Why do my shortcut icons get broken on Windows 7?

I figured it out. Here's the answer:

1. Run "regedit"
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
3. Change "Max Cached Icons" to 10000 or more. Upper and Lowercase SENSITIVE!
4. If it doesn't exist create it as new "string"
5. Reboot

After that

1. Go to "C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local"
2. Delete IconCache.db
3. Reboot again

Or try this solution that always works for me:

open cmd-console in admin mode
taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
DEL IconCache.db /a
start explorer.exe via taskmanager

Edit 2016-05-07: Easiest solution: Link

I found the cause of the misteriously disappearing Windows 7 desktop icons and the reason why Show desktop icons now and then gets unchecked.

It’s INFRARECORDER !! Try for yourselves, when you start Infrarecorder and close it again, go have a look at “Show desktop icons”, it is unchecked (but the icons are still there). Check it on again and start Infrarecorder…. it is unchecked again.

This Windows 7 “bug” is irritating me since the beginning and now I found the cause: It’s Infrarecorder which is causing this problem.

Test it, please let me know and spread the news :-)