Windows 11 is not recognizing some icons on taskbar

I had this problem on a brand-new, out of the box computer running Windows 11.  However, the problem didn't affect all apps.  It *only* affected apps that were stored in the WindowsApps folder.  When I tried to pin these to the taskbar, the icon was blank.  Clicking the blank space would launch the app, but that was hardly ideal.

I went through all the recommended fixes that assumed the problem was something to do with my computer - rebuilding the icon cache, running DISM and SFC /scannow, etc.  As far as I can tell, the computer is fine.

In the end, my solution was to write a VBS script to launch the app, create a shortcut to the VBS script with an appropriate icon and then pin the shortcut to the taskbar.  Sounds a bit Rube Goldberg, but it works beautifully.

For example, here are the contents of stickynotes.vbs :

Dim WshShell: Set WshShell = CreateObject ("WScript.Shell")

WshShell.run "shell:appsfolder\Microsoft.MicrosoftStickyNotes_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App"

I can't take credit for writing that.  It's from https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-to-launch-sticky-notes-using-a-full-path/44574124-8e3c-4cee-a625-dfb15211e6a0

The target of the shortcut is:

C:\Windows\System32\wscript.exe "C:\Users\[my username]\AppData\stickynotes.vbs"

Note that I chose to save the script and its shortcut in my AppData file, but really, you can save them anywhere.  I found a nice icon online to use for the shortcut and saved that in the AppData file as well.

Here are the contents of snippingtool.vbs :

Dim WshShell: Set WshShell = CreateObject ("WScript.Shell")

WshShell.run "shell:appsfolder\Microsoft.ScreenSketch_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App"

I got the location of the snipping tool by googling "Windows snipping tool executable location"  Obviously this should work with any app you like.  🙂

BEFORE YOU DO ALL THIS, check the system32 folder to see if there's an older version of the app there.  For example, my computer arrived with two versions of the calculator on it, calc.exe in the system32 folder and a newer version in the WindowsApps folder.  If you can find an .exe file in the system32 folder then you can pin that to the taskbar directly without creating a .vbs file and shortcut.

Cheers,

Rosie