Windows 11 help please

[LeylandVCDS]

Got a strange issue with my windows 11 laptop - ALL icons, and I mean ALL, are missing from both desktop and explorer. The text boxes under where the icons should be are there, and can be selected to open programs, but not even a shadow box where the icon chould be.
It is the same when opened in safe mode too. No icons, not a thing. Even the icons for Chrome etc , and any open programs in the taskbar are generic and certainly not what should be there

Its only my spare laptop, which I know isn't brilliant spec, but it is a factory win11and fully licenced installation
Acer Aspire 3, Intel Pentium Silver N5030 CPU @ 1.10GHZ, 64 bit, 8GB RAM
Windows 11 Home, 22H2, OS build 22621.2715 with windows experiencfe pack 1000.22677.1000.0
Completely up to date with updates

Can anyone offer any help to get these missing icons back?

Thanks in advance

 

[Tell]

Feels like it hasn't got enough memory. You can always roll back to a recovery point in case something got loaded in and no I haven't seen that before.

 

[LeylandVCDS]

Feels like it hasn't got enough memory. You can always roll back to a recovery point in case something got loaded in and no I haven't seen that before.

Thanks for your reply. It's got 8GB memory, same as my main laptop that hasn't had any issues like this. As it's such a new laptop, sadly no recoveery points are stored. Looks like it's going to be a full reinstall

 

[Yern]

I think you can do a 'system' reinstall and keep existing files...or a 'full' reinstall - Settings/System/Reset This PC (Recovery Options).

 

[Alex667]

Open command prompt and run:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

 

[Tell]

That sounds promising.

 

[Alex667]

Oh, you can try this too: https://www.elevenforum.com/t/rebuild-icon-cache-in-windows-11.2049/

 

[Tell]

I'm currently rejoiced since I upgraded my 11 year old HP office PC to 16gb which HP documentation said couldn't be done but Googling the motherboard showed it could, 2x8gb. Think the HP technical writters got confused about the max being 8gb of memory when they meant the max SIMM was 8. So 2x8gb. Spent 7 years thinking 8gb was the max . Took it with no trouble. Running the Windows Android Subsystem which likes 6gb for the Android apps to run it. Put favourite Android apps on it, if they work with your others Windows stuff.

 

[LeylandVCDS]

Open command prompt and run:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

Tried that, had no effect at all. Ended up with a full reinstallation of windows

 

[LeylandVCDS]

Oh, you can try this too: https://www.elevenforum.com/t/rebuild-icon-cache-in-windows-11.2049/

Yep, found this webpage, nothing on there worked