The File Explorer in Windows 10 provides several ways to organize the contents of folders and files in the system. Windows users can utilize some efficient styles to view the contents of the file system as per the user’s requirement. A user may opt to display the file picture in large size thumbnails while the other one could opt to set the icons of folder and files in a small or medium size list. On the other hand, while setting up several styles for the folder and file icons, some Windows 10 users have experienced some unusual issues where there is the Black background showing up behind folder icons. They tried refreshing the File Explorer a couple of times but it didn’t help in fixing the problem and the black squares are still visible on some folder icons.
The black squares behind the folder icons might look disturbing though it’s not really a big problem and is merely a graphical glitch that does not cause any damage or whatsoever to the content of the folder and files. The most likely cause of this glitch might have something to do with the corrupted system files or it could also be caused by outdated thumbnail caches. In addition, graphical glitches like this one could also occur if you are using out outdated graphics drivers. To fix this problem, you need to follow the options laid out below.
Option 1 – Try using the Disk Cleanup to remove Thumbnail files
The Disk Cleanup tool is one of the options you can try to fix the black squares behind the folder icons. Through this tool, you can delete all the Thumbnail files on your disk. To use it, refer to these steps:
- Open the Search bar and type “disk cleanup” in the field.
- After opening Disk Cleanup from the search results, then from the drop-down menu select the C: drive to clean up and click OK.
- Wait for the scanning process to complete. Once it’s done, select the files you want to delete.
- Ensure that you select the box labeled “Thumbnails” under the Files to Delete section then click on OK.
- After that, a confirmation box will appear, just click on Delete files to delete the files permanently.
- Restart your PC.
Option 2 – Try resetting the Thumbnail cache
You have the option to manually delete the Thumbnail Cache to resolve the black square background behind the folder icons issue. Follow the steps given below to reset the Thumbnail cache.
- Open the File Explorer.
- Next, navigate to the View tab and select the option with Hidden items to display all the hidden folders and files.
- Next, go to this path: C:Users<username>AppDataLocal
- In the given path, make sure that you put your actual username in the username field. Then look for a file named “IconCache.db”. Right-click on this file and click on Delete.
- After that, go to this path: C:Users<username>AppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsExplorer
- From there, select all the files and delete them.
Note: If a prompt appears saying, “The files are in use and cannot be deleted”, simply select the “Do this for all current items” option and then click on Try Again. If you get an error message, click on Cancel to close the window and restart your computer.
Option 3 – Try updating or reinstalling the Graphics driver
- Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box and then type in devmgmt.msc and tap Enter or click OK to open the Device Manager.
- Expand the section for the outdated device drivers.
- And then select the outdated driver(s) and right-click on it/them.
- From the drop-down menu, select the Update Driver option if you wish to update the driver or select the Uninstall device if you want to uninstall the driver and then follow the on-screen instructions to install the latest version of the driver.
- Restart your PC after the installation to allow the system to reinstall the driver.