When I open File Explorer in the Virtual Desktop, or an Open/Save window of a virtualized application, after reset the sandbox, it takes about 1 minute to display the content, and going to check the VTRoot folder I see that it has increased by about 2 GB. Is this a normal behavior, or is’t a bug?
For me that I’ve a HDD is not a big problem, just the waiting time, but if I had an SSD I imagine that writing 2 GB every time would not be the best for the device health, if reset the sandbox frequently.
Checking the contents of the VTRoot folder I saw that it was the iconcache_256.db file that had reached 1.88 GB, so I proceeded to remove it from the %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer folder, and now the loading times are normal even after the reset.
Bear in mind that the icon cache is what it says it is:- all the app’s icons that you sandbox. Icons are the little pictures you click on to open programs if it’s a new word to you.
You have another program or programs that are ultimately at fault for passing 1.8GB of icons, which at 256x256 weigh between 2000 and 5000 apps depending on individual compression. That is how many program pictures that your iconcache db contained.
Apps themselves can keep icon databases in dll files, or embedded in the exe that CIS will pull out to sever any connection between underlying system and sandbox. Most of the dlls are actually libraries with dozens. For example, Explorer has an icon library with “This PC”, the standard folders, as well as all other system icons like control panel and network connections held in a single file and used by lots of programs.
Another possibility is a program that scans all your files like an antivirus would… during those accesses CIS could be pulling icons to sandbox them as they are now in use by said program.
Try to do your search stuff outside of the Sandbox. It will get bigger the more you traverse random folders.
It’s probably because over time I “created” about 570 icons, almost all of 256 px, because I like the links with large icons… so I downloaded jpg or png from the internet, and then with Gimp I converted them into 256 px icons, and if I didn’t like the result, I saved the changes as a new file, because once the icon is cached it’s no longer updated, so perhaps the sum of all those modifications could have led the iconcache file to reach those dimensions. So far, after I deleted it has reached about 116 MB.
In my opinion MS should also include the cleanup of the iconcache.