you can use a free third-party utility. We’ll look at both options.

Reset the Icon and Thumbnail Caches

If your icons are corrupted or not displaying properly, you can reset the Windows 10 icon cache to fix them.

The easiest way to do it is by using the free Winaero Tweaker utility. This free utility provides an assortment of options for fixing common problems users will experience in Windows 10 from time to time. It’s just a 2 MB download, too. After downloading, extract the winaerotweaker.zip file, launch the Winaero Tweaker setup file, click Next, choose Normal mode and accept the license agreement.

After completing setup, launch Winaero Tweaker, scroll down to Tools group, select Reset Icon Cache, then click Reset Icon Cache. That’s it; your icons should return to normal.

Fix Icons and Thumbnails from Run or Command Prompt

If you don’t want to go through a third-party app, you can try resetting several ways. From the run command, type: ie4uinit -show and hit Enter.

Still not seeing those icons? Then let’s jump into the command line and get our hands dirty. First, you will need to disable Explorer.exe. Press Windows key + X then click Task Manager (or press Control + Shift + Esc). From the Processes tab, select Windows Explorer, right-click it, then click End task.

Click File > Run new task, type: CMD, hold down the Shift key, and click OK. This will open the command prompt with administrator privileges.

Type each command, then hit Enter. cd %homepath%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer dir iconcache* del iconcache* dir iconcache* Type explorer.exe to restart Windows Explorer. Exit the command prompt and verify your icons are working again.

Reset Your Thumbnail Cache

A similar issue can happen when your thumbnail previews. Instead of seeing a preview of your actual image, video, or document, you may only see a generic icon.

Fixing this one should be a lot easier. Press Windows key + R, type: cleanmgr.exe, and hit Enter. Scroll down, check the box next to Thumbnails and click OK.

So, those are your options if your icons ever start misbehaving. Let us know which method you prefer to use. Comment

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