Windows icons may become corrupt and a generic icon will take the place of the original

Without warning and totally unexpectedly, Windows icons may become corrupt and a generic icon will take the place of the original. Windows has supplied a way to repair these corrupted icons. 

See below for details: 

Windows 98 stores the information for your desktop icons in a special file called "ShelliconCache." This means that the operating system keeps all the data for all the icons on the desktop in a single file for faster display than if the system would have to search for all the original icon files. ShelliconCache is a hidden file in the C:\Windows folder. 

To rebuild your icons, you have to delete your ShelliConCache file. Here's how you repair the damage.

Unhiding The ShelliconCache File

1 - Open any Windows Explorer Folder view window

2 - Select "Folder Options" from the View menu

3 - Click the View tab

4 - Expand the File And Folders branch of the display

5 - In the Hidden Files branch, check the "Show All Files" option.

6 - Save your changes.

Deleting The ShelliconCache File

1 - Click Start/Shutdown

2 - Choose "Restart In MS-DOS mode"

3 - At the command prompt type; del ShelliconCache and press enter

4 - Restart your computer. 

At reboot, Windows will rebuild all icon files back to their original state.

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