In Windows 11 and Windows 10, you can change the icon cache size that can be of help if Explorer opens slowly. 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.
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However, the icon cache file size is just 500 KB by default. Due to this restriction, folders with many files may open slowly. Increasing the icon cache size may resolve the issue and fix slow loading icons in the File Explorer app.
Unfortunately, there is no special option for that in File Explorer to change the icon cache size. The procedure involves Registry editing. Let's see how it can be done.
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How to Change Icon Cache Size
To change the icon cache size in Windows 11 and 10, do the following.
- Open the Registry Editor app.
- Go to the following Registry key.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer. Paste this path to regedit's address bar to navigate to the key faster. - Right-click the Explorer subkey in the left, and select New > String Value, and name it MaxCachedIcons. If you have already have this value on the right, omit this step.
- Now, double-click to modify the
MaxCachedIconsvalue and set its data to 4096. This will set the cache size to 4 MB.
- Restart the operating system.
You can further increase the icon cache size and set the MaxCachedIcons value to 8192 = 8 MB. See what works best for you.
To save your time, you can download the ready-to-use Registry files. The undo tweak is included. Follow the instructions below.
Modify the Icon Cache Size Using Registry files
- Download the following ZIP archive: Download ZIP archive.
- Extract its contents to any folder. You can place the files directly to the Desktop.
- Unblock the files.
- Double click on the
Set Icon Cache Size To 4MB.regorSet Icon Cache Size To 8MB.regfile to merge it.
- To undo the change, use the provided file
Default Icon Cache Size.reg.
You are done!
Finally, Winaero Tweaker also allows you to change the icon cache size. For that, download the app, and navigate to "File Explorer > Icon Cache Size" option.
Adjust the value to what you want.
Note: Everything above also works in Windows 7 and Windows 8.
Related articles:
- Fix broken icons (reset icon cache) in Windows 10 without reboot
- Fix broken icons and reset icon cache in Windows 10
- How to change a pinned app’s shortcut icon on the Taskbar and refresh Explorer icon cache
- How to repair Explorer showing incorrect icons by deleting and rebuilding the icon cache
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This definitely should be added to Winaero Tweaker. Could you implement it?
I will do
Regards
Because changing icons cache in windows 10?
Thank you
I don’t think it actually has anything to do with size as my thumbnail cache is generally around 300-500MBs. I think instead of its the number of icons that are stored in the cache, so by upping it to 4096 from 512 you are actually allowing 4,096 items to be cached. Unless it’s not in KBs and is instead in MBs and if that is the case then you are actually upping it to 4GBs cache
I came here to make the same post. In addition, the name of the value suggests it affects the number and doesn’t enforce a static size limit. I also would like to point out, just to be safe, that the thumbnail cache and the icon cache are related in theory, but kept in seperate files.
This is incorrect.
The key must be named MaxCachedIcons, not Max Cached Icons.
Proof: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/icons-are-changed-unexpectedly-in-windows-2c426994-1b80-6e3a-06be-55fc3cf9d17d
Fixed the text (and the app). Thanks.
Hello Sergey,
Are we sure about “Max Cached Icons” with spaces in the registry.
MS says “MaxCachedIcons”
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/icons-are-changed-unexpectedly-in-windows-2c426994-1b80-6e3a-06be-55fc3cf9d17d
Fixed the post text (and the app). Thanks