How to fix Microsoft Office icons issue

Problem: the Microsoft Outlook icon on the task bar as well as on the start menu is showing as a generic icon instead of the envelope icon that is supposed to show up! This can happen to one or more of the Microsoft Office applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc. when the icons library gets corrupted.

Possible solutions:

Solution 1 – rebuild the icons cache:

1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Go to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local
3. Change the properties of the folder so that you can see the hidden files
4. Locate the file called IconCache.db and delete it
5. Reboot the machine – the IconCache.db will be re-created and hopefully you will see the correct icons showing up for each of the Microsoft Office applications.

Solution 2 – repair the Microsoft Office installation:

1. Go to start / Control Panel
2. Under the “Programs” group click on “Uninstall a program”
3. Find “Microsoft Office” on the list and click on it once to select it then click on the “Change” button on the menu bar on top
4. On the dialog window that appears select the “Repair” option and click “Continue”
5. This should repair any issues with Microsoft Office including a corrupt icons library.

If neither of those fixes your problem then leave a comment here and we will try to help you.