Missing icons for Trusted Microsoft Store Apps in Start Menu search and taskbar

Help!

The icons for my Trusted Microsoft Store apps are missing from my start menu when I search for them. They are also missing from my tasbar. I alo notice that icons are missing for files that are associated with these apps are missing.

Any idea on how to solve this?

When Using Search

Searching in the start menu won't show the icon for Trusted Microsoft Store apps. Other app icons are visible in the search.

In start menu

The icons for the store apps are visible in the menu when not searching:

Not visible in taskbar either

Here you can see that both the Slack and Store app icons aren't visible on the taskbar:

No file icons for associated apps

My images are associated with Windows Photos (also a Microsoft Trusted Store App). The aren't showing their icons.

What I've done so far

I've been searching Google and the MS fora for hours now. What I've tried so far:

• Running all Windows Updates
• Upgrading to Windows 10 Fall Creators Update
• Clearing the general icon cache by deleting C:\Users\[snip]\AppData\Local\IconCache.db
• Clearing Explorer icon cache by deleting C:\Users\[snip]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\IconCache*.db
• Re-reregistring all Windows store apps with PowerShell by running: Get-AppXPackage | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}
• Running Disk Clean Up and choosing Clean Up System Files
• Running WSReset.exe

All to no avail. I hope you guys know a solution.

4 Answers

I don't know why this worked, I read it somewhere (I forget the exact source) but someone suggested removing the Google Drive File Stream application. I got fed up with this issue, and tried it on a whim not expecting much, and it actually fixed the situation and the icons came back during the installation.

Google Drive File Stream was/is the culprit for me. Uninstalling this app brings the icons back. I don't have the option of removing the app so I live with this fix until I get Windows reinstalled and the dice gets rolled to see if the problem comes back.

What can temporarily work (day by day) is by removing the following Registry Key:

Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.png\shellex\{E357FCCD-A995-4576-B01F-234630154E96}

And then restarting Windows Explorer from the Task Manager.

This registry key will come back so when your icons disappear again you will need to do this again. This works for all of the icons except the Windows Mail icon.

I tried all of the fixes on this site and a bunch of others short of reinstalling Windows. Nothing had any effect. I think a large percentage of people have this problem because of Google Drive File Stream. Google seems uninterested in solving this problem as it doesn't affect everyone.

Below are some troubleshooting steps in ascending order of severity. Before starting, take careful backups including a system image. I suggest using for thatAOMEI Backupper Standard Free. Create also the AOMEI boot CD or USB and test that it can boot and can see both your system disk and the disk where the image backup is stored.

To reinstall all Store apps for the current account :

1. Open Windows PowerShell as Administrator

2. Copy and paste the command below in PowerShell, and press Enter

   Get-AppXPackage | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

3. Wait for this to finish and reboot.

If this does not work, Windows is in bad shape. Start by checking the integrity of system files :

1. Open an elevated Command Prompt (cmd) or an elevated Windows PowerShell.

2. In the elevated command prompt, execute the command below :

   sfc /scannow

3. Reboot

If this does not help, follow the steps outlined in the article
How to Repair Windows 10 Image using DISM.

If the problem is still there, we start getting into the heavy stuff. ExecuteRepair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade.

Try this:

• Open the Command Prompt or Run... window (whichever you like) and execute the following command:

  ie4uinit.exe -show

This solution is for Windows 10 only. It might or might not help; in case it did, credits goes to Ramesh Srinivasan. (I think he said he had a Super User account too.)