The Microsoft Icon Syndrome.

[mrdee 1]

I was wondering if anyone could advise me further about what I call MIS (Microsoft Icon Syndrome). :)It seems to have been around in about every Microsoft Operating System I have used, and now I have it really bad.The "Syndrome" itself is, when you boot your machine up, your desktop appears as normal, but then, after a while, your icons on the desktop go blank, so they look like blank pieces of paper with a dog ear.It is not only annoying, but it also seems to take a lot of time.I remember that, in a grey past (I believe I was still using Windows 98 at the time), some one gave me a solution, which, if I remember correctly, had something to do with rebuilding the icon cache.Is there anyone who knows a workaround or remdy to cure this highly annoying bug?(It appears to be a bug in Windows which has never eally been fixed).At the moment I am using Windows 7 Ultimate.Any advice will be much appreciated.

[sheepdog 10]

Humm, interesting, I think I know what you are talking about, I see my desktop do that all the time, but the icons pop right back in a just a couple seconds when the computer finishes loading the desktop. Never seen it stay that way. Sorry I have no clue for an answer for you.

[comp2 1]

I have ran windows for a long time and never came across this problem.

Currently on 8 and I'm not liking it too much

 

If you want to reset the cache for your icons

>>Go to Computer

>>On the Tool bar, click Organize and choose Folder and Search Options.

>>Click the View tab, and check to select the Show hidden files and folders option, and click OK

>>Then, enter the following directory: C:Users(User Name)AppDataLocal

>>Find the IconCache.db file, and rename it as IconCache.db.old. Then restart the machine.

 

This must all be done in SAFEMODE

Let me know if this worked for you.

[mrdee 1]

Thank you very much for the advice, comp2.However, I'm afraid it has barely made any difference.I followed all the steps you described, and did so in safe mode.The only difference I noticed was that now, my desktop opened up with blank icons, where before, the desktop started up as it shoukd be, but after a little while all my icons went blank.I have also noticed that , after the reboot, the file is still called IconCache.db.old, while I have always known in the past (unless i am very much mistaken), that, when you renamed a filename, such as in this case with adding "old", this forced Windows to build a new file, one with the correct name.However, i only see the file ending in .old, there is no new file ending in .db.Is that normal?And should I leave the filename or rename it back to IconCache.db ?Once again, thank you for your advice anyway.

[comp2 1]

Unfortunatly that is the only solution I have at the moment, however I will keep this in the back of my mind when talking to fellow nerds. I personally use ubuntu and I have not booted into windows in over a year. Let me know if you do ever come across a solution. Also using .old should of forced windows to generate a new one. Weird that it did not!

[mrdee 1]

Unfortunatly that is the only solution I have at the moment, however I will keep this in the back of my mind when talking to fellow nerds. I personally use ubuntu and I have not booted into windows in over a year. Let me know if you do ever come across a solution.

I will certainly let you know if I manage to solve this.

Also using .old should of forced windows to generate a new one. Weird that it did not!

My thought exactly, I assumed when you renamed a filename like this, it forced Windows to create a new one with the original name.

[mrdee 1]

I thought I'd post an update on the situation here, not only on the icon problem, but also some other things I keep experiencing and I am not sure whether they could be related to the icon problem.But first, here are my specs:Laptop E-machines E520, manufactured by Gateway.Genuine Intel® CPU 575 @200GHz.3 Gigabytes of RAM.148 Gigabyte Hard Disk Drive.Windows 7 Ultimate with Service Pack 1.First, about the icon problem:It has now also come to my attention that, when I install a new program, the desktop icons also go blank while the icon of the new program is placed onto the desktop, however, it does not take as long for the icons to re-appear.Then, about the other problem (because I want to know if the two are related):My processor seems to run at 100% CPU usage most of the time, and, whatever I keep doing, there is bound to come a time when I see the message "(Not Responding)" after the name of the program, also, many programs, or even websites, seem to crawl at a snail's pace.I recently had the motherboard changed (or so they claim in the shop), and they advised me to clear some space on my HDD to make the laptop run faster, which I did, my HDD space gauge was in the red before, but now I have 33.1 Gb free space.However, they cannot have done a good job (I am taking my laptop back, as a matter of fact), as there is a "weak spot" on the case of my laptop, when I slightly touch it, or put my mobile phone on it, the machine cuts out.At first they wanted my wife to believe they had forgotten to turn "Sleep mode" off, which is of course a load of rubbish, Sleep mode only becomes active while you are not using the machine,Furthermore, my processor keeps getting very hotIf I get no joy this time, I will investigate whether they really put a new motherboard in.Now, to get back to the CPU usage and all that, I have tried everything they advised on the net, disabled some of the "services", disabled some of the Startup items, all to no avail.Also, AVG scans for viruses every day, I have done spyware scans with Spybot Search and Destroy and cleaned up lots of problems, I even ran Microsoft Malicious Software Removal tool, both in normal and safe mode, NOTHING.When I do absolutely nothing the CPU usage goes down (I have become obsessed lately with leaving the task manager open to monitor the CPU usage).So, no idea whether the problems are related, but if anyone could point me into the right direction, I would be extremely grateful.

Edited April 11, 2013 by mrdee (see edit history)