Explorer (Desktop) Stops Refreshing

I've solved this problem deleting iconcache.db file.

1. Open your task manager and kill the explorer process
2. Then choose File->New Task (Run), type cmd and press Enter.

In Command Prompt, use the following commands:

CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
DEL IconCache.db /a
EXIT

And then use Task Manager to open application explorer.exe

I you feel lazy / not comfortable with this I've written a simple application that takes care of the problem for my friends.

You can download it here

If you don't trust it here's its source code too.

I found that the problem corrects itself if I close all instances of Windows Explorer. Upon reopening Explorer, everything refreshes correctly.

This problem dates back to Vista, according to Microsoft.com webpages. And over the years, MS just responds the same way: try safe mode, SFC, etc, to identify a non-Microsoft culprit. Well, I used XP Pro for many years, only upgrading in July 2012, to Win7. And this problem never ever occurred on XP Pro. It's very clearly a Microsoft Windows problem. And if it's triggered by a variety of other software, then it's still a Windows problem, since the purpose of Windows to provide a system where other software and hardware can operate.

I tried many of the proposed solutions from various forum threads -- some going for 40+ pages. Nothing has worked. I've not edited my registry because that doesn't appear successful from what I've read, and it would probably require a restart to implement, and then my problem might disappear for a while.

Anyway, I have xplorer2 pro, which cost me $30 for a lifetime of version upgrades. I used it on XP Pro (after I suffered explorer & drwatson crashes in XP :( -- but the good news is that xplorer2 pro is a superb product w/ an unbelievably detailed manual. In my own use, I've barely scratched the surface of what it can do, but it serves me well, and I presume it will solve this problem. (My only gripe w/ xplorer2 is the lack of an undo. It does have a menu command to go to the last drop target, for drag-n-drop errors, but an undo would be better, esp since the recycle bin misses things sometimes ..and the old norton protected bin is no longer an option -- though I used it as long as I could, disabling/deleting everything else in the utilities suite.)

Sorry, I do digress. Anyhow, I've no vested interest, but I do encourage people to try xplorer2 -- the free version or the Pro version. A no-registry portable edition is available too. And for the other end, if you look, you'll find a instructions for editing the registry so xplorer2 replaces explorer in nearly every instance where explorer would otherwise appear (save as dialogs & the like excepted).