How to fix missing TortoiseGit icon overlays on Windows

💡 When Windows Explorer loses the status icons, suspect the icon overlay handler cap and priority conflict.
Pushing the TortoiseGit entries to the top of the registry list restores the overlays.

Problem summary

• Windows Explorer does not display TortoiseGit status icons
• The issue often appears when many programs install overlay handlers

Symptoms

Git status icons that should appear on files and folders remain hidden.

Cause

• Windows Explorer only uses a limited number of icon overlay handlers
• Only part of the entries under ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers is loaded
• The limit is known to be around 15 entries
• When other software adds many handlers, the TortoiseGit entries can be pushed out of the active list

Fix

1. Launch Registry Editor

• Start → Run → regedit

2. Move to the target path

Navigate to:

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

3. Back up before editing

• Always export a backup before changing anything
• Right-click ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers → Export

⚠️ Deleting keys is hard to undo. Keep the backup so you can restore the list if necessary.

4. Adjust priority

The goal is to move the TortoiseGit entries toward the top:

• Prefix TortoiseGit key names with spaces or numbers so they sort earlier
• Remove overlay entries you do not need
• Keep the total count within the limit

Before

After

Apply the change

Restart Explorer

You do not need to reboot. Restarting Explorer is enough.

• Use Task Manager to end the Windows Explorer task

  

• Run C:\Windows\explorer.exe to launch it again

  

  

Verification

• Press F5 in Explorer

• Confirm that Git status icons appear again