Windows 11 is a great desktop operating system, there’s no doubt about it. However, some classic Windows issues pop up quite often, making the experience shocking for an average user. Recently, we learned that Wi-Fi was not showing up in Windows 11 for some users, while others found the Start menu not working for them at all. Now we hear about taskbar icon issues, so we will explain how to fix taskbar icons missing in Windows 11 in this guide. We have included basic solutions to advanced methods to restore taskbar icons. So, if you are also facing the same problem and taskbar icons are missing on your Windows 11 PC, follow our guide to fix it immediately.
Fix missing taskbar icons on Windows 11 (2022) issue
In this tutorial, we have added six easy methods to fix the taskbar icons missing issue on Windows 11. You can use a method as simple as restarting explorer to extreme methods like uninstalling the latest update. Expand the table below and navigate to the section of your choice.
1. Restart Windows Explorer
If taskbar icons are missing on your Windows 11 PC, you should restart Windows Explorer before trying anything else. This is one of the easiest solutions to fix any taskbar, start menu or action center related issues. So let’s see the steps.
1. First press Windows 11″ hotkeyCtrl + Shift + Esc” to open Task Manager.
2. Here, under the “Processes” section, scroll down and find “Windows Explorer“. Now right-click on it and choose “Restart”.
3. All open windows, taskbar and desktop will disappear for a second, then everything will reappear almost immediately. This time, the taskbar icons should also appear and work as expected.
4. If the taskbar icons are still missing, go ahead and restart your computer. Be sure to restart the system rather than shutting down the PC and then turning it back on. Taskbar icons should be restored after reboot.
2. Delete the IconCache.db file
As the name suggests, the “IconCache.db” file is responsible for managing all icons on Windows 11 PCs. However, if the file gets corrupted due to unknown issues, you may not have no icon in Windows 11 taskbar. So the simple solution is to delete the file so that Windows rebuilds the icon cache from scratch. Let’s see how it works:
1. Use the “Windows + R” shortcut to open the Run prompt. Now type %localappdata%
in the text field and press Enter.
2. In this folder, enable hidden files and folders on your Windows 11 PC. To do this, click “View” in the top menu bar and select View -> Hidden Items.
3. Now scroll down and find the “IconCache.db” folder. Right-click on the file and delete it from your computer. And that’s it.
4. Once you have deleted the file, restart your Windows 11 PC. Taskbar icons should now appear on your computer.
3. Remove taskbar icons
Another way to fix missing taskbar icons on Windows 11 PCs is to remove taskbar icons through a string of commands executed by a batch file. Here’s how.
1. Open notepad on your computer and paste the entire command below. It basically removes icons from the taskbar and deletes the corresponding registry entry. After that, it terminates the Windows Explorer process and restarts it automatically.
DEL /F /S /Q /A "%AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar\*" REG DELETE HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband /F taskkill /f /im explorer.exe start explorer.exe
2. Now click “File” in the top menu of Notepad and select “Save as“.
3. Here, choose “All Files” from the “Save as type” drop-down menu and give it a file name. For example, I used the filename – “Taskbar“. Then add .bat
at the end of the file name to create a batch file. Finally, click “Save”.
4. Now move to the folder where you saved the batch file. Right-click on it and choose “Execute as administrator“.
5. A command prompt window will open and within seconds the taskbar icons should start appearing on your Windows 11 PC. If the problem persists, try restarting the PC.
4. Enable and Disable “Hide Taskbar” Option
If taskbar icons are still missing on your Windows 11 computer, you may need to play around with some taskbar settings to re-enable the icons and make them work again. Here’s how.
1. Press “Windows + I” to open Windows Settings. Here, switch to the “Personalization” menu on the left sidebar and click on “Taskbar” in the right pane.
2. Next, click “Taskbar behaviors” at the bottom to enlarge it.
3. After that, check the box next to “Automatically hide the taskbar“. After a few seconds, clear the checkbox and see if the icons reappear in the taskbar. If not, try another method from this list.
5. Remove Windows Iris Service
In September 2021, Microsoft identified an issue that caused taskbar icons to disappear on Windows 11 PCs. The culprit was the Iris service, which typically manages wallpapers for Windows Spotlight and screen suggestions locking. So, if you have been affected by the same bug, here is how you can fix the Windows 11 taskbar icons missing issue.
1. Press the Windows key to open the Start menu and search for “CMD”. The command prompt will appear at the top of the search results. In the right pane, click “Run as administrator”.
2. Before executing the command, make sure to save all your work before running the command as it will automatically restart your PC. Now go ahead and paste the below command and hit enter. FYI, the command basically removes the Iris-related registry entry and restarts the PC.
reg delete HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\IrisService /f && shutdown -r -t 0
3. After logging in, you should now see the Taskbar icons on your Windows 11 computer and be able to click on it to access programs and files the way you want.
6. Uninstall the latest Windows 11 update
If taskbar icons are missing after a recent Windows 11 update, I would suggest uninstalling the update as a last resort. This will definitely solve the problem for you. Don’t worry, this process won’t delete any of your files or undo changes to files and folders. On that note, let’s get started.
1. Press “Windows + I” to open the Settings app. Here, navigate to the “Windows Update” menu on the left sidebar and click “Update history” in the right pane.
2. Now scroll down and click on the “Uninstall updates” option.
3. Here, search for the latest Windows 11 update and click “Uninstall” next to that.
4. Follow the on-screen instructions and let your computer uninstall the latest Windows update. After restarting, the taskbar icons should be restored to your PC.
Restore Taskbar Icons on Windows 11
So here are the six surefire ways to fix taskbar icons missing issue on Windows 11 PCs. We have mentioned the basic and advanced methods so that you don’t have to reinstall Windows 11 to recover the icons in the taskbar. That’s about it for this guide. If you want to enable taskbar overflow on Windows 11, head over to our linked guide. And to customize the taskbar on Windows 11, we also have an exhaustive tutorial for that. Finally, if you have any questions, let us know in the comment section below.