Forum Discussion
All the folder icons on my computer has turned "blank." How do I restore it to it's default look?
I recently installed a theme from the microsoft store within which I changed my folder icons. But I didn't like the overall look so I deleted the app. now all my folder icons look like this. How can I go back to the default look?
(Indivually customizing the icons doesn't help. It stays blank no matter what I choose within the customization section in the folder properties.)
2 Replies
- Open File Explorer.
- Right-click on any folder, select Properties.
- Go to the Customize tab.
- Click Change Icon...
- Select the default icon (shell32.dll,3) or browse to C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll.
- Click OK and Apply.
- Repeat for other folders if necessary.
Deleting the app doesn’t always undo what it changed. That’s why everything looks blank now, even if you try changing individual folder icons.
If all your folder icons are stuck blank, here’s what usually fixes it:
Open the Registry Editor and go to this path:
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HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons
If there's an entry there named "3", it's probably overriding the default folder icon. That’s a common spot where themes inject custom icons. Delete that "3" entry entirely. Don’t just edit it, remove it.
After that, rebuild the icon cache. Open Command Prompt and run these commands one by one:
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taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
DEL /A /Q "%localappdata%\IconCache.db"
start explorer.exe
That shuts down Explorer, deletes the icon cache, and restarts the desktop. Once that's done, Windows should regenerate the default icons and your folders should go back to normal.
Let me know if you still see blank icons after that. There’s a secondary icon cache folder in some versions of Windows that may need clearing too, but try this first.
