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phuze / windows-10-missing-search-icons

Manual method for fixing missing Microsoft Store application icons when searching in Windows.
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fix icons microsoft windows windows10

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Windows 10: Missing Search Icons

If you've arrived here, it means you've been plagued with the case of missing/corrupt icons for Windows applications while using the search functionality in Windows 10.

Icon Missing from Search List

Update 2: Google Drive File Stream

I was able to resolve my issue after having determined this is related to Google Drive File Stream. I believe the root issue stems from a limitation with shell overlay icons in Windows. I further believe that the direct issue is in how Google is choosing to dynamically create these icon overlays, possibly in an effort to circumvent this shell icon limit in Windows. Regardless, I have had consistent success by executing the following steps:

  1. Uninstall Google Drive File Stream
  2. Download a fresh copy of GoogleDriveFSSetup.exe from Google answer #7329379.
  3. Through Windows Display Settings, change your scale setting from 100% > 150% > 175% > 100%.
  4. Restart your computer. Your icons should be restored.
  5. Reinstall Google Drive File Stream.

I will note that this does not permanently resolve the issue. Your mileage will vary with regards to how long your icons will remain restored. Alternatively, you may still continue to utilize the repair.py tool. All of the details and instructions you need to expand on the repair toolkit (repairs.json) can be found within the remainder of this readme.

Important: Thanks to the user @claell, a ticket was raised via Google's issue tracker and has been filed internally for the Google development team.

Update 1: Python Repair Tool

I have built a Python tool to help automate the process. To use it, open an elevated command prompt, navigate to the directory with repair.py and run the Python script. You will need to have Python 3.x installed on your machine.

python repair.py

Repository Contents

The helpers directory contains a Windows batch script that can be used to reset your icon cache. I've included this here for reference, though I do not expect it to be useful in remedying the issue.

The repair directory contains the repair tool repair.py, in addition to an icons folder which contains icon fixes, as well as a toolkit folder which contains both the repair list repairs.json as well as a few files used in the repair process.

Identifying the Issue

The reason rebuilding your icon cache never works is because the standard icon cache databases everyone tells you to delete are not related. Windows 10 stores icon caches in all sorts of places on your OS. The icons which you see when searching, come from Search's icon cache (previously Cortana's icon cache). To get there, open up Window's search and enter %LocalAppData%\Packages. This will take you to your Packages folder in your local AppData.

C:\Users\{USER}\AppData\Local\Packages

From here, look for the Search app. In my case, which will likely be the same for most Windows 10 users, it was called Microsoft.Windows.Search_cw5n1h2txyewy (previously named Microsoft.Windows.Cortana_cw5n1h2txyewy). Within this Search application folder, under LocalState, you'll find an AppIconCache folder.

C:\Users\{USER}\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.Search_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\AppIconCache\100

If you look in this folder, you will see a lot of files -- these are just image files that Microsoft has not given an extension. If you append ".jpg" to the end, you'll see the icons.

I would recommend you copy the entire folder to your desktop, open a command prompt, navigate to that folder cd C:\Users\{USER}\Desktop\AppIconCache\100, then execute ren * *.jpg to batch rename all of these files. You'll quickly recognize many of the applications you have installed on your computer.

If you continue to analyze this folder content, you'll also find numerous icons that appear corrupt.

How To Manually Repair the Icons

All Windows Store applications are installed to the WindowsApps folder on your C drive (C:\Program Files\WindowsApps). By default, this is a protected folder, and to gain access, you must first take ownership of it.

To do that, right-click the WindowsApps folder, click Properties, then choose the Security tab and hit the Advanced button near the bottom. You'll see that the current Owner is TrustedInstaller. Click the Change link to the right of that and enter your Windows profile name in the input box to make yourself the owner. Ensure that you choose to Replace owner on all subcontainers and objects. Once you've taken ownership, be sure to grant yourself Full Control by using the Add button, selecting your Widows profile from the Select a principal link.

Now that you have access to this folder, you can begin the process of replacing your icons. I would recommend you choose your most frequently accessed applications, the ones that bother you the most, and work on replacing those.

I found that most applications should have an image asset that contains the name StoreLogo in some form. Searching within the WindowsApps folder for this StoreLogo term will yield many icons to get the ball rolling.

All you need to do is find the application icon you are trying to fix, which should be a .png image, and rename it to match the filename you found in the Search AppIconCache folder.

Example

To fix the Xbox application, navigate to the WindowsApps folder and look for the application folder named Microsoft_GamingApp_8wekyb3d8bbwe!Microsoft_Xbox_App. Within that, search around for the image asset named Xbox_StoreLogo.scale-100.png and copy that to your desktop.

Then, navigate to Search's AppIconCache folder and find the file named Microsoft_GamingApp_8wekyb3d8bbwe!Microsoft_Xbox_App.

Now, rename Xbox_StoreLogo.scale-100.png (that you copied to your desktop), to Microsoft_GamingApp_8wekyb3d8bbwe!Microsoft_Xbox_App and then move (and replace) it with the corrupted version in the Search AppIconCache folder.

If you now search Xbox in Windows, you'll find that your icon is fixed.

Head Start

In order to save yourself some time, check out the icons folder in this repository. I've included some application icons. In each application folder, you'll find the logo.png icon, and a reference to the name of the Search icon file. Note that this is the corrupted version -- I've only included it only as a filename reference. I can't confirm if the filename will be the same for other uses.

Important

When you are done or otherwise tired of fixing icons, make sure you return the WindowsApps folder back to its rightful owner.

To do that, right-click the WindowsApps folder, click Properties, then choose the Security tab and hit the Advanced button near the bottom. Click the Change link next to the current owner (which should be yourself), and enter NT Service\TrustedInstaller in the input box to make TrustedInstaller the owner again.

Noteworthy

In my efforts to narrow down the root cause, I found some instances where the AppManifest.xml files for applications referenced non-existent icon image assets. There were also some instances where the AppManifest correctly referenced the image asset yet was still missing while using Windows Search.