XP Desktop Ghost Icons

Do you know why I get ghost Icons on my XP Pro desktop? And how I can NOT get them? Another thread on this said to find and delete a file called shelliconcache. I searched for that and found no such file.
Thanks

 

XP doesn't have a shelliconcache file. In XP it's called iconcache.db. It should be located in C:\Documents and Settings\your username\Local Settings\Application Data. Change the drive letter accordingly if your windows is installed to a drive other than c.

You can try deleting it to see if it fixes the problem. You'll have to either reboot or logoff after you delete the file.

 

Use Safe Mode.

Look under your profile in the Desktop folder. Delete these Ghosts if you see them.

Look under the All Users profile, Desktop. Delete Ghosts if you see them.

You can easily rebuild the icon cache (this is the clever way TweakUI does it):

right-click the Desktop, Properties, Appearance tab, Advanced
Change the "Item" selector to Icon
Change the Size to 31 and hit OK
Click Advanced again.
Change the "Item" selector to Icon
Change the Size back to 32 and hit OK
Now hit Apply <<---- the cache will now be rebuilt
And then hit OK.

(It takes longer to read this then do it.)