Some users have experienced an abnormal behavior where their Windows 10 Taskbar icons become invisible, go missing, or disappear & reappear randomly. If you have faced this issue, here are a few things we suggest you could try to resolve the issue.
Fix invisible Taskbar icons issue
If your Windows 10 Taskbar icons are not showing, or disappear & reappear randomly, then one of these suggestions is sure to help you:
- Restart File Explorer
- Clear Icon cache
- Remove and repin Taskbar icons
- Disable Tablet Mode
- Troubleshoot in Clean Boot State
- Update Display Driver
- Use File Association Fixer to fix PNG/JPG associations
- Repair System Image & Run SFC using FixWin.
Go through the list and see which one or more of them could apply in your case.
1] Restart File Explorer
Restart the explorer.exe process and see if that helps you. You will have to open the Task Manager for that purpose.
2] Clear Icon cache
You may manually clear the Icon cache or use our freeware Thumbnail and Icon Cache Rebuilder to do it with a click.
3] Remove and repin Taskbar icons
Unpin all the Taskbar icons and then freshly rein them and see if it helps.
4] Disable Tablet Mode
If you are using the Tablet Mode, then you might want to disable this Tablet Mode. In this mode, open apps do not rest on the taskbar.
5] Troubleshoot in Clean Boot State
Perform a Clean Boot and try to troubleshoot the issue manually. Clean-boot troubleshooting is designed to isolate a performance problem. To perform clean-boot troubleshooting, you must take a number of actions, and then restart the computer after each action. You may need to manually disable one item after another to try and pinpoint the one that is causing the problem. Once you have identified the offender, you can consider removing or disabling it.
6] Update Display Driver
Now, this may or may not help you – but it is worth a try. Update your Graphics Driver and see. You could 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 you, but create a system restore point first and use our freeware File Association Fixer to repair and restore potentially broken file associations. Use it for PNG and JPG files only.
8] Repair System Image & Run SFC using FixWin
You can use download and use our portable freeware FixWin to repair the System Image using DISM, and Run System File Checker with a click.
All the best!
Read next: System icons not showing or missing from Windows 10 Taskbar.
