Tip For Increasing Icon Cache

:huh: Tip for Increasing Icon Cache
By Vic Ferri

I don't know about you but I have a lot of icons, and they get messed up on a regular basis (or they used to). I found this tip and it worked great for me so I thought I would pass it on.... ;)

A common annoyance in Windows relates to icons not being properly displayed and the most common solution given for this problem is to delete ShellIconCache or use the Rebuild Icon option in Tweak UI. In most cases these remedies work, but the icon problems often recur over and over again. In that case, increasing the icon cache is the answer.

Windows uses the shelliconcache file to speed up the display of your icons, but if it fills up, it then must be emptied over and over again. If the cache needed by all your icons exceeds the shellicon cache, you end up with incorrectly displayed icons. In this article, I will show you how to add an Increase Icon cache option to your Advanced Settings in Folder Options in Windows 9x and WinXP, so that increasing your icon cache becomes a simple matter of selecting your choice for the amount of cache you want assigned to your icons.

Here is a link to the Key I exported, for those who are afraid to manually tweak the registry. Just back it up first. That way if your registry explodes, you have a way to recover it. LOL:)
http://www.angelfire.lycos.com/realm2/bigt...c/iconcache.reg


Step One
Go to this key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Advanced\IconCache]
In the right hand pane, you should have these values and data.

Text=Icon Cache Size
Type=group
Bitmap=SHDOC401.DLL,6
HelpID=update.hlp#51140

If not there, add them. All are string values.

Step Two
Here we'll add our first icon option.


Create an IconCache subkey named Small, such as:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Advanced\IconCache\Small]

In the right hand pane, add these values. Note that all are string values, except for HKeyRoot which is a dword value.

RegPath=Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
Text=1024 Icons
Type=radio
CheckedValue=1024
ValueName=Max Cached Icons
DefaultValue=2048
HKeyRoot=dword:80000002
HelpID=update.hlp#51140

Step Three
Now we add the Medium option.


Create a Small subkey named Medium, such as:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Advanced\IconCache\Medium]

Values and data to add:

RegPath=Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
Text=2048 Icons
Type=radio
CheckedValue=2048
ValueName=Max Cached Icons
DefaultValue=2048
HKeyRoot=dword:80000002
HelpID=update.hlp#51140

Step Four
Next we'll add the Large option.


Create a Medium subkey named Large, such as:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Advanced\IconCache\Large]

Values and data to add:

RegPath=Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
Text=4096 Icons
Type=radio
CheckedValue=4096
ValueName=Max Cached Icons
DefaultValue=2048
HKeyRoot=dword:80000002
HelpID=update.hlp#51140

Step Five
Now, we'll add the final option.

Create a Large subkey named Huge, such as:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Advanced\IconCache\Huge]

Values and data to add

RegPath=Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
Text=8192 Icons
Type=radio
CheckedValue=8192
ValueName=Max Cached Icons
DefaultValue=2048
HKeyRoot=dword:80000002
HelpID=update.hlp#51140


Step Six
To finish up, go to this key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer]

In the right hand pane, create or edit the following string value:
Max Cached Icons
and enter 2048 as the value.

Exit the registry, refresh, and then open any folder, click View/Folder Options/View . You should now see the result of your editing, with four new options for setting icon cache.

Yes you can add more or different values, but I have found these to be quite adequate..
Have fun ....

here is the easiest way to do the above

Do the following: (after creating a restore point of course)

Start - Run - Regedit

Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/currentversion/Explorer

Create a String Value named: Max Cached Icons

Double-click and set the value at 8192

might i add the way i mentioned is for those of you whos icons refresh when you exit out of a program.

B) choices, choices.....