There are still blank icons in Start Menu and jump lists

JohnnyGui · Nov 17, 2022

I have clean installed Windows 11 Pro 22H2, build version 22621.819 and I'm still randomly seeing 1 or 2 icons in the Recommended section of Start being blank. Shouldn't this be fixed by now? Is anyone else still having this?

Also, I have pinned Notepad to the taskbar and right-clicking on it to get the jump list always shows 1 notepad file icon being blank.

wiganken · Nov 17, 2022

If you mean like as shown on photo then, yes this happens all the time on my system. The icons do work even though blank. A long standing bug I think.

MilesAhead · Nov 17, 2022

wiganken said:
If you mean like as shown on photo then, yes this happens all the time on my system. The icons do work even though blank. A long standing bug I think.

View attachment 45433

Yeah, I remember this at least as far back as XP. Sometimes out of frustration I would download a free icon that seemed to suggest what the program did and store it in the same folder as the exe. Then use the change icon in the shortcut to select it. Sometimes you can change to another icon, then change back to the original and it will work for a time. That is if the exe file still shows the icon in file explorer. If not you may be better off with the free icon idea. I doubt they will get rid of this bug in my lifetime.

wiganken · Nov 17, 2022

That's what I thought too. Just something else we have to accept. No big deal though. I ignore it.

Berton · Nov 17, 2022

I see what appears to be blank icons on my Notepad jumplist but chalk it up to the Resolution setting of the Display, have it set at the Recommended full size and 175% on a 14" Notebook. This screenshot/Snippy shows better as it's larger and the icons fo indicate text files.

My Recommended list on the Start button:

JohnnyGui · Nov 17, 2022

Berton said:
My Recommended list on the Start button:

View attachment 45437

No I actually mean the very first recommended section that appear right after clicking the Start button (not clicking on "More" as you did in this picture). Do you see any blank icons in there after a boot/reboot?

wiganken said:
If you mean like as shown on photo then, yes this happens all the time on my system. The icons do work even though blank. A long standing bug I think.

View attachment 45433

Do you also have 22H2?

The thing is, MS acknowledged in my Feedback report that this is already fixed and implemented in 22H2, here's the link

HRPuffnstuff · Nov 17, 2022

Corrupt gpu drivers will also cause icons to appear blank because it happened to me on this clean install that isn't even a week old with the latest adrenaline driver.

Berton · Nov 17, 2022

JohnnyGui said:
No I actually mean the very first recommended section that appear right after clicking the Start button (not clicking on "More" as you did in this picture). Do you see any blank icons in there after a boot/reboot?

No, I don't see any blank icons.

Edwin · Nov 17, 2022

JohnnyGui said:
Is anyone else still having this?

Nope!
But, stupidly, I'm still seeing icons for items that have already gone to the Recycle Bin!!!

wiganken · Nov 18, 2022

@JohnnyGui - Yes I have 22H2. Same build as you.

spapakons · Nov 19, 2022

If you have shortcuts that appear blank instead of the actual application, this is a bug. Probably has to do with the icon cache not being properly refreshed or something. Sometimes if you change the icon to something else and then back to the original it fixes. You could also use an application such as Resource Hacker to extract the desired icon and replace the shortcut icon with the extracted .ICO file instead of the application .EXE file. Usually trading the icons fixes that I also noticed that the icon may show properly at one size, say small icons, but appear blank for a different size.

JohnnyGui · Nov 20, 2022

spapakons said:
If you have shortcuts that appear blank instead of the actual application, this is a bug. Probably has to do with the icon cache not being properly refreshed or something. Sometimes if you change the icon to something else and then back to the original it fixes. You could also use an application such as Resource Hacker to extract the desired icon and replace the shortcut icon with the extracted .ICO file instead of the application .EXE file. Usually trading the icons fixes that I also noticed that the icon may show properly at one size, say small icons, but appear blank for a different size.

But this can happen to any file type. It seems to be a bug with the Recommended section of the Start menu.

I'm surprised there are ppl who don't have this issue at all.

Berton said:
I see what appears to be blank icons on my Notepad jumplist but chalk it up to the Resolution setting of the Display, have it set at the Recommended full size and 175% on a 14" Notebook. This screenshot/Snippy shows better as it's larger and the icons fo indicate text files.

I made sure they aren't text file icons, certain files in the jump list truly show as blank icons for some reason.

Berton · Nov 20, 2022

JohnnyGui said:
I'm surprised there are ppl who don't have this issue at all.

I'm not, no 2 computers are exactly alike. Buy 2 computers at the same time and same place, get them set up and run a short while and they will no longer be alike as changes take place of which some may not be seen happening.

JohnnyGui · Nov 20, 2022

Berton said:
I'm not, no 2 computers are exactly alike. Buy 2 computers at the same time and same place, get them set up and run a short while and they will no longer be alike as changes take place of which some may not be seen happening.

It's more like, what could possibly be set differently for icons to be blank on one PC while they're not on another PC.

I can't seem to find a cause for this.

spapakons · Nov 20, 2022

I occasionally see a shortcut on my desktop which is blank but changing the icon temporarily and then back to the original usually fixes it. I am using 100% scaling and small icons, if that matters. I have seen the issue when changing scaling or the icons size. Probably a refresh problem. If you delete the icon cache File Explorer will be forced to read all icons again and fix the issue. I don't remember the exact way, but you can also clean up the disk and also check the icons cache box.

JohnnyGui · Nov 20, 2022

spapakons said:
I occasionally see a shortcut on my desktop which is blank but changing the icon temporarily and then back to the original usually fixes it. I am using 100% scaling and small icons, if that matters. I have seen the issue when changing scaling or the icons size. Probably a refresh problem. If you delete the icon cache File Explorer will be forced to read all icons again and fix the issue. I don't remember the exact way, but you can also clean up the disk and also check the icons cache box.

Deleting the icon cache doesn't fix the specific issue in the Start menu. I don't have this issue on the Desktop nor for any icons in explorer windows. It's specifically tied to the Recommended section of the Start menu for random file types. These same files do have their normal icons when they're shown in their locations in explorer. It's something with the Start menu. I'm not sure if you're having this same specific bug.

spapakons · Nov 20, 2022

Are you using any third party application such as Open Shell, Explorer Patcher etc? Does this fixes if you End Task Explorer from Task Manager and then run it again from the Run box?

FrancoDT · Nov 20, 2022

I haven't noticed a problem with the recommended section of my Start menu but I do have one pinned app on the Start menu that periodically goes to a blank icon. Strange, it's only the Intel Driver and Support Assistant that does it. I can reset the icon or select a custom icon for it and in a few days or so it'll go blank again out of the blue. As the OP mentioned the same file does have it's normal icon when shown in it's location in explorer.

spapakons · Nov 21, 2022

The icon is not loaded properly from the icons cache. Delete the cache to force reload from the actual application.

JohnnyGui · Nov 22, 2022

spapakons said:
Are you using any third party application such as Open Shell, Explorer Patcher etc? Does this fixes if you End Task Explorer from Task Manager and then run it again from the Run box?

Never used such 3rd party apps. Killing explorer doesn't fix it either. Not sure if it does for others?