Tuesday, March 4, 2025

Windows Missing Taskbar Icons Fix

 For a while I've had the problem that apps like Outlook and Teams have been missing their icons on the taskbar when running. I tried the recommended fixes of deleting icon and thumbnail caches but none of these worked so I just put up with it, as the apps were still running and hovering over the space on the taskbar brought up the preview so I could tell which one it was.

Finally got tired of it when I started getting more apps from Windows Store and realised that all of these were affected in the same way. Popular Internet solutions were:

  • Uninstall Google Drive
  • Create a new user profile and copy all personal items from the old profile to the new one
  • Reinstall Windows 

Google drive wasn't installed, and migrating profiles sounded painful. Windows reinstall was never going to happen. 

Thanks to an Internet stranger the fix was actually pretty straight forward.

  • Open regedit
  • Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT 
  • Expand .png key
  • Delete any keys under the shellex key
  • Restart explorer

 


That was it, all of the taskbar items are back and harmony is restored

 

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