Blinking app icons; Win11 desktop.

Question

Aubrey Stevenson 0

All of the app icons have started blinking/flashing on the desktop. can anyone help with this please?

0 comments

2 answers

Answer 1

Hi Aubrey.

1

Click the Start button, type cmd, and in the resulting list, right-click Command Prompt and select 'Run as administrator'.

Run this command and press Enter:

taskkill /f /im explorer.exe

Run this command and press Enter:

del /a /q "%localappdata%\IconCache.db"

Run this command and press Enter:

start explorer.exe

When the command completes, close Command Prompt and restart (not shut down) your PC.

2

If that does not resolve the problem, for testing purposes, please perform these steps.

Open the Settings App.

Go to Personalization - Taskbar.

In the Taskbar Items' section, disable Widgets.

Then, restart your PC to apply the change and check if that resolves the problem.

Answer 2

Try these steps in order:

Reset the graphics driver:
- Press Windows key + Ctrl + Shift + B.
- If nothing changes, restart the PC.
Check whether Task Manager also flickers:
- Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete and open Task Manager.
- If Task Manager flickers too, the problem is likely the display driver.
- If Task Manager does not flicker while the desktop does, the problem is more likely an incompatible app.
If it looks app-related, update or remove recently installed apps:
- Go to Start > Settings > Apps > Installed apps.
- Find the app.
- Select it, then choose Uninstall > Uninstall.
- Restart after removing the first app and check whether the blinking stops.
- If the app came from Microsoft Store, check for updates there first. If it came from elsewhere, check the app maker’s site for updates.
If needed, reinstall the app:
- Open Microsoft Store.
- Select Library.
- Select the app and choose Install.
If the screen is hard to use while troubleshooting, start the PC in safe mode and then follow the same steps.

In Windows 11, screen flickering is usually caused by a display driver issue or an incompatible app.