How to fix Windows 10's Missing Start Menu Tile Icons

Windows 10 can be a pretty decent operating system with a lot of neat features, but it can also be a bit of a problem when it comes to simple things. The batch file used in this video is very simple and allows you to fix this problem by clearing the cache of the Windows Shell Experience, and then restarts it without requiring you to do anything manually.

Find me on other platforms:

[Paco_de_Pinda]

@echo off
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
taskkill /f /im shellexperiencehost.exe
timeout /t 3 /NOBREAK > nul
del /q
timeout /t 2 /NOBREAK > nul
start explorer
@echo on

Thank you very much, it worked.

[Squadacheck]

I did execute this script on my laptop.
It works perfect, no errors, no issues, great, thanks.

[davidmercer]

Just wanted to confirm that this worked for me. Thank you.

[RexTorres]

Unfortunately, this didn't work for me. It just removed a couple of pinned icons instead. I have problems particularly with *_Steam_* and *_Atlassian SourceTree_* .

[AbdurrahmanAllahem]

Got this error:

SUCCESS: The process "explorer.exe" with PID 6332 has been terminated.
ERROR: The process "shellexperiencehost.exe" not found.

[LimitedSpectrum]

Perfect! Thanks for the fast, accurate tip. Worked beautifully.

[nikhilnayak]

Did not work.
Getting error message,
ERROR: The service cannot be started....

[juaquindeanda]

My start menu shows little download arrows saying a great app is on its way... How can I fix this? Please and thanks.

[electronron]

I never had this problem until Windows 10 2004 feature update.

[allankchambers]

Thank you so much for posting this.

I work in a large company responsible for the computer images. Since Windows v1803 they have changed how the start menu icons are cached.
And we see this issue so much at our work place. And your fix works!


The unfortunate thing is that the issue can come back after multiple reboots.


I did write to TechNet and asked there about this issue.



I have referenced your YouTube video showing the issue as well - I hope this is ok?


I am hoping this will gain traction and MS will finally fix it.


Kind regards


Allan

[stickyjoe]

I unplugged my drive so my icons were replaced by a file symbol since it didn't know the actual icons. When I unpinned and pined one short cut the icon was then gone completely. I ran this command and got an error: The process "shellexperiencehost.exe" not found. After that, all icons were back accepted for the one that had no icon at all which got unpinned. Hope this helps someone.

[IDONTknow-gnsm]

My icons doesn’t even show up it’s all black screen when I open up the start menu the only thing that shows up is word, PowerPoint, excel, hp orbit, Dropbox, and VUDU. Even my taskbar icons disappeared. Someone please help

[AugustEpilogue]

You should post the code so we can copy and paste rather than copying whats on the screen.

Here are the full instructions

1. Open Notepad.

2. Copy the following text into Notepad:

@echo off

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe

taskkill /f /im shellexperiencehost.exe

timeout /t 3 /NOBREAK > nul

del /q

timeout /t 2 /NOBREAK > nul

start explorer

@echo on

3. Click File and Save.

4. Choose a location to save the file. Enter a “File name” of ClearTileCache.bat and select “Save as type” of All files (*.*). Click Save.

5. Open File Explorer and navigate to the location that you chose to save the file to. Double-click ClearTileCache.bat to run the file.

[TheBogusDogus]

I just restart Windows Explorer and all tile icons come back.

[kortasaladinne]

just enter task manager and restart explorer