Win 8.1 - Explorer Process Loses Icons And Functionality
Sep 15, 2014
I am running Win 8.1 upgraded from 8. Every now and then all the icons on my taskbar start to disappear and it loses all functionality I can not click the start menu button or right click the taskbar.
I have to restart the process to get them back which doesn't worry me that much as I have written a program that makes it 2 clicks to restart it.
My desktop icons are still fine and my desktop wallpaper slide show still works, also I don't see anything regarding this in my event logs.
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May 20, 2013
Followed what I thought was the recovery process ... now find that I have lost all program icons from Desktop and I suspect all programs deleted from drive. Obviously a novice at this ... desperately need rescuing.
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Dec 13, 2012
The .jpg icons in Windows Explorer no longer show the picture but a "generic" scene. How to get the pictures back?
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Dec 7, 2012
I have checked in the only two places I was aware of that would cause this:
Folder Options - View ....however, there is no option there to check show Thumbnails. I believe this option should be there at the top, but it isnt.
I also went to Properties of My Computer, Advanced, Performance. It is checked there to show Thumbnails.
But for whatever reason, I only see icons when I should see thumbnails. And yes, I have changed the view to Medium, large, extra large.
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May 9, 2013
I'm trying to find a way to make icons of images in Explorer larger than the "extra large" option. I don't see the slider in Win 8 Explorer to do that. Is there something else that could be done to size the icons to what I want them to be?
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Mar 24, 2014
if it's possible to have the file explorer columns visible with large icons/extra large icons? Like in Windows 7>
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Jan 24, 2014
Basically my icons are fubar! :
More detail:
Current Setup/programs that affected this issue:
RDP
Stardock Fences 2
Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition
Basically I RDPed into my home PC, tried to play some Street Fighter 4. Things worked, all was happy, and the Gods rejoiced. Until I returned home. Upon trying to log into my PC the desktop showed only partially complete (by this I mean the icons were there but they were in the process of moving to the "fence"). Explorer gave me the wonderful wait symbol and I could not interact with my PC. Fast forward 10-15 minutes, still no change. CTRL-ALT-DELETE worked kind of: it opened up after a few moments/minutes. From there I rebooted thinking that would fix it. Nope.
Eventually I got into the cycle where the desktop would load, fences would load, explorer would lock up, I'd click my mouse, explorer would crash and restart. I uninstalled fences, everything worked... except the icons. Reinstalled fences, same problem as before, crashing and whatnot. Uninstalled it again. And that's where I'm at currently.
I've attached a couple images, the first one shows the current state of the icons. Some have their icons, some don't. All are valid shortcuts. I'm a bad person and I have actual programs on my desktop and even those have the generic white page icon.
The second screenshot shows the file in its directory, with properties and change icon. No matter how many times I do that, nothing will change.
I've spent a couple hours googling and my first thought was it was the icon cache so I decided to nuke it (I found some instructions on these sites with copy/paste commands, it was so easy even a cave man could do it).
So I'm currently frustrated beyond all belief at my PC on a night when I just wanted to come home, watch some movies and play a couple games after an annoying day at work. Instead I spent all evening trying to fix this problem and getting no where. Woe is me?
I should add without Fences (and I removed all my other customization stuff and nuked anything that integrated with the right click shell thingy which I can't remember what it's called) my machine is running nice and smoothly (so far) aside from the icons.
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Sep 15, 2014
The icon images on the app screen are specific to the website they link to, but when I pin them to the Start menu, many of them become the generic "e" for explorer icons. They do retain the name of the website, which is okay, but if I change the size to "small", I am left with a bunch of similar-looking icons.
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Sep 17, 2012
I use 8 Pro Build 9200. When I boot, everything is normal. Then, after a while, usually a dozen minutes, whenever I open a folder in Explorer, no file icons will be shown, whatever the file type : I only get a blank generic rectangle instead of the proprer icon.
When this happens, I can be totally sure that any right-clicking on a file or a folder will result in the windows hanging indefinately. The only way out of this is to end the task through Task Manager.
The layout and folder options become unavailable as well.
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Sep 17, 2012
I use 8 Pro Build 9200. When I boot, everything is normal. Then, after a while, usually a dozen minutes, whenever I open a folder in Explorer, no file icons will be shown, whatever the file type : I only get a blank generic rectangle instead of the proprer icon.
When this happens, I can be totally sure that any right-clicking on a file or a folder will result in the windows hanging indefinately. The only way out of this is to end the task through Task Manager.
