Windows 10 Settings Icon is Blank on Taskbar

Hello Outatimez,

Good day! I'm John Dev a Windows user like you and I'll be happy to assist you today. I know this has been difficult for you, Rest assured, I'm going to do my best to help you. What is your current Windows operating system and version? Press Windows key+R to open Run then type: winver

Please try the following methods below.

**Restart Windows Explorer
Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
Select the Processes tab.
Scroll down and select Windows Explorer, Right click then select Restart.

**Re-register Settings app and built-in apps via Powershell
Windows key+X then select Windows Powershell (Admin)
Copy and paste the commands below one at a time then press Enter. Please ignore the red errors and let the process complete.

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers -Name windows.immersivecontrolpanel | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml” -Verbose}

Get-AppXPackage | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

Restart your computer

**Please try creating a new local administrator account then check if the issue persists.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/cre...

Kindly let me know if this helps or if you have any further concerns.


Kind regards,

John DeV
Independent Advisor

Hi John,

Thank you for the quick reply. I did everything and still the same. I thought for sure the new local Admin account would have fixed it but same things happens. In the new account (and old) - the icon is blank on the taskbar when settings is running and when I pin settings to the taskbar, control panel is the icon and link.

Hello Outatimez,

Thank you for updating me with that information. I apologize that the above methods did not resolve the issue.

If the issue still persists, Please try performing an In-place Upgrade. Performing this can repair broken operating system files while your personal files, settings and installed applications will not be removed.

Download the media creation tool(Click Download tool now) and save it to your computer.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-downlo...
Open the tool and select Upgrade this PC now.
Make sure to select Keep personal files and apps.
It might take some time to install Windows 10. Your computer will restart a few times, Make sure you don’t turn off your PC

Kindly let me know if this helps or if you have any further concerns.


Kind regards,

John DeV
Independent Advisor

Thanks - that seems a bit drastic for an icon issue. I'll wait it out for the Win11 upgrade. It doesn't impact anything, it just seems strange. It only is happening on the Setting Icon - nothing else. Since when I pin Settings to the Taskbar it actually pins Control Panel, I think that is telling me something.

Hello Outatimez,

Thanks for updating me with that information. There may be a corruption or glitch in the settings app and doing an In-place upgrade may fix the issue.

Feel free to post in the Community again if you have any future concerns as we volunteer members are more than willing to help.

Stay safe and have a great weekend!


Kind regards,

John DeV
Independent Advisor

I had this exact same issue and after much trial and error, I discovered the problem. I had created a shortcut of the "control" app at "C:\Windows\System32\control.exe" and placed it in the following location "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs" so that it would appear on the "All Apps" section of the Start Menu and then I could pin it to the Start Menu. Once I deleted this shortcut from the "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs," the icon for the Settings app displayed properly in the Taskbar.

First -Thank you Pelaird for posting this fix. I thought for certain it would work, as I had done pretty much what you did in creating a shortcut on the start menu for CP. My link was at C:\Users\{user}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\System Tools

Also when I pin Setting to the task bar, it is the Control Panel icon showing.

But deleting the shortcut didn't work for me. I rebooted, cleared icon cache and a few other things.

Did you have to do anything else?

When I pinned the settings app to the taskbar, I also got the control panel which when clicked took you to the control panel. It's possible the shortcut you created was copied to another system folder by the OS.

Try searching for the shortcut name on your C: drive. (Use the Search bar on the Explorer window for your C: drive.)

In answer to your question, I didn't have to do anything else. In fact, I created the shortcut again to test and it did the same thing where it hid the settings icon on the taskbar again. I deleted it again and all was well.

Hey Pelaird,

Thank you for the reply. I did search, thinking there was another but didn't fine one. However, let me do a much deeper search using something like filelocator. You confirming the same experience, especially with the pinning of Settings to the taskbar - it has to be the same issue. Silly problem I know, but it's been bugging me a long time. :) I'll report back. Again I appreciate you taking the time to share this insight!