Windows doesn't really store icons but reads the various programs' .ico, .exe and .dll files to get the icons. The ShellIconCache file contains those mostly for the Desktop icons, deleting it merely requires Windows to re-read the originally location/s and rebuild the cache.
If you're wanting to save the icons, first do a search for *.ico of the hard drive and second find and download then install an icon 'harvesting' program, such as listed here:
<a target="_blank" href=http://www.google.com/search?q=extracting+icons&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=>http://www.google.com/search?q=extracting+icons&btnG=Search&hl=en&lr=</a>.
<font color=blue>Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.</font color=blue> <font color=green>Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.</font color=green>