Missing taskbar icons after sleep (and how to temporarily fix it)

AgathePower said:

Next time i'll also try others methods like taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F.

Click to expand...

Killing explorer.exe works fine, but it closes all instances of File Explorer (hence its name).

That's probably why I came up with the other method, which involves refreshing only the taskbar.

I also deleted icon cache (only the second one, since the first one doesn't exist).

DEL /A /F /Q "%localappdata%\IconCache.db"
DEL /A /F /Q "%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache*"

AgathePower said:

Killing explorer.exe works fine, but it closes all instances of File Explorer (hence its name).

That's probably why I came up with the other method, which involves refreshing only the taskbar.

Click to expand...

I had a similar issue, losing all open File Explorer instances every time I update Explorer Patcher and restart, so some kind fellow gave a PowerShell script to run in order to save the open windows and their position. I can then restart File Explorer and press any key for the script to automatically open them again!

Create a shortcut and copy-paste this code as target to run the script:

C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -c $a=(New-Object -Com Shell.Application).Windows() |% {$_.Document.Folder.Self.Path}; pause; $a |% {explorer "$_"}

You can also manually open PowerShell and run this code, but the shortcut is more convenient:

$a=(New-Object -Com Shell.Application).Windows() |% {$_.Document.Folder.Self.Path}; pause; $a |% {explorer "$_"}

spapakons said:

I had a similar issue, losing all open File Explorer instances every time I update Explorer Patcher and restart, so some kind fellow gave a PowerShell script to run in order to save the open windows and their position. I can then restart File Explorer and press any key for the script to automatically open them again!

Create a shortcut and copy-paste this code as target to run the script:

C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -c $a=(New-Object -Com Shell.Application).Windows() |% {$_.Document.Folder.Self.Path}; pause; $a |% {explorer "$_"}

You can also manually open PowerShell and run this code, but the shortcut is more convenient:

$a=(New-Object -Com Shell.Application).Windows() |% {$_.Document.Folder.Self.Path}; pause; $a |% {explorer "$_"}

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind.

I think these missing icons are more of a taskbar rendering issue than a problem with the Explorer icon cache. Since Explorer includes the taskbar, restarting it causes it to be redrawn, which is why it displays correctly afterward.

I need to find the root cause of why these icons—specifically those on the taskbar—disappear. Otherwise, no other icons in Windows disappear.

I don't know what triggers yours, but in my case whenever there is a resolution change in my second monitor (due to gaming), the taskbar icons move half icon to the left with one icon hidden behind the search icon. Sometimes they don't move, just one icon disappears. To fix it I just make a temporary change (such as toggle from search icon to search box and back) to force Windows redraw the taskbar correctly.

Changing the resolution effectively rearranges the taskbar buttons, which move along the taskbar to realign with its new size. However, the icons are not redrawn. Taskbar buttons without icon remain blank as they move.

This is indeed a button-redrawing issue related to the taskbar window procedure, not a problem with the cache, screen refresh, or graphics card.

I don't know about the default Windows 11 Taskbar, I use a combination of Open Shell and Explorer Patcher to get the Windows 7 start button and start menu and the Windows 10 right-click menu. If I change the resolution probably Open Shell moves the icons to fit and there is the bug of half icon being drawn behind another. Doing a change forces icons to be redrawn correctly. No big deal, I don't change resolution too often.

Your problem lies entirely with the Shell Experience Host. Run an alternative/native shell and your problems will be over.

I'm bumping this issue—since it's still occurring—to provide some additional details. I've noticed that the absence of the icons coincides with a significant delay in the display of the password entry field on the lock screen (I'm referring to the delay between when the lock screen appears and when you can type your password—that is, the time during which only the lock screen background image is visible).

So something is crashing at the same time as this screen appears.

Probably DWM process (Desktop Windows Manager, the component responsible for drawing the screen and rendering visual effects) crashed and until it fully restarts it has some delay. To make it start faster you can try disabling visual effects such as transparency, animations, fades. Not everything, you can keep the shadow under the text and mouse cursor and use a standard Windows theme. No need to switch to a classic theme unless you have a really old graphics card.

I had a similar thing happen yesterday.
MSEdge crashed and when I restarted it again I opened 3 tabs to a market site. Lots of advertising through AI there and might have been the culprit.
Then something happened with Explorer and I got a popup that memory was running low (I have 64GB).
Explorer crashed and I got a black desktop after that.

Checking with Task Manager during this, MSEdge (after restarting it) was using just over 2GB (but had 23 instances shown -- ghosts from earlier?).
Total RAM utilization was around 45GB.

Too tired to bother investigating further, I just killed/restarted the Explorer and was back to normal.

This happens on very slow computer when you click on something new in File Explorer before it can show the previous request. File Explorer hangs and never fixes. You have to kill the process and restart File Explorer. However, this should not happen on any machine with at least 8GB RAM, unless it is doing many other stuff in the background. It looks like malware. I would do a full system scan with Super Antispyware or similar utility and remove all findings, even if they seem like a "harmless" cookie. Nothing is 100% harmless. Even if it does no real damages it consumes your resources. In case Super Antispyware finds over 500 results, I would do a full system scan with a second tool, such as Malwarebytes Antimalware to catch anything the first tool missed, and remove all results. In the rare case that the second tool also find too many results, I would consider backing up my data, format the disk and do a clean Windows installation.

TIP: In a professional service if they find over 200-250 results they immediately suggest to format the disk, they don't waste time to disinfect it or check with a second tool. Some services don't even bother to check, they wait a little, so they pretend to check for malware, and then call you to approve backup and format which of course costs more than disinfection. Some even grab the opportunity to sell you a larger SSD if your old one has little free space.