Hi All,

Been playing around testing my app on Vista and I cannot seem to get it to
display a large icon. On the Vista desktop, if I right click and select
View->Large Icons, my app stays at 64x64 with a square around it, while
others (like MS Word) ramp right up to 128x128.

I've added a 128x128 icon into my application icon, and i've even added a
256x256 icon in as well (read somewhere that Vista ignores the 128px and
scales down the 256px icon instead), but it didn't work either way. Both
are currently high color, but it failed when they were set to true color as
well.

Does anyone know how to get a large icon to work?

TIA,
Alex

Dear Alex,

Thanks for using Newsgroup service!

Based on my understanding, you have created an .ico file with 256x256
and128x128 size images in it, and assign this .ico file to your
application, then put this application on the desktop of a Vista machine
and change the desktop view to Large Icons, but the icon of your
application won't be rendered as 128x128 size as you want.

As far as I know, an .ico file with a 256x256 size PNG image in it will be
displayed correctly on Vista desktop.

You can open your apllication execution file in the Visual Studio via
"File->Open->File...", and check whether the 256x256 size image in the
application icon file is of PNG type.

I use the following steps on my Windows Vista Enterprise(32bit) machine,
the icon of the application displays as 128x128 size as expected.

1. Open an .icon file creation tool (Microangelo Studio or similar);
2. Create an new image with 256x256 size, 32bit ARGB color depth, and PNG
compression;
3. Create an new image with 128x128 size, 32bit ARGB color depth, and PNG
compression;
4. Create an new image with 48 x 48 size, 32bit ARGB color depth, and
none compression;
5 .Create an new image with 32 x 32 size, 32bit ARGB color depth, and
none compression;
6. Create an new image with 16x 16 size, 32bit ARGB color depth, and
none compression;
7. Draw something on the images;
8. Save the .ico file;
9. Create a test Windows Forms application on Visual Studio Team System
2008;
10. Right click on project node in the Solution Explorer and select the
"Properties" item;
11. On the "Icon and manifest" section of the "Application" project
properties page, select the icon file created in the previous steps;
12. Build the application, and copy the execution file to the desktop.
13. Right click on the desktop and select "View->Large Icons".

Please try these steps and let me know the result.

Sincerely,
Zhi-Xin Ye
Microsoft Managed Newsgroup Support Team

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
(E-Mail Removed).

==================================================
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Note: The MSDN Managed Newsgroup support offering is for non-urgent issues
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Engineer within 1 business day is acceptable. Please note that each follow
up response may take approximately 2 business days as the support
professional working with you may need further investigation to reach the
most efficient resolution. The offering is not appropriate for situations
that require urgent, real-time or phone-based interactions or complex
project analysis and dump analysis issues. Issues of this nature are best
handled working with a dedicated Microsoft Support Engineer by contacting
Microsoft Customer Support Services (CSS) at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscripti...t/default.aspx.
==================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Hi Zhin-xin,

Thanks, doing this seemed to solve the problem. I was initially thrown off
by the fact that, although this *does* work on the Vista desktop for a .exe,
it doesn't seem to work for a .ico? Not a problem to me, but slightly odd
behaviour!

The other gotcha was that Vista appears to ignore 128x128 icons and instead
use the 256x256 icon scaled down 50%. It was a learning experience,
certainly!

Kind Regards,
Alex


"Zhi-xin Ye" <v-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:L$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Dear Alex,
>
> Thanks for using Newsgroup service!
>
> Based on my understanding, you have created an .ico file with 256x256
> and128x128 size images in it, and assign this .ico file to your
> application, then put this application on the desktop of a Vista machine
> and change the desktop view to Large Icons, but the icon of your
> application won't be rendered as 128x128 size as you want.
>
> As far as I know, an .ico file with a 256x256 size PNG image in it will
> be
> displayed correctly on Vista desktop.
>
> You can open your apllication execution file in the Visual Studio via
> "File->Open->File...", and check whether the 256x256 size image in the
> application icon file is of PNG type.
>
> I use the following steps on my Windows Vista Enterprise(32bit) machine,
> the icon of the application displays as 128x128 size as expected.
>
> 1. Open an .icon file creation tool (Microangelo Studio or similar);
> 2. Create an new image with 256x256 size, 32bit ARGB color depth, and PNG
> compression;
> 3. Create an new image with 128x128 size, 32bit ARGB color depth, and PNG
> compression;
> 4. Create an new image with 48 x 48 size, 32bit ARGB color depth, and
> none compression;
> 5 .Create an new image with 32 x 32 size, 32bit ARGB color depth, and
> none compression;
> 6. Create an new image with 16x 16 size, 32bit ARGB color depth, and
> none compression;
> 7. Draw something on the images;
> 8. Save the .ico file;
> 9. Create a test Windows Forms application on Visual Studio Team System
> 2008;
> 10. Right click on project node in the Solution Explorer and select the
> "Properties" item;
> 11. On the "Icon and manifest" section of the "Application" project
> properties page, select the icon file created in the previous steps;
> 12. Build the application, and copy the execution file to the desktop.
> 13. Right click on the desktop and select "View->Large Icons".
>
> Please try these steps and let me know the result.
>
> Sincerely,
> Zhi-Xin Ye
> Microsoft Managed Newsgroup Support Team
>
> Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
> suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
> feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
> provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
> (E-Mail Removed).
>
> ==================================================
> Get notification to my posts through email? Please refer to
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscripti...ult.aspx#notif
> ications.
>
> Note: The MSDN Managed Newsgroup support offering is for non-urgent issues
> where an initial response from the community or a Microsoft Support
> Engineer within 1 business day is acceptable. Please note that each follow
> up response may take approximately 2 business days as the support
> professional working with you may need further investigation to reach the
> most efficient resolution. The offering is not appropriate for situations
> that require urgent, real-time or phone-based interactions or complex
> project analysis and dump analysis issues. Issues of this nature are best
> handled working with a dedicated Microsoft Support Engineer by contacting
> Microsoft Customer Support Services (CSS) at
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscripti...t/default.aspx.
> ==================================================
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
> rights.
>
>

