so, my universal app icons are gone. rebuilding the cache and restarting explorer/winstep is not working... and thoughts on this? not a deal breaker, just annoying (i blame microsoft....)

Same here !! 24h2

I'm also running 24H2 and I see no problem with the UWP app icons here.

Are you guys running Insider versions or installing Preview updates?

Also, what icon are you getting for the UWP apps? The Question mark icon?

Im getting the blank white "page" icon. I was able to find a work around by going into the universal app folder (PITA, BTW) and searching for a *.png and choosing that as an icon. I as well am running stock 24h2.

Are you running Stardock's Icon Packager? IIRC, the "blank page" icon was caused by IP.

There is even an entry in the Winstep FAQ about it:

Q) Icons display the default (blank page) image.

A) This is a bug with Stardock's IconPackager. Open the Windows Registry Editor, go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\exefile\shellex and see if the subkey 'IconHandler' exists. If it does, delete it then reboot.

OR it is indeed a problem with Windows itself, as UWP apps don't actually use ICO files.

ok, the reg key does not exist. so... win 11 bug. no biggy, i think I'll just look for icon libraries and pick some.

I am running the latest insider release preview, I don't use that star dock software but I will check for the reg key, attached are images of what windows app icons look like, they do still work but the icons are broken. using a 3rd party icons does work on the dock but it still shows as a blank page on the open application tab.

It seems that the Windows 11 KB5055627 update — the *preview* of this KB was released in April 2025 — has been associated with issues where universal (UWP) app icons appear blank or missing on the desktop and taskbar.

What's Causing the Blank Icons?

This update introduced changes to how Windows handles icons for packaged apps. Specifically, Microsoft updated the logic so that desktop shortcuts for UWP apps no longer display an accent-colored backplate, aiming to make icons clearer and larger. However, this change has inadvertently led to some users experiencing blank or white icons for these apps, especially after rebooting or creating new shortcuts.

So, this issue does not seem to be specific to Winstep applications and seems to be due to yet another change made by Microsoft. Whether the blank icons are a bug or by design remains to be seen. We will have to wait until this Patch Tuesday (May 13th) for KB5055627 to be officially released (I know better than running Microsoft "previews" of anything in this day and age), so I can have a look at what is going on and see if I can come up with a work-around (or even if one is necessary/possible).

Nothing is ever a bug in Windows updates, it's a new design feature.

There's one of the major differences with Linux. If there is any sort of problem - be that a bug or a security issue or anything else - we get an update within hours that corrects the problem. In Windows, you have to wait a month (of Sundays sometimes!) and then you get Gigs of shite coming down the line.

I was getting the icon of UWP apps using SHGetFileInfo, and in a move preemptive to tomorrow's Patch Tuesday I also added an alternative method (using IShellItemImageFactory). If both fail then this is a core bug in the upcoming Windows update and there is nothing I can do until Microsoft fixes it.

Let's wait and see...

Again, let this be a warning. Nothing good these days comes from installing *previews* of *anything* from Microsoft, ever since they fired their whole QA department years ago, *we* are their guinea pi... err, QA department.

Well, even in the good old days of NT4 - XP, received wisdom used to be never get any updates straight away, wait a few weeks instead (that was when you could still choose whether or not to install updates). And that was before the guinea pigs with previews ever came along as the "QA Dept."