How to Rebuild Icon Cache Windows 11/10? – To Fix Icon Issues

Rebuilding icon cache is a nice way to fix Windows icon issues such as a broken icon. In this post from the MiniTool Partition Wizard, you can figure out how to rebuild icon cache Windows 11/10.

What does Icon Cache Do

In Windows 11/10, there is an icon cache database that stores copies of each icon handy, which enables the operating system to display various types of files icons very quickly.

As more and more files go to the database, the icon cache database might get corrupted. When the database is corrupted, you might find that some icons get broken. To solve the problem, you usually need to rebuild icon cache.

How to Rebuild Icon Cache Windows 11/10

Whether you are using Windows 11 or Windows 10, you can try the following methods to rebuild icon cache.

Method 1: Rebuild Icon Cache Windows 11/10 via File Explorer

File Explorer is a built-in tool in Windows 11 and 10. It is mainly used to manage files and folders. Here I’d like to show you how to rebuild icon cache using File Explorer.

Step 1: Press the Windows key along with the E key to open File Explorer.

Step 2: Navigate to the following location: C:Users%username%AppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsExplorer. You can just copy the location and paste it to the address bar to find it quickly.

Step 3: Delete all the files beginning with iconcache. Then you will see a new folder named IconCacheToDelete.

Step 4: Restart your computer and the IconCacheToDelete folder will disappear.

Method 2: Rebuild Icon Cache Windows 11/10 using Command Prompt

Alternatively, you can rebuild icon cache Windows 10/11 using Command Prompt, a built-in command-line interpreter that can be used to manage your computer in many aspects.

In the following content, you can learn how to perform icon cache rebuild on Windows 11/10 with Command Prompt.

Step 1: Press Win + S to open the Windows Search utility. Then search for Command Prompt and run it as administrator.

Step 2: In Command Prompt, input the commands below one by one and press Enter after each:

cd /d %userprofile%AppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsExplorer
attrib –h iconcache_*.db
del iconcache_*.db start explorer

Step 3: Restart your computer.

Further Tip: Rebuild Thumbnail Cache with Command Prompt

Windows thumbnails are the small images you see when you access a folder of pictures. Similar to the icon cache, the thumbnails cache database stores those thumbnails so you can view them quickly. When the thumbnails cache doesn’t work properly, some thumbnails might get broken, white, or black.

To solve thumbnail issues, you can rebuild thumbnail cache with Command Prompt. And here are the detailed steps:

Step 1: Run Command Prompt as an administrator.

Step 2: In Command Prompt, input the listed commands one by one. Remember to press Enter after each command:

cd /d %userprofile%AppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsExplorer
attrib –h thumbcache_*.db
del thumbcache_*.db

Step 3: Restart your computer and the thumbnail cache will be rebuilt.

Tip: You can also rebuild thumbnail cache by deleting thumbnail cache files in File Explorer. Just go to C:Users%username%AppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsExplorer.

That’s all about how to rebuild icon cache on Windows 11/10. You can have a try when your Windows icons go wrong. Hope it is helpful for you. You can share your experiences and ideas with us by posting them in the following comment section.

About The Author

Sherry

Position: Columnist

Sherry has been a staff editor of MiniTool for a year. She has received rigorous training about computer and digital data in company. Her articles focus on solutions to various problems that many Windows users might encounter and she is excellent at disk partitioning. She has a wide range of hobbies, including listening to music, playing video games, roller skating, reading, and so on. By the way, she is patient and serious.