White Squares instead of Application Icons in Switch Applications

My "Switch Applications" (Command-Tab) has started sporadically showing a white square instead of one of the icons for the applications I have open. I can still click through to them, but it is a little disconcerting.
No particular application seems to be involved more than the others - Firefox, Finder, iTunes, and a Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client have all done this at one time or another today.
This may be related with the other problem that arose today: some application sub-windows sometimes appear simply as white window. (I mention this here because it may be relevant, but this problem has a separate thread: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=13094719#13094719)
Does anyone know how I can fix this? Thank you.

Do a backup.
Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library. Then go to Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist. Move the .plist to your desktop.
Re-launch Finder by restarting the computer and test. If it works okay, delete the plist from the desktop.
If the same, return the .plist to where you got it from, overwriting the newer one.
Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.

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White Squares instead of Application Icons in Switch Applications

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