SOLVED - TortoiseSVN icon Overlays are not Showing in Windows 10

It is so convenient that we can easily check the file status of TortoiseSVN by the icon overlays. However, it is sometimes occurred that SVN icon overlays are not showing. Take it easy! In this post, we will introduce four methods to fix the issue of TortoiseSVN icon overlays are not showing in Windows 10.

Method 1: Settings of TortoiseSVN

The first common method to solve the issue that SVN icon overlays are not showing in Windows 10 is to check the settings of TortoiseSVN. You can try this way for whatever reason.

Step 1: Right-click anywhere blank on desktop. Then move the mouse cursor over TortoiseSVN and select Settings option on the new context menu.

Step 2: On TortoiseSVN Settings window, click Icon Overlays in the left panel.

Step 3: On the right panel, select Default or Shell option in Status cache section and check the checkbox of Fixed drives in the Drive Types section. Then click OK button to save the changes. Finally, the svn icon overlays will show again.

Method 2: Windows Registry

Due to the limited number of overlay icons supported by Windows Explorer Shell, if the priority of TortoiseSVN icon overlays is not high enough, the icon overlays will not be shown in windows 10. In this case, you can improve the priority of TortoiseSVN icon overlays by Windows Registry to show them again. Here are the detailed steps.

Step 1: Hit Windows key + R shortcut to bring up the Run box and then type regedit and hit Enter to launch the Registry Editor.

Step 2: Navigate to the following path:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers

Step 3: If you find out the Tortoise folders are in a back position, rename the Tortoise folders' name to bring them on top ensuring all of the Tortoise folders are within the top 15. You can use whatever naming convention you prefer such as inserting a space in front of folder's name.

Step 4: Restart your computer or Windows Explorer. Finally, you can find out the SVN icon overlays are showing in Windows 10 again.

Method 3: System Genius

Sometimes some application services might interfere with Windows system, which can cause the TortoiseSVN icon overlays are not showing in Windows 10. To figure out which one is interfering with, you can disable the service one by one and check whether the TortoiseSVN icon overlays are showing or not. However, some services are not recommended to be disabled because they will affect the operation of Windows. So, which services can be disabled? Here we recommend a Windows system optimizer tool named System Genius, which offers you a professional suggestion to enable or disable various system services. Here is the guide.

Step 1: Download System Genius and install it on your computer.

Step 2: Launch it and select System Service option in the left panel. Then all the services are shown in the right panel.

Step 3: According to the suggestions, you can click Disable button to disable a service one by one and check whether the TortoiseSVN icon overlays are showing or not. (Tips: On the Suggest tab, you can disable the services with Suggest Opening, Suggest Disabling, and Keep Current tabs but the services with Must open can't be disabled.)

NOTES: In the end, all the operations are recorded in Service Log and you just need one click to restore the original state of services.

Download: System Genius

Method 4: ShellExView

The ShellExView utility can show you the details of shell extensions installed on your computer including TortoiseSVN and allow you to easily enable or disable each shell extension. Once you download the application, follow these steps:

Step 1: Launch it and click Type tab. Then scroll down until you find Icon Overlay Handler.

Step 2: Now you'll see all of the icon overlay handler on your computer. If you find out the Icon Overlay Handler of Tortoise is disabled, select it and click the green circle in the toolbar to enable it. You can also select the Icon Overlay Handler that you want to disable and click the red circle.