Windows 8 has many improvements over its predecessors but there are some problems which never seem to change. Sometimes Windows starts to show mixed up, mismatched, or misplaced icons in Windows File Explorer. For example, Notepad icon for picture files, Internet Explorer icon for text files etc. This is usually a case of corrupt icons cache. The icon cache is a ready to use cache of all application icons which Windows uses for better and quicker performance. But sometimes this icons cache gets corrupted and you see mixed up icons in Windows File Explorer for different kind of files. The icon cache can be rebuilt using the following process.
- First of all download Windows Icon Cache Refresher developed by TrishTech.com.
- Extract the contents of the downloaded ZIP archive to a folder.
- Double-click on the RefreshIconCache.exe program to run it.
- Click on the big Refresh button. There is only one button so you cannot miss it.
- It would ask you for confirmation, click Yes to confirm. Please note that it would close all your open Windows File Explorer windows.
- It will take a few seconds to finish the job. After that it will restart Windows File Explorer. Now you would see that mismatched icons have disappeared and everything is back to normal. If you still see misplaced icons in File Explorer, then you may have to restart Windows.
It doesn’t work.