Blank icon on taskbar windows 10

Hi Jirad,

Corrupted system files or application may be one of the possible causes why some icons in your Taskbar is missing. To efficiently assist you, kindly answer the following questions:

• Have you made any recent changes prior to this issue?
• Does this happen only with the 3 apps you've mention or with other application also?
• Are you getting any error messages when you tried to click those apps with missing icons in your Taskbar?

Meanwhile, we suggest that you follow the steps shared by Guru Khan G on this thread on how to troubleshoot missing Taskbar icons. This will also help you scan for corruption and restore corrupted files/Windows corruptions error.

Let us know if you need further assistance.

I Tried the mentioned steps and no luck. As I see, I have totally same problems.

1) Everything was fine untill i connected laptop to TV via HDMI cable.

2) Taskbar icons are blank.

3) Do whatever, image and video thumbnails do not show up.

Please help, this is getting very annoying.

Hi,

Thank you for the information.

• Can you try to unpin the icon from the taskbar and pin it again?
• Can you also check if the issue also persists in safe mode?

Click here for more information on how to boot your computer in safe mode.

Note: To go out from safe mode, right-click on Start > click Run > type msconfig > press Enter> under Boot tab, uncheck Safe boot > Restart.

We'll keep an eye out for your response.

Hi,

I tried to boot in safe mode, seeing same issue.

On start menu, seeing weird icons like , you can also see a setting icon in bottom on start menu showing without icon.

Although I have set the icons to show as thumbnails for images, I am still getting Icons even if I select view as thumbnails.

I tried all options given in link above still same issue. I also deleted icon cache to rebuild it, but still same issue.

Please help.

Hello Akshay,

Thank you for the update. Can you provide me with the make and model of your device and also the current build and version of your Windows 10 OS? This article can help you in getting the build and version. After knowing this information, I'll get back to you as soon as I can to help.

I'll be waiting for your updates.

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

I am running 

Edition: Windows 10 Home 64 bit

Version: 1803

OS Build: 17134.112

on MSI GS63VR 7RF Stealth Pro.

Having a high end laptop and running into these petty issues is very annoying. Please let me know how this issue can be resolved without refreshing the PC.

Thanks a lot for that odd but interesting solution, and it did wonders. The taskbar icons are back!

What I am still missing are the messed up icons of apps like settings, calculator, skype etc which all point to one same icon as shown in screenshot above. If there is a solution for that too, it would be great.

Thanks for the update, Akshay. It's possible that there is an issue with the icon cache of your current user profile currently logged in. I suggest that you create another user profile and see if it resolves the issue. Here's how:

1. Select the Start  button, then select Settings  > Accounts  > Family & other people > Add someone else to this PC. 

2. Enter a user name, password, password hint, and then select Next.

Also, using SFC and DISM scans may help with this as they repair corrupted/missing files that may be causing the issue. Follow ZigZag3143's instructions on this Forum Article on how you can do this.

Reply back if there are improvements.