The layout and folder options become unavailable as well.
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Nov 23, 2012
I have Windows 8 pro + WMC 64-Bit installed on a laptop .. I have noticed sometimes when I right-click a file it just hangs with the circle spinning forever - I have to terminate explorer.exe and restart it - when i do all icons are blank - after a couple of attempts all shortcuts and favourites normally in left panel are gone
rebooting fixes it for a while - I dunno why but ive a sneaky feeling SLEEP plays a part, (due to past experiences too in other windows os's) ive noticed it really seems too happen if the laptop has been too sleep, ive noticed in past that problems seem to occur when one uses sleep or hibernate, its like the system becomes unstable? - i could be wrong, just I use sleep cos the power button is gone.
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Oct 22, 2013
I am researching the autorun functionality in Windows and am coming across conflicting/confusing information.
I understand Windows 8 automatically enables autorun by default - do you know which autorun keys, if any, are disabled (i.e. in Windows 7 only the label and icon keys are enabled for USB drives and all others are enabled for optical media). Am I correct in saying this?
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Jul 12, 2013
​Looking to add a specific tag/label based functionality to my computer.
I have tons and tons of programs, photos, videos, documents, and other files on my Windows 8 computer, and I need a way to organize and search/filter them that meets some very specific criteria. Unfortunately, as I am sure that most are aware of these days, organization by folder is extremely llimited.
For example, let's say that I have a bunch of pictures. I have one of me and my brother celebrating his birthday. I may want to file that picture by "family", "birthday", and "Severin" - so that if I search on any of those, I can find it. Another picture may be a family cookout, maybe I want to file it by "family" and "summer 2013".
The way Google uses labels in Gmail would seem an ideal system, if something like that could be added. Here are some other criteria that my ideal system would use:
-It would integrate itself into the operating system, so that when browsing I can access, see, and modify the tag of the files in the folder I am in without havening to launch a separate application. Access via right-click would be a plus.
-It would be location independent - once I have tagged/labelled a file, I could then move that file from one location on my hard drive to another, and still pull it easily via tag/label searching without (of course) needing to know or specify where it is.
-It would have to work with all file types. For example, even though I know Windows 8 have built in support for metadata tags, some video file types do not support it, and therefore Windows 8 cannot add tags to those files. Whatever the solution I wind up with, it must work on ALL files I care to tag.
-Multi-tagging is also a critical feature - so I can select a group of files and tag them all at once, either to add, modify, or remove a tag, without of course altering any pre-existing tags other than the intended.
-A bonus would be if it was aesthetically compatible with Windows 7/8, both in its look and feel and in it's UI.
-Finally, there would have to be a way for it to work across the network - I store all my files in a desktop Windows 8 Computer, but access the files from that computer, or from my laptop, or my media center, or my wife's computer. I would need to be able to do both searching and tagging from any computer with network access to the main one, even if I have to install the same software or plugins on each system individually.
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Feb 7, 2014
I have had my *new* computer for quite some time now, but from the very start, my Windows store has never worked. Each time I tried installing an app, I would get some freaky error (I can't remember which). I mainly noticed this when I tried updating to '8.1 or installing any app. When I try to, it stays saying 'Pending'. I go to the start screen (still 'pending'), so I click on the app, to see it's progression. When I do, it says the app is downloading, then it throws back an error. I can't remember what the error was, and I can't find out (since I can't even get into the store).
**Things to note
>I can't get into the store, because it remains at the store's splash screen. I got in once, but it came up with a screen saying it (the store) isn't available.
>It has been like this ever since I got my computer
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Jun 5, 2012
I have installed Windows 8 release preview on my touchsmart tx2 1005AU and touch screen functionality has stopped working altogether.
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Sep 19, 2012
I am trying to be able to see CR2 files (RAW photo files from Canon) as thumbnail icons in Windows Explorer. I am using Windows 8.
Microsoft's codec pack (Download: Microsoft Camera Codec Pack - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details) does not work for Windows 8. When I am trying to install it, I get an error message mentioning that I can use Windows 8 Update function, but doesn't give any more information on how to do this exactly.
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Mar 20, 2014
I have installed Windows 8.1 64 bit on a new motherboard using a Logitech K120 keyboard. After using the system for a few weeks I have decide to put on a better keyboard. After swapping keyboards the system runs fine until I reboot. At that time Windows starts up as if it has never run before giving the "Hi" and "Adding applications" messages and then going to the normal tiles screen but it can find no applications. Rebooting give the same results. If I change the keyboard back and reboot, everything comes up fine.
