Repetitive/Stubborn Problem: Icons Refresing by Theirselves

Hi All,
I got my Win7 Home Premimum x64 having the latest updates with my Asus notebook. The problem is that, (i've never seen it till my brand-new Win7 on previous Windows version), for some reason, the desktop icons (only desktop icons) are refreshing/flashing/flickering by theirselves when you:

1- ...open a a folder and navigate through some folders randomly using "Windows Explorer".
2- ...close Windows Explorer window.

..Especially you'll notice the flicker when you close folder window (explorer window).

I found out, the only temporary fix is to delete and re-create IconCache.db file by deleting manually and rebooting system. However for some reason the problem will come up again after a while.

Additionally, as some people may suggest, creating "Max Cached Icons" registry entry under " HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer" as 4096, 2000(decimal) DOES NOT help. There's also an ambiguity about what "Max Cached Icons" refers to? (Amount of Icons, or the IconCache.db file's size, anything?). I also wonder what this registry setting is used for, the IconCache.db's size (i regularly track it) gets higher than the value of "Max Cached Icons" registry setting if "Max Cached Icons" refers to size of IconCache.db file, but as i said, it's unclear (Thanks Microsoft!).

A exact demonstatration of the problem is done by other guy on Youtube, check this out:
YouTube - ‪Windows 7 Desktop Flashing Icons! !‬‏

...when he closes windows, desktop icons are refreshed.

Never had it on XP.

Any ideas and any people who were driven crazy because of this?

Thanks!

 

kimiraikkonen, What model ASUS do you have? Does you machine have a dedicated video card? If so are the drivers up to date (From ATI Or NVidia's web site, not ASUS's)?
Also does this happen on the built in display and an external monitor?

Have you tried creating a new user account and testing with it?

 

Hi Josea, it's really not a driver issue (Nvidia) and not a hardware (monitor, GPU) problem. Really. I saw other people having it on Windows 7. One day, i saw the same problem on my friend's Windows Vista. He has Toshiba notebook and ATI card but same problem.

I have Asus G53JW-XA1 with GTX460.

It's a "real" bug of Microsoft but i wonder why it's repetitive and why this registry setting doesn't fix it. I also wonder if other people had the same problem. Any ideas?

 

I saw you other thread, does the issue persist at 100 and 125 DPI? Also I have only 5 desktop icons and 1 gadget, and I attached a snapshot of my settings, (I do not have the issue BTW).

 

The issue (icon distortion) is resolved if you set %100 DPI. By default, when i first got my notebook, it was %125 and "default" was written as you see. Now though everything can be seen using doctor's microscope (too small), the distortion and corruption has gone.

However, please let's discuss that off-topic, my main problem is the icon refresh problem for now which has no relationship with the DPI issue.

 

what are your explorer and view options as set in control panel|folder options?

 

Which settings are you referring to? I did not make system-wide folder setting changes. My folders' view is usually thumbnails for photo-having folders and small icons for normal files. That's not the problem.

For some reason IconCACHE.db corrupting itself continuously and max cached icons registry setting has no real effect. The exact demo is done in the youtube link above.

Any Win7 user is subject to have this BIG annoyance at any time!