Word icons missing from Office 2019 after Oct 2020 Windows 10 update

Hi Tomcauley, hope you're doing well. I’m Ian, an Independent Advisor and Microsoft user like you. I’m happy to help answer your questions.

I'm sorry to hear about this issue.

Usually online repair will fix this issue.
Lets try to change your registry in this case.
1. Click on the Windows icon and then write “regedit” in the search box.
2. After that, press ‘Enter‘.
3. Navigate to here
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.12\DefaultIcon
4. Then, double click on “(Default)” key to modify it.
5. Now, copy-paste the following in ‘Value data:‘.
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\wordicon.exe,13
6. Click on “OK” to save the changes.
7. Close Registry Editor window.
8. Reboot your computer.

This is a user-to-user support forum and I am a fellow user.
I hope this helps, but please let me know if you need anything else.

Hi Tomcauley, hope you're doing well. I’m Ian, an Independent Advisor and Microsoft user like you. I’m happy to help answer your questions.

I'm sorry to hear about this issue.

Usually online repair will fix this issue.
Lets try to change your registry in this case.
1. Click on the Windows icon and then write “regedit” in the search box.
2. After that, press ‘Enter‘.
3. Navigate to here
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.12\DefaultIcon
4. Then, double click on “(Default)” key to modify it.
5. Now, copy-paste the following in ‘Value data:‘.
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\wordicon.exe,13
6. Click on “OK” to save the changes.
7. Close Registry Editor window.
8. Reboot your computer.

This is a user-to-user support forum and I am a fellow user.
I hope this helps, but please let me know if you need anything else.

Hi rianvillareal

Thanks so much for your help but I'm afraid it didn't work.  I even tried it 3 times.  I'm at my wits end.  I've been having this icon problem for a couple of weeks except for when it did get fixed for about a day before the Windows 10 update.

If I do follow that line that you gave me to cut and paste, it does not lead to that WORDICON.EXE file which I think might be 64 bit.  But I did find that file in the Program Files (x86).  I wonder if that could be the problem ie it's looking for it in the 64 bit program area but it's a 32 bit app?

Maybe I should add that to the line and see if that helps without getting myself in too much trouble messing with the registry

Update:  OK I tried my (x86) idea and it didn't work.  

I see. the 32 bit value should be.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\wordicon.exe,13

If this doesn't work, lets delete iconcache from Local folder
1. Press Windows key+R to launch Run window.
2. In the Run window, type “%temp%” and then hit Enter.
3. Now, click on “Local” on the address bar.
4. After that, click on “View“.
5. Again, click on “Options“.
6. In the Folder Options window, the option goes to the “View” tab.
7. Click on the radio button beside the option “Show hidden files, folders, and drives“.
8. Then, click on “Apply” and then on “OK“.
9. Look for the “Iconcache” file.
10. Once you have found “Iconcache” file, right-click on it and click on “Delete“.
11. Restart your pc to let the changes take effect.

Hi Ian,

Thanks so much for your reply.  I actually tried both ideas last night several times and again just now before replying just to be sure.  Unfortunately no luck.  I would have thought also that the online repair would work.  My Regedit opens right to that key now LOL after trying it so many times.  Crazy!  But thank you.  And it only affects Word

Hi again Ian,

Again no luck with these either.  I tried both last night and now again after your reply just to be sure.  Very frustrating.

Did I get the impression somewhere before that you are in the UK like in Leeds or someplace near there?  I am in Canada but used to work for Allied Colloids  in Bradford so visited there many times and have a lot of friends there all retired now.

Hi Tom. Sorry about this issue. It seems I have no more any solution to suggest. Lets see if other user can provide other fix for this one.

Btw, I'm sorry I'm not from UK. Nice meeting you Tom. Have a good day,

Well, thanks very much for all your help anyway.  I really appreciate it.  I have tried everything, forums, Google, Youtube, checking the registry, deleting the icon store, online Office repair re-installing Office and all several times each.  And it will not do a System Restore because it says the Windows update was more than 10 days ago.  I miss my Windows 7 LOL

Take care,

Tom

Try clearing the icon cache in Windows, if you haven't already done that. For instructions, have a look at https://www.howtogeek.com/232779/how-to-rebuild-a-broken-icon-cache-in-windows-10/ (third-party link).

More importantly, are the "broken" icons causing any troubles in Word (or in Windows in general)? For example, if you can double-click a Word document and it opens properly in Word, then you could just ignore the fact that icons are incorrect.

Hi Stephan,

Yes I'm afraid that I have cleaned the icon cache several times using different methods even, and  it did not do anything. The blank generic icons do not appear to be causing any kind of problems.  If I click on one the file opens immediately in Word and Word works perfectly. Here is an example of what the icon looks like next to a couple of normal icons on the desktop.