We saw how to clear the icon cache and let Windows rebuild it, in post Completely Clearing and Rebuilding the Icon Cache Database which applies to all versions of Windows including Windows 10.
Here is a quicker way to just refresh the icon cache, using a neat little command-line, which works in Windows 7, 8 and 10.
Refreshing the Icon Cache Quickly
Press WinKey + R to bring up the Run dialog. Then, run the following command and hit ENTER.
ie4uinit.exe -ClearIconCache
In Windows 10, run this command instead:
ie4uinit.exe -show
Here is a small video clip to demonstrate this.
Incorrect icon shown for .txt file, fixed immediately after running the above command.
Note: If you’re looking for information on how to completely Clear and Rebuild the icon cache, check out this post How to Rebuild the Icon Cache in Windows Vista, 7, 8 and Windows 10.
About the author
Ramesh Srinivasan has a vast experience in the ITeS industry as Tech Lead — delivering support for Microsoft's consumer products. He is passionate about Microsoft technologies, and he has been a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional, for 10 years in a row from 2003-2012 for his contribution in various online support forums — in Windows Client specialty.
When he is not blogging, he is probably into deep dive troubleshooting, reading books or feeding his cats. You can follow Ramesh on Twitter and Facebook.
You can use this app to refresh Desktop, Start Menu and Taskbar icons without restart Explorer : https://github.com/crazy-max/IconsRefresh
Thanks a lot! It works on Windows Server 2012.
This can be done even easier using Easy Context Menu:
1. Shift + Right Click
2. Choose ‘Rebuild Shell Icon Cache’
Done.
Best of all it’s portable freeware. Download here: http://www.sordum.org/7615/easy-context-menu-v1-2/
Thank you. I was wondering why the Wireshark installer was executing
C:\Windows\system32\ie4uinit.exe -ClearIconCache at the end of the install process.THANK YOU! A straight-forward command that doesn’t involve rebooting or killing explorer.exe. Worked with Win7, IE11.
Doesn’t seem to work on Windows 8.1/IE11? Did MS morons break it again?
This one actually worked, while “How to Rebuild the Icon Cache in Windows Vista and Windows 7” didn’t. The problem was that some of the icons in my taskbar were replaced with the default icon for a program, because the icons pointed to a network drive that I map manually after Windows starts.
Nice tip!
@anon: Yup. But *might* work in Vista SP2 with IE9.
Nice tip!! Interesting that it does nothing on XP even if ie4uinit exists for ages. :)