I have tried 3 different keyboards, 2 different Microsoft and 1 Dell, with the same results. As far as I can tell, Windows 8 only works with the keyboard that was used to install it and can never be changed.
The only software running was Start8 to actually make Windows 8 useful but I removed that and confirm that the problem still existed without it.
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Apr 17, 2014
I have HughesNet satellite modem service. If I have the modem connected directly to my W8 Gateway new computer, I have no issues with the connection. However, when I have company here who have wi-fi type devices (Ipads, cellphones, etc) and I connect my computer via the wireless router instead, their devices have no issues connecting to the internet or texting, but my Gateway W8/IE service loses the network connection frequently and I get a window (after the normal 'page cannot be found' error) that has a link to reset the router. Once that happens and everything is back on track, the Gateway will work correctly again for an hour or two and then it will happen again.
I've got a Belkin 3937 router that is only about six months old and cannot for the life of me figure out why it loses the connection on the Gateway frequently but no other devices. I've gotten to the point where as soon as my company leaves, I disconnect the route and again have a wired connection from the computer to the modem just to stop the aggravation.
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Nov 8, 2013
I'm using the Microsoft Calendar application in Windows 8. I don't recall if it was already on my laptop when I bought it or if I installed it from the store very early on. (I got the laptop new for Christmas in 2012. It's an ASUS K55N if that matters.)
I'm troubled by the fact that some of my appointments have disappeared. For instance, I created two appointments for today when I was using the laptop yesterday and was very disappointed to see that they weren't there when I turned on the laptop this morning. Since I was online when I added the appointments and was offline when I checked this morning, I thought MAYBE the appointments made when you're online only become visible when you're online but I'm online now and I still don't see those appointments.
Is there some trick I need to know to make it remember my appointments? I don't mean to imply that it never remembers appointments: I've got several appointments in the calendar that were remembered perfectly well and are still there, weeks after they happened. It's just that SOME appointments seem to disappear for no reason that is obvious to me.
In the absence of a trick or setting that guarantees the appointments are remembered, any good free Calendar-type app that reliable remembers ALL appointments?
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Mar 31, 2014
My wi-fi keeps disappearing, it says "no connections available" and even the wi-fi adapter in network/sharing center is not present, only bluetooth is there. When I restart it comes back.
I have a new Vaio Tap 11 tablet which came with regular Windows 8, I updated it to 8.1, got all the updates after that and updated every driver in vaio update utility, I did nothing else.
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Oct 12, 2013
I use Windows Live Mail Version 2012 (Build 16.4.3508.0205) on my notebook,which has Windows 8. Quite often it loses read email,and I can't find them in any folder. I do NOT have Hotmail,and never have used Windows Messenger. I have tried deleting and reinstalling Windows Live Mail but the same thing happens with new install. Do I need to delete Windows Live Mail and install different email program? IF so,which windows email program should I use? I have 3 different email accounts that I use.
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Oct 20, 2013
I recently updated from Windows 8 Pro to Windows 8.1 using Microsoft update. After the update was completed, I've started to have problems connecting to the internet using a wired connection. NOTHING else has changed since the update. If I reboot, it works for less than 30 minutes and then the connection switches to "limited connectivity" with no way to revert it back to the usual status. If I reboot the computer, it works fine again for a little bit. Oddly enough, if I connect the computer to the exact same router using wireless, it does not seem to be dropping the connection.
I'm using a Dell Studio XPS 8100 with the factory Broadcom Netlink Gigabit Ethernet adapter.
So far, I have: disabled, reenabled the device (PC seems to hang when I do this as well) reinstalled the drivers after removing them verified there is no proxy or weird DNS settings setup on the connection.
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Jul 31, 2014
I am running windows 8 on a dell xps pc. I have 2 large 3tb and 4tb external seagate drives. After a day or so they lose part of the connection. You can see the drive and folders a couple of levels deep but you can't see files. If you unplug and start again everything is there. On other machines it's not a problem. When you try to eject usb hardware it displays that something is accessing the device. So it's not the drive, it's a driver or something else.
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Nov 18, 2012
I am using Windows 8 Professional. I am using a Dell XPS 1510 and am using a PCI Express Realtek PCIe GBE Family Expresscard.
I have already downloaded the latest driver from Realtek from 09/26/12. I have ran Windows Updates. No matter what the Realtek PCIe GBE Family Local Connection loses internet connection.
