How to Remove Black Boxes on Desktop Icons in Windows 11/10

Black Squares on Desktop Icons

Windows allows you to view your files or folders in different size, small, medium or large icons. However, sometimes you may find your shortcut icons turn to black boxes suddenly. The reasons behind black boxes on desktop icons are unknown.

When searching for this issue in Google Chrome, you may notice that many users also encounter such a problem and attempt to find solutions from forums. No worries. We summarize several simple and useful solutions to help you out.

Without further ado. Get started!

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Fix 1: Change Windows Settings

Some users remove black squares on desktop icons by changing a setting in Windows 11/10. So, do that, too.

Step 1: Access Windows Settings.

Step 2: Navigate to Personalization > Themes > Desktop icon settings.

Step 3: Untick Allow themes to change desktop icons.

Step 4: Hit Apply > OK.

Fix 2: Customize Icons

To remove black boxes on desktop icons, you can try to customize the icons via these steps.

Step 1: Right-click on a folder on the desktop and choose Properties.

Step 2: Under the Customize tab, click Change icon.

Step 3: Select the folder icon and click OK.

Fix 3: Run Disk Cleanup

Clearing thumbnails using Disk Cleanup helps fix the issue of desktop icons displaying black squares in Windows 11/10.

So, give it a trial.

Step 1: Launch Disk Cleanup via the Search box.

Step 2: Select C drive to clean up.

Step 3: Make sure you tick Thumbnails and click OK > Delete Files.

Then, your desktop icons will return to normal.

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Fix 4: Delete Some Files

This is another way to delete boxes around desktop icons. To do that:

Step 1: Press Win + R, type %localappdata% and press Enter.

Step 2: Click Options to open Folder Options, go to View, tick Show hidden files, folders, and drives, then save the change.

Step 3: In the Local folder, locate the IconCache.db file and delete it.

Step 4: Besides, go to C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer and delete the .db files.

Fix 5: Edit Registry

In the event of black boxes on desktop icons, changing a setting in Windows Registry will do the trick. This is effective for many users.

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Step 1: Type regedit and hit Run as administrator from the right side.

Step 2: Copy & paste the path to the address bar and press Enter: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons.

Step 3: Double-click the number like 29 from the right side to edit its value data: type 1 instead of 0. For example, if it shows %windir%\System32\shell32.dll,-50, change it to %windir%\System32\shell32.dll,-51.

Fix 6: Run SFC and DISM

Likely, your system files get corrupt, resulting in black squares on desktop icons in Windows 11/10. Performing the SFC and DISM scan can work.

Step 1: Open Command Prompt as an administrator.

Step 2: Execute these commands:

sfc /scannow

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

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Fix 7: Reinstall/Update/Roll back GPU Driver

In case of desktop icons displaying black squares, try to uninstall your graphics card driver and reinstall it on your PC. Alternatively, go to visit the website of the manufacturer, download & install the latest GPU driver to finish the update. If these cannot help, try to roll back to an old GPU driver.

Final Words

Are you confronted with black boxes on desktop icons in Windows 10/11? Through these solutions, your icons should restore to work normally. Take action!