Icons changed to blank pieces of paper

Could anyone tell me why some of my desk top and menu icons have changed from the originals to just blank pieces of paper? Only some of my icons have changed such as my Internet Explorer, Firefox, Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, etc. but not all.
I have tried to change the icons through the properties menu but do not see the original icon available as an option and could not locate it in the system files anywhere.

I have researched somewhat online and found threads in other forums that indicate the IconCache.db needs to be either deleted or rebuilt but at the same time found comments to both fixes that say neither one really works.
I did try to follow one of these instructions just to see if I could locate this cache file but could not find it in my User\AppData\Local file they indicate it should be in.

I am far from being a computer tech type so I've been unable to figure this out and apparently need some expert assistance!
Does anyone know of an easy fix to my problem that does work?

Please help!

Hello winterlady,
Try this tutorial and see if it helps.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/117229-icon-cache-rebuild.html

Good luck and post your results.

Thanks for your suggestion. I followed the instructions in the link you provided to both methods after the first did not work but after a few restarts my icons still remain unchanged, still blank pieces of paper.
I did read someone's reply at that link who is experiencing similar problems without success also after trying to rebuild the icon cache although they refer to the problem icons as .exe or .sis with a link to additional instructions for file association fixes, etc. unfortunately with not being very computer knowledgeable I was completely lost and afraid!
But I did follow the instructions to set my Program Defaults Associations as it said to try if nothing changed, although not real sure I did it correctly, that did not address my problem either.
Some of my messed up icons are just desktop short cuts but others including those in my start and program menus are .exe files, for example my Internet Explorer, Firefox and Microsoft Works icons, as far as .sis files I do not have a clue what those are??
Although I followed the link and downloaded the file association fix I am afraid to run (merge) it, because I don't want to do something that's going to mess up my system as it's fairly new, only about 7-8 months old, so I really need some guided help with this or maybe I should just learn to live with the little pieces of paper instead of the correct icons being displayed.
I will take any further suggestions or help if possible!

Were the icons on your desktop and you deleted them? That`s how I get them messed up.

No not for most of them, a couple yes, but for example my Adobe Photoshop and iTunes have been like that since first installed.