Have you ever opened File Explorer only to notice that all of your Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files just show a blank white page icon instead of the familiar Office icons? Don’t worry—you’re not alone. This is a common problem caused by broken file associations, corrupted icon cache, or missing registry entries in Windows.

The good news: you can fix it. Here’s a step-by-step guide.

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Why Does This Happen?

Office icons are tied to the way Windows associates file types with their applications. If those associations are broken—or if the icon cache gets corrupted—Windows doesn’t know which icon to show.

Typical causes include:

• Windows updates or Office updates
• File association changes
• Damaged Office installation
• Corrupt icon cache

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Method 1: Repair Microsoft Office

The easiest and safest fix is to repair your Office installation.

1. Press Win + R, type appwiz.cpl, and hit Enter.
2. Find Microsoft Office (or Microsoft 365) in the list.
3. Right-click and choose Change.
4. Select Quick Repair first.
5. If that doesn’t help, try Online Repair (this takes longer but does a deeper reset).

After the repair, restart your PC and check if the icons are back.

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Method 2: Clear the Icon Cache

Sometimes Windows just needs a refresh.

1. Press Win + R, type cmd, and run it as Administrator.
2. Paste the following commands, pressing Enter after each:
   taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
DEL /A /Q "%localappdata%\IconCache.db"
shutdown /r /f /t 0

This kills Explorer, deletes the icon cache, and restarts your system. When it boots up, Windows rebuilds the cache—often restoring missing icons.

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Method 3: Reset File Associations

If the above doesn’t help, re-associate files with the correct Office apps.

1. Right-click on a .docx file → Open with → Choose another app.
2. Select Word and check Always use this app to open .docx files.
3. Repeat for .xlsx (Excel), .pptx (PowerPoint), and any other file types.

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Method 4: Fix via the Registry (Advanced)

If you’re comfortable editing the Windows Registry, you can directly point Office file types back to their icons. This is especially useful if only certain file extensions are broken.

Word Example

1. Open Registry Editor (regedit).
2. Go to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.docx
3. Note the (Default) value—it should say Word.Document.12.
4. Navigate to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.12\DefaultIcon
5. Set the (Default) value to: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\WINWORD.EXE",1

Excel Example

• For modern .xlsx files:
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\DefaultIcon
  Set to:
  "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\EXCEL.EXE",1
• For older .xls files:
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\DefaultIcon
  Set to:
  "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\EXCEL.EXE",1

PowerPoint Example

• For .pptx:
  HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PowerPoint.Show.12\DefaultIcon
  Set to:
  "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\Office16\POWERPNT.EXE",1

(Note: paths may differ depending on your Office version—e.g., Office15 for Office 2013, Office14 for Office 2010.)

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Method 5: Reinstall Office

If nothing else works, the nuclear option is to uninstall and reinstall Microsoft Office. This completely rebuilds file associations and icons.

Broken Office icons are frustrating but rarely mean anything is wrong with your files. By repairing Office, resetting file associations, clearing the icon cache, or—if needed—editing the registry, you can restore the familiar Word, Excel, and PowerPoint icons to your system.

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💡 Tip for IT admins: If you frequently run into this issue across multiple PCs, you can prepare a .reg file with the correct DefaultIcon entries and deploy it to affected machines.