Icons Reloading When Using A Folder Shortcut On Taskbar

Windows 8.1

I have a folder in my documents that I have to access a lot. So, I have a shortcut on my taskbar to open that folder. This is instead of having the file explorer shortcut on the taskbar, which brings you to 'my computer.'

The way that I did this is that I created a shortcut on my desktop, and then edited the path by inserting the words explorer.exe 'file path here'
But instead of "file path here" you have the actual directory that the shortcut points to.
You then move the shortcut to the taskbar.

However, I am now having a problem with the shortcut. When I click it, most of the icons on the taskbar and many of the icons on the desktop change to a white rectangle. Within a half of a second or so, they load back to the regular icon. The icon for notepad documents is not affected.

When I open file explorer directly, the problem does not occur.

I booted into safe mode and the problem described did not occur.

Here is one idea that I had, but I don't know if it's useful at all (I haven't tried it yet):
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/rebuild-the-icon-cache-windows
Note: if you get the popup on that link, there is a small, not very noticeable button at the bottom where you can dismiss the notification.

 

This is how you do it.
https://www.howtogeek.com/281048/how-to-pin-folders-to-the-windows-taskbar/

Here's what it looks like after pinning a Folder Shortcut named Snapshots to the Taskbar. I also changed the icon.

 

Yes, that's actually the exact method that I used but I have the problem that I described.

Also, the icon flashed just now when I was navigating to where I wanted to save an excel spreadsheet in the "save as" dialogue.

 

See if rebuilding the Icon Cache fixes the problem.
The method in the link you posted is correct. Just delete the IconCache.db file and restart the PC.

 

Another thing that I want to point out is that when I run the shortcut my CPU usage goes to about 85% on each. It's a core 2 duo processor. This is with me opening no other programs except Open Hardware Monitor (which is what's telling me the CPU usage and the temperatures). That might not be abnormal, though. When I open just a web browser (though it's a resource intensive web browser), the CPU usage goes to 100% for about 5 seconds.

Another thing that I have noticed is that my ram usage has been high lately. It used to stay at around 1 GB. Now it stays around 1.8GB. There are a lot of things taking up small amounts of ram. The only thing that I know to blame (which is probably just a small amount responsible) is that I got the last couple months or so of Windows defender updates.

 

I just realized the likely correct theory as to why the ram usage went up. It's because I took out a video card that I had in there. The video card was a 2 GB video card, so that was allowing the system to use its video ram.

 

Consider updating the onboard graphics.

 

Ok, I think that's a good plan. I have a 300W power supply but it's not at my house. My plan is to get that at my next opportunity. I hope the specs on it are good because it's from around 2002. However, even with the graphics card, the issue still persisted. Nonetheless, it was a big help on the weak processor and ram. For basic computer use (web browsing, microsoft office), it took about 0.8GB load off of the ram, reducing the ram usage from 90% to 50%. Also, it helped the processor. A graphics card seems to be a good way to upgrade the power supply and ram indirectly.

I would also really like to test how much power on each rail is being used, and seeing how that goes up and down. But, such a tool might be on the expensive side.