Registry Tip for Increasing Icon Cache

A common annoyance in Windows relates to icons not being properly displayed and the most common solution given for this problem is to delete ShellIconCache or use the Rebuild Icon option in Tweak UI. In most cases these remedies work, but the icon problems often recur over and over again. In that case, increasing the icon cache is the answer.

Windows uses the shelliconcache file to speed up the display of your icons, but if it fills up, it then must be emptied over and over again. If the cache needed by all your icons exceeds the shellicon cache, you end up with incorrectly displayed icons. In this article, I will show you how to add an Increase Icon cache option to your Advanced Settings in Folder Options in Windows 9x and WinXP, so that increasing your icon cache becomes a simple matter of selecting your choice for the amount of cache you want assigned to your icons.

The information below is provided with the assumption that you have some knowledge of the registry editing, but if not, I have the file premade and stored in the Files Section at WinTips&Tricks.

Here is a screenshot of the keys you will be adding at:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Advanced\IconCache

Huge, Large, Medium and Small:

Step One
Go to this key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Advanced\IconCache]
In the right hand pane, you should have these values and data.

Text=Icon Cache Size
Type=group
Bitmap=SHDOC401.DLL,6
HelpID=update.hlp#51140

If not there, add them. All are string values.

Step Two
Here we'll add our first icon option.

Create an IconCache subkey named Small, such as:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Advanced\IconCache\Small]

In the right hand pane, add these values. Note that all are string values, except for HKeyRoot which is a dword value.

RegPath=Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer
Text=1024 Icons
Type=radio
CheckedValue=1024
ValueName=Max Cached Icons
DefaultValue=2048
HKeyRoot=dword:80000002
HelpID=update.hlp#51140

Step Three
Now we add the Medium option.

Create a Small subkey named Medium, such as:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Advanced\IconCache\Medium]

Values and data to add:

RegPath=Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer
Text=2048 Icons
Type=radio
CheckedValue=2048
ValueName=Max Cached Icons
DefaultValue=2048
HKeyRoot=dword:80000002
HelpID=update.hlp#51140

Step Four
Next we'll add the Large option.

Create a Medium subkey named Large, such as:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Advanced\IconCache\Large]

Values and data to add:

RegPath=Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer
Text=4096 Icons
Type=radio
CheckedValue=4096
ValueName=Max Cached Icons
DefaultValue=2048
HKeyRoot=dword:80000002
HelpID=update.hlp#51140

Step Five
Now, we'll add the final option.

Create a Large subkey named Huge, such as:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Advanced\IconCache\Huge]

Values and data to add

RegPath=Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer
Text=8192 Icons
Type=radio
CheckedValue=8192
ValueName=Max Cached Icons
DefaultValue=2048
HKeyRoot=dword:80000002
HelpID=update.hlp#51140

Step Six
To finish up, go to this key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer]

In the right hand pane, create or edit the following string value:
Max Cached Icons
and enter 2048 as the value.

Exit the registry, refresh, and then open any folder, click View/Folder Options/View and look under Advanced Settings. You should now see the result of your editing, with four new options for setting icon cache.

If you're not having any icon problems, just leave it at default, but should you ever notice an icon display problem, simply choose a larger icon cache size and reboot. It just might do the trick!

By the way...
If you are newbie and wish to learn the registry from the ground up, this is the book I chose as the best. It takes you by the hand and is written in plain English: Registry For Newbies.