Icon Cache Grows Despite Limitation XP Pro

[Poppy64]

Hi there. We have a few XP Pro clients in our business and NT 4.0 servers.

Our XP users are finding that the icon cache keeps growing and causing problems with profile size (we limit to 9mb).

I found a possible solution by introducing a Max Cached Icons string in the registry and limiting it to 2mb ("2000&quot.

However it still keeps growing past this.

Has anybody else experienced this or has any advice on how to prevent this growing past 2mb?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.



Poppy64

 

[bcastner]

Some thoughts:

First, the string value used for Max Cached Icons determines the amount of RAM allocated for an icon cache, not the disk space. (And it should be 2048 and not 2000 for 2 Mb.). Note: it does not determine the number of cached icons, the limit of which is 4096, except indirectly based on icon size.

Second, the disk space allocated for stored copies of the icon cache maxes out at around 10 megabytes with default icon sizes.

It is not uncommon for there to be duplicate entries. Deleting the file offers little promise of relief from a bloated size, as it does nothing for the image cache that will get written on shutdown.

You can use either:

. TweakUI PowerToy to rebuild the icon cache. This will eliminate duplicates and unneeded icons;

. Control Panel, Display, Appearance, Advanced. use the scroll control to display "Icon", then change the icon to a size 1 pixel less. Hit Okay. Repeat the process restoring the original size. This will on restart rebuild the icon cache.

 

[Poppy64]

Thanks for that info. We don't use Tweak on our XP build (yet). I did look in the Control Panel to follow your second piece of advice however under the Appearance button I could not locate an advanced option...??

Never mind because I went back to the registry and changed the max icon cache size to 256. I then deleted the icon cache file from the users profile and logged them off. Logged back on and all is well. Things have been ok ever since - fingers crossed.

Poppy64

 

[bcastner]

For Display, Appearance, Advanced...
Look at the box labelled "Item:" It is a scroll box, and Icon is one of the scrollable and selectable items.