---
title: "Danger - don't use Tweak UI's \"rebuild icons\""
date: 2008-02-24
canonical: https://michaelshadle.com/2008/02/24/danger-dont-use-tweak-uis-rebuild-icons
---

# Danger - don't use Tweak UI's "rebuild icons"

When I reinstall XP (which I do too often) I always round up my customizations (which I can do in under 10 minutes blindfolded... sigh) with a bunch of tweaks inside of Tweak UI. Normally I never fuss with that "Repair" area, but for some odd reason I decided to click "Rebuild Icons" this time around. It didn't appear to do anything at first until I connected to my machine via Remote Desktop (which is how I connect to most of my machines...)

It had somehow messed up and all my icons in the taskbar, "Save As..." dialogs, desktop, etc. were all in 16 bit color. I even tried installing XP SP3 RC to see if it helped. I followed numerous suggestions about "tricking" Windows into re-caching the icons, deleting the icon cache, etc. Nothing fixed it. Finally, I came across a forum post (well, actually it was the first result in Google but this particular suggestion was the last one I tried) that had the magic fix. It's a simple .reg file that resets some icon settings somewhere. It was the only thing that seemed to do the trick, and I have decided to host a copy of it just in case that link ever goes dead. So, thank you to "wissnx01" at [That Computer Guy](http://www.thatcomputerguy.us/)'s forums.

To fix the issue, [download this zip file](/wp-content/uploads/ms/2008/02/tweakui-fix.zip) and merge the .reg file inside of it. Reboot (or maybe even just logout and log back in) and voila. Fixed.