🔍 [Fix] TortoiseGit Icon Overlays Not Showing? One Half-Width Space Beats OneDrive!

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Have you ever installed TortoiseGit, set up your repositories correctly, and yet...
no overlay icons appear on your files or folders?

No green checkmarks, no red exclamations, no modified icons — nothing.
Don't worry, you're not hallucinating. You're just a victim of one of Windows’ strangest limitations.

Let’s expose the real reason and show you how to fix it with just a single half-width space.

🧠 The Root Cause: Windows Icon Overlay Limit

Windows has a hardcoded legacy limit:

  • Only 15 overlay icon slots are supported

  • Of those, only 11 are actually used

  • Priority is determined by the name of the registry key (sorted alphabetically) — not install order

Now here’s the kicker: popular apps like OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, and even TortoiseGit all compete for these slots.

If OneDrive or Dropbox grabs those early slots, TortoiseGit’s icons won’t appear at all.

⚔️ The Fix: Add Half-Width Spaces to Registry Keys

To push TortoiseGit’s overlays to the top of the list, all we have to do is rename its registry keys — just add leading half-width spaces to the key names. That’s it!

✅ Step-by-step instructions:

  1. Open the Registry Editor

    • Press Win + R, type regedit, press Enter

  2. Navigate to:

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

  3. Look for all the keys starting with Tortoise:

    TortoiseNormal
TortoiseModified
TortoiseConflict
TortoiseAdded
...

  4. Right-click and rename each one, adding one or more half-width spaces at the beginning:

    For example:

    ␣␣TortoiseNormal
␣␣TortoiseModified
␣␣TortoiseConflict

    Windows sorts alphabetically, and spaces come before letters — so these renamed keys get prioritized.

  5. Restart File Explorer or reboot your PC:

    Use this command in Command Prompt to restart Explorer:

    taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
start explorer.exe

  6. Done! Your TortoiseGit icons should now show up as expected.

🕵️ Fun Fact: OneDrive & Google Drive Are Already Doing This

If you peek into the same registry path, you’ll probably see keys like:

 OneDrive1
 GoogleDrive1

Yes — they’re already adding spaces to their registry keys to get ahead of the competition.
Time to fight fire with fire. 🔥

✅ Summary

Problem Solution
TortoiseGit icons not showing Windows overlay limit exceeded
Cause OneDrive/Dropbox overlays have higher priority
Fix Add half-width spaces to registry key names

💡 Pro Tips

  • You can also delete overlay keys for apps you don’t use (like Dropbox or Box) to free up slots

  • Don’t use full-width (double-byte) spaces — only half-width (normal) spaces work

  • No need to reinstall TortoiseGit or Git

🧙 Final Words

So there you have it: the secret Windows limitation, the silent sabotage by cloud apps, and a low-tech hack that brings your Git overlays back to life.

Sometimes, all it takes is one little space to put your icons back where they belong. 😎

This article was last edited at