HWinfo.exe icon missing

[1FootInTheGrave]

I'm having a small issue where my hwinfo64.exe icon is not showing up in certain places.
Operating system is Windows 10 21H2 with all recent updates.

The main HWiNFO64.exe file in C:\Program Files\HWiNFO64 just started showing a blank white icon a few days ago, which is causing the HWinfo icon on the taskbar to show up blank when I have the program open. The small HWinfo tray icon works fine, and the shortcut in the Start menu is also showing up normally. If I move the main HWiNFO64.exe file onto the desktop, its icon shows up and functions properly. When I move it back into its normal folder in Program Files, the icon is once again blank.

I've been searching around for a while, but I haven't been able to identify what the problem is here. I tried rebuilding the icon cache for Windows, but that didn't help. I have not tried reinstalling HWinfo yet since I'm not sure if that would resolve this issue, and I was hoping to avoid a reinstall.

I've attached some screenshots to show the problem.

Any help is much appreciated, thank you!

 

[Martin]

This is a quite weird problem but I don't think there's much we can do. Appearance of icons is fully managed by Windows. So I suspect there was some Windows update that might be causing this.

 

[1FootInTheGrave]

I can't say for sure, but it did seem like this happened after a recent Windows update that was installed within the last week.
The blank icon hasn't affect the functionality of the program though, so it's really not a big deal.
I appreciate your reply Martin, and I hope you enjoy the coming weekend.

 

[1FootInTheGrave]

Just reporting for the record... the icons are now showing up again.
I didn't do anything to fix it, so it seems the issue has resolved itself within Windows one way or another.

 

[Martin]

Just reporting for the record... the icons are now showing up again.
I didn't do anything to fix it, so it seems the issue has resolved itself within Windows one way or another.

Maybe with another Windows update?

 

[1FootInTheGrave]

Maybe with another Windows update?

I can't say for sure, but that's what I'm assuming for now

 

[Darkbreeze]

So, for me at least I can confirm that this isn't a one off situation. I reinstall Windows quite often because I'm constantly changing hardware, testing applications and configurations etc., and of course, about the first thing I ever do after installing Windows is install HWinfo. Basically EVERY time, within a day or two, the desktop icon for HWinfo disappears and is nowhere to be found anywhere on the C: drive. This happened when I was primarily using Windows 10 and it still happens now that I primarily use Windows 11.

This does not happen with ANY of the icons for ANY other application or utility, so while I can appreciate that it may only happen with specific combinations of hardware or software installed I really don't think it's a "windows" problem or else it would happen to icons for things other than HWinfo. And in my case at least, it never just "comes back" on it's own. I have to manually obtain or create an HWinfo icon and then click on the shortcut properties and tell it to use it. No a giant big deal for sure, but absolutely an annoyance.

Darkbreeze
Tom's hardware retired moderator

 

[Martin]

So, for me at least I can confirm that this isn't a one off situation. I reinstall Windows quite often because I'm constantly changing hardware, testing applications and configurations etc., and of course, about the first thing I ever do after installing Windows is install HWinfo. Basically EVERY time, within a day or two, the desktop icon for HWinfo disappears and is nowhere to be found anywhere on the C: drive. This happened when I was primarily using Windows 10 and it still happens now that I primarily use Windows 11.

This does not happen with ANY of the icons for ANY other application or utility, so while I can appreciate that it may only happen with specific combinations of hardware or software installed I really don't think it's a "windows" problem or else it would happen to icons for things other than HWinfo. And in my case at least, it never just "comes back" on it's own. I have to manually obtain or create an HWinfo icon and then click on the shortcut properties and tell it to use it. No a giant big deal for sure, but absolutely an annoyance.

Darkbreeze
Tom's hardware retired moderator

Just to make it clear - you're talking about this main HWiNFO icon, not the sensor icon in tray?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Actually, I'm talking about ANY place there's an icon. Start menu. Desktop shortcut. Quick start taskbar icon. Tray icon. HWinfo executable icon in the HWinfo Programs folder. Everywhere. There is literally NO HWinfo icon present anywhere on the C: drive at that point because each time I've looked through all the Windows and program folders. Nothing. Which is weird, because the uninstall executable in the unins000.exe file in the HWinfo programs folder still seems to show one but is the only thing related to HWinfo that does. Not really sure how that uninstaller still shows an icon when every HWiNFO64.exe and associated shortcuts do not and can't find one anywhere on the system but there it is. That's what happens in my case at least and has happened after each of dozens of clean installations of both 10 and 11 over the past couple of years.

Just was doing a short look see in case others had encountered this and had a fix and came across this thread. I've actually also even had it happen AGAIN after manually designating an icon for HWinfo shortcuts that were missing it but then after that it usually sticks so, IDK?

 

[Martin]

Then please post a screenshot of your HWiNFO installation folder in Program Files (by default: "C:\Program Files\HWiNFO64\").

 

[Darkbreeze]

I don't really see any reason to. And I'm not trying to be obtuse. Just, you have far more important things to worry about than this one small issue, so worry about that stuff. And if in the interim you are able to take a look at this on test machines and see if you can replicate it, fantastic. If not, I don't think this is enough that anybody is going to throw a major drag about it. If you really want me to, I'd be happy to, but for me I just wanted to share that it wasn't a one off and that it's repeatable so you'd know if you didn't already. I'm totally ok with fixing the icon problem myself so long as you all continue to keep everything else working great as you always have, which we are immensely grateful for. Just sayin'.