UWP icons are missing

Google Drive File Stream was/is the culprit for me. Uninstalling this app brings the icons back. I don't have the option of removing the app so I live with this fix until I get Windows reinstalled and the dice gets rolled to see if the problem comes back.

What can temporarily work (day by day) is by removing the following Registry Key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.png\shellex\{E357FCCD-A995-4576-B01F-234630154E96}

And then restarting Windows Explorer from the Task Manager.

This registry key will come back so when your icons disappear again you will need to do this again. This works for all the icons except the Windows Mail icon.

I tried all the fixes on this site and a bunch of others shorts of reinstalling Windows. Nothing had any effect. I think a large percentage of people have this problem because of Google Drive File Stream. Google seems uninterested in solving this problem as it doesn't affect everyone. I have coworkers with the same Windows version as me and their icons are fine.

From Windows Explorer in the address bar, copy in the path ‪C:\Program Files\WindowsApps and then press Enter.

You'll likely get a pop up window telling you that You don't currently have permission to access this folder so you'll press the Continue option.

You'll then likely get a pop up window telling you that You have been denied permission to access this folder where there will be a link called security tab which you will click on.

From there the WindowsApps Properties window will open and from the Security tab you will select the Advanced option.

You will then press the Change option from the Advanced Security Settings~ window

You will then type in the username of the account you want to take ownership of the folder, press Check Name and then OK. Press OK again another time or two and then close any of the pop up windows from there that opened during this process.

Lastly, you should locate a folder with images/assets for the icons of an image file or two, right click the file and then select Open With option and then choose the Paint 3D app, or try various other programs until you see thumbnails being generated. The icons will mostly be back at this point and waiting, perhaps for the indexer and should eventually restore all icons everywhere.

Give one or both (in order) of the two solutions I quoted below a try to resolve your problem as you describe based on the other things you've already tried and eliminated.

1. Complete the Repair the corrupt user profile registry key process first and then reboot, sign back on and see if the problem persists.
2. If #1 alone doesn't resolve the problem then complete the Reset Windows 10 process as described below.

Repair the corrupt user profile registry key

Step 1. Open the Windows 10 Registry Editor by typing regedit in the Search box.

Step 2. When Registry Editor launches, navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList.

Step 3. Click each S-1-5 folder and double-click the ProfileImagePath entry to find out which user account it relates to. (If your folder name ends with .bak or .ba follow Microsoft’s instructions to rename them).

Step 4. Once you have determined where is the corrupt user profile(and it doesn’t have a .bak ending), double-click RefCount and change the Value data to 0 and click OK. If this value isn’t available, you might have to create it manually.

Step 5. Now double-click on State, make sure the Value data is again 0 and click OK.

Step 6. Close Registry Editor and restart your PC.

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Reset Windows 10

Step 1. Open the Settings app by pressing Windows + I keys at the same time. Click Update & security.

Step 2. On the left pane, Click Recovery. Among the three options, choose Reset this PC.

Step 3. Click Get started under Reset this PC.

Step 4. Click either "Keep my files" or "Remove everything" depending on whether you want to keep your data files intact. Either way, all of your settings will return to their defaults and apps will be uninstalled.

Step 5. Select "Just remove my files" or "Remove files and clean the drive" if you chose to "remove everything" in the prior step. Cleaning the drive takes a lot longer but will make sure that, if you are giving the computer away, the next person will have a hard time recovering your erased files. If you are keeping the computer, choose "Just remove my files."

Step 6. Click Next if Windows warns you that you won't be able to roll back to a prior version of the OS.

Step 7. Click Reset if prompted.

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