This card worked fine for months in Windows 7 Pro. The card works fine in Windows 8 Safe Mode. However, when logged into Windows 8 in normal mode, the card will allow and have internet connection for 1 min 12 secs to 1 min 32 secs, at which point the internet connection drops. The wifi and internal NIC (10/100) connection work fine. I've changed the NIC binding order. I've disabled the internal NIC, and Bluetooth (just in case) in the BIOS. I've tried uninstalling the WiFi to force using the Realtek PCIe GBE Family card.
I have ran procmon in order to try to figure out what if any application runs within the 1 min 32 sec timeframe that may interrupt the Realtek PCIe GBE Family card and have uninstalled any suspected applications. I've tried disabling services one at a time to see if it makes a difference.
I have tried DHCP and Static IP addresses.
The problem seems to be something within Windows 8. Something with Windows 8 disables the Realtek PCIe GBE Family internet connectivity. I've tried everything to keep the connection alive, internet works fine, I get perfect gigabit level speeds up until the 1 min 12 secs to 1 min 32 secs then all I get is no network connectivity.
The Windows 8 Troubleshooter is useless. Even though it is setup with static IP it says it can't find the default gateway. The issue is not with the router, somehow not being compatible with Windows 8 or something else. The card worked fine with the same router in Windows 7 and the internal NIC card works with the router in Windows 8 so its not that the router has problems with Windows 8.
I've also already disabled the "Allow the computer to turn off this device" option in the cards Power Management tab (first thing I tried). I've set the Power Management options on the laptop to be set to Maximum Performance.
Everything else with the laptop in Windows 8 seems fine, only this PCI express card that enables gigabit connection is failing. Don't want to use the slower WiFi or 10/100 connection those are too slow for what I need.
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Oct 13, 2013
When I close "Communications Service" it always reopens.
Screenshot: Screenshot by Lightshot
Is it safe to end this process, or is it needed by windows, and if it's safe to end it how can I disable it for good?
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Feb 1, 2014
There is an icon that shows up at every start up.
It is a camera application for sure, but I couldn't find what it is neither from task manager/startup nor from programfiles/x86?
It shows as disconnected, therefore I can't start the application.
Open property page, special effect, snap shot, zoom, face tracking are all grayed out and the only option is exit.
I couldn't even make the icon bigger.Does this sound familiar?
It is a newly installed OS and probably hundred drivers and programs were installed in one day, so it is hard to figure out which one was that.
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Oct 16, 2013
My PC has Windows 8 Pro 64 bits installed and when I open Computer folder or any other folder says "folder is empty" and Search process starts, showing the progress green bar but will never stop. I need to use Task Manager to stop the search.
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May 7, 2013
I recently got my new computer and I'm a fresh user of Windows 8. I'm happy and all I was just wondering if the system interrupts process is a normal process, should it be there at all ? It does no harm so far (I think), I just wasn't sure after reading up on it if the complaints were only because the process was usually a high %, or if the process itself is bad.
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Feb 17, 2014
I just did a clean install of Windows 8.1 Pro on my Lenovo Lynx tablet.
I noticed today that the tablet gets very hot even when the screen is off. I looked at the Task Manager and saw that the CPU is constantly at 99% and a process called "System" is hovering around 70 to 75%. When I run Process Explorer, the two threads using the most CPU in that process are labeled "ntoskrnl.exe!EtwProviderEnabled+ox6e".
Here are the ones I've tried:
Disable the scheduled task called "ConfigNotification" located in Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows > WindowsBackup. That task doesn't exist.Updated every driver that I could. No change.Waited. Over 12 hours and no change.Disabled Windows Defender. No change.Disabled Windows Search Indexer. No change.Disabled/Uninstalled all network drivers. No change.
The only things I've installed besides Windows and all its updates are Office 2013 and Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware. The last solution I've found is to reinstall Windows which I'd rather not do .
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Nov 24, 2012
For Windows Vista/7, there was a very useful Tool called "Prio", with which one could set and save the priority of a process directly inside the Task Manager. But now in Windows 8, that Tool isn't working anymore, and there seem to be no alternatives either how it's possible to set the priority of a process permanently in Windows 8? Doesn't matter if by a Tool or by Coding, but is it possible somehow?
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Oct 28, 2013
I've been having some issues with the system process using around 10-20 percent of my cpu lately. I gather that the general solution is to find a problematic driver using kernrate and process explorer, but I can't seem to find a version of kernrate that will work on 64 bit machines.
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