Daily Dev Tips

How to Fix the Windows Terminal Error "Found a profile with an invalid 'icon'. Defaulting that profile to have no icon."

Qualiteg Product Development Team

Mar 16, 2025 — 1 min read

Photo by Gabriel Heinzer / Unsplash

This is an issue I have run into a few times after repeatedly installing and removing various versions of Linux on WSL.

Encountered errors while loading user settings

Found a profile with an invalid "icon". Defaulting that profile to have no icon. Make sure when setting an "icon", the value is a valid file path to an image.

This post is a report on the cause of this error and how to fix it.

Cause

A no-longer-used "zombie" profile remains behind in Windows Terminal (in its cache).

Fix

To get rid of this message, I had to reset the profiles once.

Note: be aware that your existing profile settings may be lost.

Step 1: Close Windows Terminal

Close all Windows Terminal windows completely.

Step 2: Delete settings.json

In File Explorer, navigate to the folder containing settings.json and delete the file.

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\

Step 3: Clear the Windows Terminal "cache"

Open the following folder and delete all files inside it.

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows Terminal\

Step 4: Restart Windows Terminal

After restarting Windows Terminal, the zombie profile was gone and the error disappeared as well.

Hardening a Raspberry Pi 5: SSH keys, UFW, fail2ban — and the trap where IPv6 comes back after a reboot

A freshly set up Raspberry Pi 5 is wide open: password auth enabled, no firewall, 172 pending updates. We harden it with SSH key-only auth, UFW, fail2ban, and automatic updates, disable IPv6, and verify it all with real reboots — including the trap where IPv6 comes back after a reboot.

Setting Up a Raspberry Pi 5 Without a Monitor: From OS Imaging to SSH Using Only a Windows PC

Set up a Raspberry Pi 5 with no monitor or micro HDMI cable, using only a Windows PC. We use the Raspberry Pi Imager CLI and firstrun.sh to preconfigure Wi-Fi and SSH, with the full procedure and measured timings — about 3 minutes from SD card insertion to an SSH connection.

Developing a LINE Bot Locally: Solving the Ever-Changing Webhook URL Problem with a Fixed URL

Hello! The first wall you hit when building a LINE Bot is not the code — it is the webhook. LINE's Messaging API delivers messages that users send to your bot as HTTPS POST requests from LINE's servers to your server. For this receiving endpoint (the Webhook

Use a Local LLM on Your Home PC from Your Phone While Out: Ollama + Open WebUI + WireCanal

Add a chat interface to the local LLM on your home PC (Ollama + gemma4) with Open WebUI, expose it safely through a tunnel, and use it from your phone while out — a fully measured, step-by-step guide. No Docker, no WSL, and no port forwarding required.