Missing icons on the open file dialogue box

I am running Windows 7 Professional (64 bit).  All updates applied.

Problem: When you use the dialog box open file - some file/folder icons are missing.  Not that big of a deal, but introduce that dialog open file in an application they may crash.  I think this may be the cause.

Details: When I use Windows Explorer, everything seems as it should be in the Navigation pane.  For example, I see Favorites and Desktop under Favorites.  The desktop icon is correct.  Everything is as it should be.  If I open Wordpad, and then select file open, the dialog box is, once again, as it should.  All the icons displayed.  However, if I open Word 2007 and select the open file, there is a strange icon for the office and most of the other items under Favorites, some of my libraries display one appropriate icon, others do not.  In the right pane (where the files are listed), there are no icons for files at all, they are simply empty.  I can select the files, then open them, everything works, just no icons.  It is not only the Microsoft Office applications that illustrate this.  If I open the VLC media player, select media, open a file.  I have the same thing (missing icons).

I could live with that, but it seems to cause some applications (applications specifically Flash) to hang when I try to open the files.  For example, if I try to upload a photo to Snapfish.com using the Flash application, it crashes every time than IE when the open file dialog box opens.  Exactly the same happens using the Chrome browser.  Everything works fine as long as I do not open the open file dialog box.

Any suggestions?

Thank you

Jonathan

Hello Jonathan Moeller.

There are a few additional troubleshooting steps that we could proceed to isolate or fix this problem.  Just to inform you beforehand, if in fact it is malicious viral content on your system or base operating system files are potentially corrupt. I might suggest a repair installation.  This would be the last option or suggestion.

-Open the prompt (run as administrator) and type SFC/scannow

-Create an another user account (Admin) and check if in fact you are still having this problem

-Turn your computer into a cleanboot scenerio to isolate if a 3rd party service is potentially the first cause of this issue.  Here are the steps...

Step 1: Open the System Configuration utility

ClickStart

type msconfig in theSearch box and press ENTER.

If you are prompted for an administrator password or a confirmation, type the password, or provide confirmation.

Step 2: Configure selective startup options

1. in theSystem Configuration utility dialog box, click Selective startup on thegeneral tab.

2 clear theLoad Startup items check box.

Note The check boxuse the Boot file is not available.

3. click on theServices tab.

4. Click to select thehide all Microsoft Services check box.

5. click ondisable alland then click OK.

6. When you are prompted, clickrestart.

-In addition, please try to rebuild the indexing function.  Here are the steps...

1. go into the Control Panel.

2 display All the items from Control Panel by changing the parameter display by in the upper right corner of thelarge icons or small iconscategory.

3. Select Indexing Options.

4. click on the Advanced button.

5. when the UAC prompt appears, click continue.

6. in the Troubleshooting section, click on the button to rebuild

-In addition, each local user account have their Iconcache.db file or database is located at c:\users\Username\appdata\local\iconcache.db.  Please remove this file.  However, it is preferable that you simply follow the steps below.  Everything must be simple to follow.

Re-create the file icon-Cache by deleting

  1. Each user has its own file named Iconcache.db: USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Iconcache.db
  2. Close all the explorer.exe process using the Task Manager (or else it will create a bad file during the closing session/restart)... Go to the processes tab and locate explorer.exe and right-click on it and select end process tree tree/end of tasks
  3. Use the Task Manager (CTRL + SHIFT + ESC) to launch the explorer.exe again... Once you open the Task Manager, click file, new task.  type 'explorer.exe '... All of your icons should reappear with the taskbar.  You may need to shut down or restart your computer.  Please check if you are able to see your icons with success.

If you please follow on this thread at the earliest, I would be very happy.  I look forward to hear from you.  Have a great day.

Thank you

Aaron

Aaron
Microsoft Answers Support Engineer
Visit our Microsoft answers feedback Forum and let us know what you think

Tags: Windows

Similar Questions

Maybe you are looking for