Some users have encountered abnormal behavior when their Windows 10 taskbar icons become invisible, disappear or disappear and reappear randomly. If you’ve encountered this problem, here are a few things we suggest you try to resolve.
Fixed an issue with invisible icons in the taskbar
If your Windows 10 taskbar icons don’t appear, or disappear and reappear at random, then one of these suggestions is sure to help:
- Restart the file explorer
- Clear the icon cache
- Remove and re-pin taskbar icons
- Disable tablet mode
- Troubleshoot in clean boot state
- Update display driver
- Use File Association Fixer to fix PNG / JPG associations
- Repair the system image and run SFC using FixWin.
Go through the list and see which one or more of them might apply to you.
1]Restart the file explorer
Restart the explorer.exe process and see if that helps. You will need to open Task Manager for this.
2]Clear the icon cache
You can manually delete the icon cache or use our free thumbnails and our icon cache reconstructor to do it in one click.
3]Remove and re-pin taskbar icons
Detach all the icons from the taskbar, then cool them down and see if that helps.
4]Disable tablet mode
If you are using tablet mode, you may want to turn off tablet mode. In this mode, open applications do not rely on the taskbar.
5]Troubleshoot in clean boot state
Perform a minimal boot and try to resolve the problem manually. The clean boot troubleshooting is designed to isolate a performance problem. To perform clean-up boot troubleshooting, you must perform a number of actions, and then restart the computer after each action. You may need to manually deactivate one item after another to try to identify the one causing the problem. Once you have identified the offender, you may consider removing or deactivating them.
6]Update display driver
Now, that may or may not help – but it’s worth a try. Update your graphics driver and see. You can download the latest driver from the manufacturer’s site and install it.
7]Use File Association Fixer to fix PNG / JPG associations
Again, this may or may not help, but first create a system restore point and use our free file association fixer to repair and restore potentially broken file associations. Use it only for PNG and JPG files.
8]Repair system image and run SFC using FixWin
You can use the download and use our free FixWin software to repair the system image using DISM and run the system file checker in one click.
Good luck!
Read more: System icons are not displayed or missing in the Windows 10 taskbar.