Icons on my taskbar have disappeared

[JimJ77]

Bought this laptop about 2 years ago and all was fine until recently,  For no reason. suddenly icons for apps like Firefox, Edge, Skype, Mail, Instagram all disappeared.  Word, Excell and Outlook icons remained but the rest  became invisible or replaced by the app name in text.   How do I get the icons back?  Help and Thank you.

[Wolf665 · Accepted solution]

Isons cache may have corrupted.

First try to rebuild the icon cache (IconCache.db).

Open windows explorer (Win+E) and navigate to %LocalAppData% location, you do that by copy/paste this text:

%LocalAppData%

in the Windows Explorer location bar which say something like "Quick access"

Ensure hidden files are visible ( in Winodws Explorer click View then check the checkbox hidden items), and delete IconCache.db

Open the Task Manager (Shift+Ctrl+ESC)
In the Process tab, Select the app labelled Windows Explorer and click Restart.
    
Note that IconCache.db is a hidden file, so make sure you can see hidden files.
 

If that doesn't work try this:

Run command prompt, to do this, click Start, type Command Prompt or cmd in the Search box, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.

Run the inbox Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool

Type the following command, and then press Enter.  It may take several minutes for the command operation to be completed:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

After that run:

sfc /scannow

[JimJ77]

Thank you.  I am away from my laptop till the weekend and will give it a go then.   Your solutions seem to make perfect sense and to a semi literate like me, I can follow.   So you write better and clearer than any "nerd" I know.  Again thank you!

[JimJ77]

Many thanks for your help.  Tried all the steps recommended and alas, nothing.  Task Bar is unchanged,    Any other thoughts would be appreciated .