Why Do Desktop Icons Keep Refreshing? | Fix It Now

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Desktop icons refresh when Explorer restarts, the icon cache breaks, sync apps update files, or drivers and shell extensions misbehave.

Your desktop is a live view of files and shortcuts. When Windows reloads that view, the screen flickers and icons redraw. A rare reload is fine. A loop steals focus, closes folders, and feels like a glitch. It’s fixable with a plan.

Fix desktop icons that keep refreshing: quick start

Start with the fastest checks. If the refresh loop stops at any step, you’re done.

  1. Restart Explorer: press Ctrl+Shift+Esc → right-click Windows Explorer → Restart.
  2. Pause sync tools for a minute (OneDrive, Dropbox, backup clients). If the flicker stops, adjust their settings or rescan.
  3. Check display driver: open Device Manager → Display adapters → update or roll back the driver if the redraws started after a change.
  4. Run system file repair from an admin Command Prompt: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth then sfc /scannow. Microsoft documents SFC and DISM steps.
  5. Clean boot Windows to rule out third-party services. Microsoft has step-by-step