Clearing Windows Icon Caches.

When changing Windows icons to custom icons, sometimes the Windows icon cache may not be refreshed automatically.
This results in some or all of the newly applied icons not showing up within the Windows interface.

This is a quick guide on how to manually refresh Windows icon cache.

Windows XP
Windows Vista
Windows 7





Windows XP

To clear Windows XP's icon cache, simply delete the file 'iconcache.db' from your profile directory.
This is usually found in: 'c:\Documents and Settings\[YOUR USERNAME]\Local Settings\Application Data\' *. The file will be automatically recreated when windows needs a new one.

* You may need to alter folder options in order to view the folders mentioned above.
To do this click on the 'Tools' menu, then 'Folder Options', select the 'View' tab and then tick 'Show hidden files and folders'.
(Don't forget to change this setting back to how it was after restarting to ensure your PC has the same setup prior to doing these steps mentioned in this guide.)



If you are still having problems with the icon cache file and deleting it does not help, a quick method for fixing these problems is to right-click on the desktop and choose Properties. In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Appearance tab. From the Item drop-down list, choose Icon. Click the up arrow in the Size box to increase it by one pixel. Click Apply, click the down arrow in the Size box to return the icons to their previous dimensions, and click OK.


Windows Vista

To clear Windows XP's icon cache, simply delete the file 'IconCache.db' from your profile directory.
This is usually found in: 'c:\Users\[YOUR USERNAME]\AppData\Local\' *. After deleting the file, restart your PC for the changes to take effect. The 'IconCache.db' file will be automatically recreated when windows needs a new one.

* You may need to alter folder options in order to view the folders mentioned above.
To do this click on the 'Tools' menu, then 'Folder Options', select the 'View' tab and then tick 'Show hidden files and folders'.
(Don't forget to change this setting back to how it was after restarting to ensure your PC has the same setup prior to doing these steps mentioned in this guide.)



If you are still having problems with the icon cache file and deleting it does not help, a quick method for fixing these problems is to right-click on the desktop and choose 'Personalize' and then 'Display Properties'. In the Display Properties dialog box under the 'Colors' section, select 'Medium (16-bit)' (taking note of it's current setting) and click 'Apply', You might have to restart your PC depending on your setup. Now redo these steps but change the color back to its previous setting.


Windows 7

To clear the Windows 7 icon cache you must follow these instructions EXACTLY as they are given/shown.

1. Close all folder windows that are currently open.
2. Launch Task Manager using the CTRL+SHIFT+ESC key sequence, or by running taskmgr.exe.
3. In the Process tab, right-click on the Explorer.exe process and select End Process.
4. Click the End process button when asked for confirmation.
5. From the File menu of Task Manager, select New Task (Run...).
6. Type CMD.EXE, and click OK.
7. In the Command Prompt window, type the commands one by one and press ENTER after each command:
CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
DEL IconCache.db /a
EXIT

8. In Task Manager, click File, select New Task (Run...)
9. Type EXPLORER.EXE, and click OK.

Windows 7 has changed how some icons are stored in the caches from earlier MS operating systems (some icons are now also stored in the 'Thumbnail-Cache')
To clear the thumbnails cache click start and in the start-menu's search-box type "Disk" (without the quotes), at the top of the start-menu 'Disk Cleanup' should be listed. Click 'Disk Cleanup' to run it, select your main system drive (usually 'Drive C') and then untick everything except 'Thumbnail Cache' (tick this if it's not ticked already) and hit OK.


UPDATE 05/25/2012
Rebuild Icon Cache Automated Bat File
I found this on another website
Thank you to Chris Sanders (aka Zidane24) for this updated BAT file version

Rebuild_Icon_Cache.7z

Unzip the file to your desktop
Double click to run
When prompted hit any key
You will be ask to do this twice
Next you will be asked if you want to restart your system. type y for yes and hit enter
Your done