Recommended Section of Start Menu showing blank icons

[JohnnyGui]

Is it just me or does the Recommended Section of the Start Menu still show blank icons for files? This issue has been there for quite a while now. 

Rebuilding the icon cache did not help. SFC /scannow did not show any corruptions. It's a clean install of Windows 11 21H2.

[#2]

Try performing Clean Boot and see if the problem persists?
Have a look at:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-in-windows-da2f9573-6eec-00ad-...

[#3]

@Reza_Ameri 

Didn't fix the issue unfortunately. 

Have you noticed this issue at your end?

[#4]

No, there is no issue on my side.
I advise you to open start and search for feedback and open the Feedback Hub app and report this issue.

[#5]

@JohnnyGui 

This has been happening since day one of Windows 11 for me.  No way around it.  It's random and even a "repair reinstall/upgrade/in place upgrade" doesn't fix it.  Along with rebuilding the icon cache.  Definitely a bug.  I'm surprised this is one of the few very first mentions of it actually.  I honestly don't use the "recommended" area so I would just assume disable that portion.  I go back and forth with some end users of mine I administer by installing StartIsBack to hide all the crappy bugs with the startmenu since Win11 arrived and my customers insist on having Win11.  Some machines such as mine that I do lots of testing etc with I don't install much and tonight I just decided to look around to see who else has this same very issue and laugh that I actually found a hit while investigating this bug more. 🙂  Anyways, so yeah anyone else who comes across this thread.  Don't waste your time with all the recommended fixes.  Just a waste of time.  I've been down the same road as you even more so probably with how many users I admin.

[#6]

@nheimler 

Thanks for the confirmation. I sent a feedback to MS and they said the following

Thank you for your feedback! We included a fix for this issue with Build 22504, now available in the Dev Channel: https://aka.ms/wip22504 But please let us know if you continue to experience any issues.

UPDATE: This is also now available in the Beta Channel with Build 22581: https://aka.ms/wip22581

However, build 22504 was released in november 2021. Is it possible that  all this time this specific fix is still in the Insider builds and not yet released to the stable releases

[#7]

Hello Johnny,

Unfortunately this has also been my problem ever since day 1 of installing Windows 11, happening on my main PC and my mother's laptop.

I have tried everything, sfc, DISM, even disabling "Fast Startup", all to no avail.

Windows 11 22H2 has only mitigated the issue, as it allowed me to decrease the number of recommended files on my Start Menu to just two side by side, however, one of them always appears as a blank icon.

You cannot imagine how much this issue bothers me, especially the fact that, throughout the web, this is not a frequent issue Windows 11 users report, with the your exception that is.

Naturally, the fact that Windows 11 is already 1 year and some months old and Microsoft has appeared to do nothing concerning this as it is too focused on changing the look of the Search icon on the taskbar and on other useless gimmicks also bothers me a lot.

Kind regards,
Gonçalo Pinto

[#8]

@Goncalo_NSPinto 

I still have this issue on 22H2. I previously got an answer in the Feedback Hub that it got fixed but apparently it's not. No idea how hard it is to fix this.

[#9]

I found a workaround:

Create a batch file with the following code:

"@echo off
TIMEOUT /T 3
taskkill /f /im StartMenuExperienceHost.exe

EXIT"

Then on the task scheduler, make it run said batch file upon log on.

It worked for me 😊

[#10]

Also had this issue, what I did to fix it was to open notepad, paste the following;

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer
attrib –h iconcache_*.db
del /f IconCache*
del /f thumbcache*
cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local\
attrib –h IconCache.db
del /f IconCache.db
start C:\Windows\explorer.exe

save as icon.bat

click start > run > shell:startup in the box and press enter, put the icon.bat file in there.

Now it will run on startup, and now you shouldn't see any blank icons without any input from you.

[#11]

@Gonalo_Fernandes @falener 

Thanks for the help guys. It's shocking we must fix this by workarounds while a simple fix by MS should've solved this a long time ago.