Classic Shell: Forum

I've been using Classic Shell for quite a long time now, and I've never encountered this before. I suspect that there's an easy(ish) fix, but for the life of me I can't figure out what it would be.

Today, while working, I suddenly "lost" the vast majority of icons within Classic Start Menu. Only empty space now occupies where the menu icons should appear. The text is still there, and clicking on the "spaces" results in what you'd expect if the icon were "really there."

It seems like the program uses an "icon cache" of some sort... separate from Windows' icon cache... and it has become messed up.

I have exited CSM and checked... in the standard Windows 7 start menu, all icons are present. In Explorer, reviewing the menu folder structure, all icons are present. They're ONLY absent in Classic Start Menu.

I tried uninstalling CSM, and deleting its folder (which was empty)... and then rebooting and reinstalling. No joy... the icons are still absent (or "invisible?")

I had changed no settings in CSM, but a review of the UI doesn't show me anywhere to control turning off visibility of icons, nor any means of "rebuilding the CSM icon database." Maybe I've missed it, but... I can't see it.

Having the icons absent/invisible doesn't TOTALLY destroy the utility of CSM, but it's sure a lot less useful than it is when the full UI is present.

I'm currently running SFC /scannow... but doubt that this will have an impact, since the icons are visible when viewed through Explorer, just not when viewed through CSM.

SO... does CSM cache icons, and if so, how can I rebuild that cache? Has anyone ever encountered this before?

I'd hate to have to remove one of my most desired applications... just to get past a bug which I suspect is an easy fix.

Help!

This can happen if <No Skin> is selected as the skin option. Try selecting another skin.

I've just tried several skins... and have shut down and restarted CSM after each one. No joy, though. I did have "no skin" selected. I haven't rebooted yet, but then again, I'm not inclined towards "flailing around" when I don't understand what's happening.

Am I correct that CSM stores its own cache of icons, separate from the Windows icon cache database? (Which, FYI, I've already deleted and allowed to rebuild itself as I've tried to figure this out.)

Again, Explorer shows the right icons, and the "real" Windows start Menu (Win7 Ultimate, 64-bit) works as expected. It's ONLY in CSM that the icons aren't present.

Am I wrong about there being some file stored somewhere in my system which keeps all these icons used by CSM recorded? I know that CSM, in the past, would "rebuild" its database periodically, or was doing something that seemed to be that, anyway. I also know that a total uninstallation, reboot, reinstallation, reboot, didn't help... but since Windows allows programs to put their files all over the place, rather than in tightly-controlled locations... even putting some in the OS folder itself (which is HORRIFIC practice!)... I suspect that CSM could possibly be storing its own "custom icon cache" somewhere else, and that this file (or database, or whatever) didn't get removed when Classic Shell was removed.

I could be totally wrong about this, but I have to say, "do this odd thing with no explanation of what it's doing" seems... wrong... to me.

As an example, for years, people have struggled with Windows periodically losing large numbers of icons from the taskbar tray (and, of course, losing those applications in the process). People proposed all variety of "fixes" which were never "fixes" at all (like disabling universal plug-and-play). Microsoft would never explain what they were doing... but we finally discovered that the whole issue was due to MS hard-coding in a four-second window during which all startup-events need to initialize in order to get loaded into the tray.

What a HORRIBLE design decision on MS's part... and what an EASY fix, once fully understood (even if they have since made it so that you have to increase the timeout using a hex editor, not a mere registry edit as was the case before). Change the time-out cycle from "four seconds" to something more reasonable (say, fifteen seconds), and you get all of your icons and related apps showing up in the tray 100% of the time. (Some fixers increase this to as much as a minute, but I've found that fifteen seconds works out fine for me).

In order to fix things, you need to know WHY they're not working, not merely be given a nonsensical "do this and it'll be OK" solution... like "turn off universal plug-and-play" (which helped in some cases only because this allowed the machine to run faster through the remaining startup services and items).

So... I THINK that the issue here seems likely to be a application-specific-icon-cache issue, but maybe it's not. "Turning skins on and off" is (a) not solving the issue, and (b) not really an explanation of WHAT IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING.

I realize that you may not know what's happening... in which case, I'll be happy to share more information in figuring this out.

But if you do know what's happening, please, share the "What" as well as the proposed "how to fix" info.

Thanks!

Yes, Classic Shell stores a cache of the icons in this folder: %LOCALAPPDATA%\ClassicShell
Right-click on the start button and select Exit. Then delete the contents of that folder. Log off, and see if the problem will be fixed.
There is a known bug in version 4.3.0, that when <No Skin> is selected, some of the icons in the main menu don't show up. That's why I asked to select some skin.

Thanks... deleting that and restarting recreated the entire cache and I have all my icons back again.

A suggestion... you might want to put a control into the settings panel to "rebuild the icon cache" (and whatever else is involved in that database)... just to make it easier for folks to fix things if this happens to them as well.

I can provide the original (corrupted) database file if you have any interest in seeing it... it might come in handy for future reference. Just tell me where to send it. (I can send the new one along as well if that would be helpful...)

If not, I'll permanently delete the bad file and be done with it.

Again, thanks!

That is a good idea to provide a UI to rebuild the icon cache. It can be an item inside the "Backup" menu in Settings below "Reset all settings".

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I am a Windows enthusiast and helped a little with Classic Shell's testing and usability/UX feedback.