Fix Broken Shortcuts Windows 10

broken image


Program shortcuts are handy as they allow the user to start an application from a different location than the program directory. The Windows start menu for instance uses shortcuts to give the user that option. Mac paint for mac os 9. Another popular location for program shortcuts is the computer desktop.

  1. Broken Shortcut Fixer
  2. Fix Broken Desktop Shortcuts Windows 10

Broken Shortcut Fixer

Broken shortcut fixer free download - Shortcut Virus Fixer, Hidden Fixer, CuperUtilities Shortcuts Fixer, and many more programs. Broken Shortcut Fixer, Fix Invalid Shortcuts by Joergen Bogetveit 2010-12-10 Program shortcuts are handy as they allow the user to start an application from a different location than the program directory.

Shortcuts are not dynamic which means that once they are created they are not reacting on changes to the application they link to. It can happen that shortcuts stay behind on the system after application uninstallations. Those shortcuts are generally referred to as broken shortcuts.

Fix Broken Desktop Shortcuts Windows 10

A broken shortcut leads to nothing since the linked application is no longer on the system or at another location if it has been moved.

Programs like Broken Shortcut Fixer, or Advanced SystemCare Pro can scan a system for broken shortcuts to either repair or delete them. Repair in this regard would require that the linked program is still on the system.

Broken Shortcut Fixer scans the computer system for dead shortcuts. It tries to repair broken shortcuts automatically and displays only those in the program window that it cannot repair automatically.

The user has then the option to delete selected shortcuts from the system. It is of course also possible to manually repair shortcuts, for instance if the application did not find the new location of a file on the system.

The software program ignores remote shortcuts by default. This option should only be enabled if the remote devices are connected to the PC. Broken Shortcut Fixer scans the c: drive by default, and gives users the option to change the scanned drive by using the drive pulldown menu.

Broken Shortcut Fixer is a portable program for Windows to find, repair and delete broken shortcuts. It is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft operating system. Downloads are provided directly at the developer homepage.

Share

If icons in your Windows 10 File Explorer look strange or broken, your icon cache might have become corrupt. This issue is very common for all Windows versions. In this article we will see what to do to fix broken icons and reset the icon cache.

RECOMMENDED: Click here to fix Windows errors and optimize system performance


How to fix broken shortcuts
To show icons faster, Windows caches them into a file. This special file contains icons for many apps and file types, so File Explorer doesn't need to extract the icons for known file extensions and apps. This allows File Explorer to work faster, but it has an annoying side effect. If the cache ever gets corrupted, Windows displays wrong icons. Some files in File Explorer and the Desktop can stop showing the right icons or get a blank 'unknown file type' icon. Some shortcuts can display the incorrect icons. To fix this, you need to reset the icon cache.
Windows 10 cheat sheet printable
To show icons faster, Windows caches them into a file. This special file contains icons for many apps and file types, so File Explorer doesn't need to extract the icons for known file extensions and apps. This allows File Explorer to work faster, but it has an annoying side effect. If the cache ever gets corrupted, Windows displays wrong icons. Some files in File Explorer and the Desktop can stop showing the right icons or get a blank 'unknown file type' icon. Some shortcuts can display the incorrect icons. To fix this, you need to reset the icon cache.

Edit: there is a better way to reset the icon cache and fix broken icons. Read this article:

Unfortunately, there is no special button or option in Windows 10 to rebuild the icon cache. Despite this being a fairly common issue, Microsoft didn't provide any tool bundled with the operating system to fix it. To reset the icon cache in Windows 10, there are two methods available:

Option one. Delete the corrupted icon cache in Windows 10

  1. The icon cache file is hidden in Windows so if you have set hidden and system files to not show, you will have to show them. To do this, open Control Panel.
  2. Then, open Folder Options and go to the View tab. Select the option Show hidden files, folders and drives. Also uncheck the option Hide protected operating system files. Then click OK and close Control Panel.
  3. Press the Win+R keys together on your keyboard to open the Run dialog.
  4. In the Run dialog type %localappdata% and press Enter.
  5. Your local app data folder (C:UsersAppDataLocal) will open. Locate the iconcache.db file. Delete this file.
  6. Now restart the Explorer shell or log off and log on again.

You are done with the first method. If a logoff does not work, try restarting Windows after deleting Iconcache.db. However, your problem might be that the icon cache file on disk is not corrupted but Windows is still showing incorrect icons because it loaded the wrong icons in memory. In that case, try the next option.

Option two. Reset the in-memory icon cache in Windows 10 with a small freeware app

We will use a third party tool especially designed to refresh the shell icon cache.

  1. Download Winaero Tweaker.
  2. Run it and go to ToolsReset Icon Cache:
  3. Now every time you want to refresh the icon cache, click the button 'Reset Icon Cache'.

That's it.

Tell us in the comments which method worked for you or if you know of another way to fix corrupt icons. Note that despite these methods, your Windows 10 Start Menu might continue to not show some icons for desktop apps. This is a known problem with the Windows 10 Start Menu. On a number of systems, we have seen that the Start Menu shows blank/empty white icons for desktop shortcuts.

RECOMMENDED: Click here to fix Windows errors and optimize system performance





broken image