Ethernet icon turns white in Windows 11

The-Hive · Jan 30, 2022

Mine is disabled. It's always best to do a backup before changes. I use Macrium

MswFan43 · Jan 30, 2022

The-Hive said:
Mine is disabled. It's always best to do a backup before changes. I use Macrium

When you right click the Ethernet Icon in network connections then can you click disable then what does the icon look like then? Can you post a screenshot. The screenshot you posted previously that shows when it's enabled being not connected with a red cross, not disabled. Yes I use Macrium too for backup.

The-Hive · Jan 30, 2022

You're right greyed out and white

Winuser · Jan 30, 2022

MswFan43 said:
I will try this out on Friday because I'm working away from home at the moment, when I get back home on Friday I will try it then, do I need make a back up image of the whole drive the operating system is installed on?

If you have the available free space, I would image the whole drive. On my desktop, disk 1 is my main drive. It has the EFI partition, the C partition and the Recovery partition. I image all partitions on this drive weekly. Disk 0 is my data drive. I image this drive every so many months. My important files I backup every 1 to 2 weeks. My finance program Moneydance makes a backup to drive D every time it closes. I also recommend you have a working rescue disk so you can restore the image if needed.

Winuser · Jan 30, 2022

This pic is with the Ethernet disabled.

MswFan43 · Jan 30, 2022

The-Hive said:
You're right greyed out and white
View attachment 20310

That's greyed out not white, mines is completely white, that's the problem, your Ethernet icon is fine, mines is not, looks like on mines the Thumbnail of the icon might be corrupt.

The-Hive · Jan 30, 2022

I think we are on the same line @Winuser :)

MswFan43 · Jan 30, 2022

Winuser said:
This pic is with the Ethernet disabled.

View attachment 20311

Yours looks fine and mines is completely white

Winuser · Jan 30, 2022

The-Hive said:
Here is mine, Just a red cross when not connected
View attachment 20300

@MswFan43 only has a icon that looks like a plain sheet of paper with the corner folded.

The-Hive · Jan 30, 2022

Like my edge app icon after I tried to delete it

MswFan43 · Jan 30, 2022

The-Hive said:
I think we are on the same line @Winuser :)

Lucky you, looks like on Friday I will need to do a icon cache database rebuild, see if that helps, are you using openshell

MswFan43 · Jan 30, 2022

The-Hive said:
Like my edge app icon after I tried to delete it

My edge icon is white in the start menu, atleast it works, the edge icon has had this problem since Windows 10 with openshell installed causes this issue, it's already be flagged in github with the developer of openshell, another user posted this problem on github

MswFan43 · Jan 30, 2022

Winuser said:
@MswFan43 only has a icon that looks like a plain sheet of paper with the corner folded.

Correct, only happens when the Ethernet icon is disabled

The-Hive · Jan 30, 2022

Yes an older version called ClassicShell, same program just an older version, I used that because it worked better creating a shortcut from a shortcut I could stop the icon from changing but OpenShell is just as good

Winuser · Jan 30, 2022

The-Hive said:
Like my edge app icon after I tried to delete it

I think that Windows is using a generic icon because it can't find the icon for Edge. I think that's the same thing is happening to @MswFan43 with the Ethernet icon.

Winuser · Jan 30, 2022

@MswFan43, if you're interested StartAllBack works great in Windows 11.

MswFan43 · Jan 30, 2022

Winuser said:
I think that Windows is using a generic icon because it can't find the icon for Edge. I think that's the same thing is happening to @MswFan43 with the Ethernet icon.

Their must another way to fix this issue for one icon, instead of doing a whole icon cache database rebuild

MswFan43 · Jan 30, 2022

Winuser said:
@MswFan43, if you're interested StartAllBack works great in Windows 11.

That's something I will look into the future, at the moment I'm happy with openshell

Winuser · Jan 30, 2022

MswFan43 said:
Their must another way to fix this issue for one icon, instead of doing a whole icon cache database rebuild

If it was a program you installed, I would say that a reinstall might fix the icon problem. The Ethernet icon is more of an OS problem. A repair install might work.

MswFan43 · Jan 30, 2022

Winuser said:
If it was a program you installed, I would say that a reinstall might fix the icon problem. The Ethernet icon is more of an OS problem. A repair install might work.

I'm not too keen to do another re-install of Windows 11, everything works, I will rebuild icon cache database and see if that solves the problem, I will do this on Friday. Anyway even the Edge icon is white in the Start Menu, Edge works perfectly fine. Just these two icons are white: Edge icon in the Start Menu and Ethernet icon in Network Connections and the Start Menu, I suspect Openshell has something to do with these two icons going white. I will reinstall Openshell and see if that fixes the issue. I will report back on Friday and confirm if the issue has been resolved or not.