Fix Blank System Tray Icons
Resolve the issue where system tray icons in Windows 10 appear as blank white squares — fixed with a quick registry edit and Explorer restart.
Before editing the registry, always create a backup. This is done in Step 1. The process is straightforward and takes just a few minutes.
Backup the registry
Press Windows Key + R, type regedit and click OK. Before doing anything else, go to File > Export to back up the registry to a safe location.
Navigate to the TrayNotify key
In Registry Editor, navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify
Find and delete the values IconStreams and PastIconsStream.
Restart Windows Explorer
Open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc). On the Processes tab, find explorer.exe, right-click it and select End Task.
In Task Manager, go to File > Run new task, type explorer.exe and click OK.
Icons restored
Windows will rebuild the tray icon cache and your system tray icons should display correctly again.
Icons still blank after a reboot?
The cache can sometimes rebuild incorrectly. Repeat Steps 2 and 3, or submit a support ticket.