Dear Alex,

Thanks for your feedback.

As I test, when change the desktop view to "Large Icons", if the icon file
does not have any previous versions, it will displayed as 128x128 size if
it contains a 256x256 PNG image.

However, if there're previous versions of this icon file exist, Vista will
use the image of the previous version.

For example, test with the following steps you will see this behaviour:

1. Create a new icon file with only 32x32 image and 16x16 image in it;
2. Save the icon file with a name which never be used before(e.g.
"icon112233");
4. Close the icon file;
3. Copy the icon file to Vista desktop;
4. Reopen the icon file and add a 256x256 PNG image into it;
5. Save the icon file;
6. Go to desktop and delete the previous icon "icon112233.ico";
7. Copy the icon file to desktop again;
8. Change the desktop view to "Large Icons";

We will see the icon file displays the 32x32 size image as the previous
version does instead of the current version's 256x256 size image.

If we change the name of the icon file to a name which never be used
before, for example "icon112234", then we can see the icon file displays as
128x128 size as expected.

For more information about the previous versions of files on Vista, you can
refer to these:

Windows Vista "Time Warp": Understanding Vista's Backup and Restore
Technologies
http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Charl...Warpquot-Under
standing-Vistas-Backup-and-Restore-Technologies/

Previous versions of files: frequently asked questions
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...d63-4e07-a482-
d7004a8f40121033.mspx#EI

For more information about the Icons used on Vista, you can refer to this
document:

Icons
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511280.aspx

If you need further help on this problem, please feel free to let me know.

Sincerely,
Zhi-Xin Ye
Microsoft Managed Newsgroup Support Team

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
(E-Mail Removed).

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Ahh, that would explain a lot. I think I started with an icon that only
went up to 64x64, and then replaced it with an icon file that went all the
way up to 256x256 and had this exact behaviour. It never ocurred to me that
Vista's versioning of files would be interfering...

I did take manual steps to clear the icon cache, and even rebooted the
system, but it still remained as the old version. Presumably Vista was
maintaining the file versions between sessions (and deleting the icon cache
was a red herring)?

Thanks,
Alex



"Zhi-xin Ye" <v-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Dear Alex,
>
> Thanks for your feedback.
>
> As I test, when change the desktop view to "Large Icons", if the icon file
> does not have any previous versions, it will displayed as 128x128 size if
> it contains a 256x256 PNG image.
>
> However, if there're previous versions of this icon file exist, Vista will
> use the image of the previous version.
>
> For example, test with the following steps you will see this behaviour:
>
> 1. Create a new icon file with only 32x32 image and 16x16 image in it;
> 2. Save the icon file with a name which never be used before(e.g.
> "icon112233");
> 4. Close the icon file;
> 3. Copy the icon file to Vista desktop;
> 4. Reopen the icon file and add a 256x256 PNG image into it;
> 5. Save the icon file;
> 6. Go to desktop and delete the previous icon "icon112233.ico";
> 7. Copy the icon file to desktop again;
> 8. Change the desktop view to "Large Icons";
>
> We will see the icon file displays the 32x32 size image as the previous
> version does instead of the current version's 256x256 size image.
>
> If we change the name of the icon file to a name which never be used
> before, for example "icon112234", then we can see the icon file displays
> as
> 128x128 size as expected.
>
> For more information about the previous versions of files on Vista, you
> can
> refer to these:
>
> Windows Vista "Time Warp": Understanding Vista's Backup and Restore
> Technologies
> http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Charl...Warpquot-Under
> standing-Vistas-Backup-and-Restore-Technologies/
>
> Previous versions of files: frequently asked questions
> http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...d63-4e07-a482-
> d7004a8f40121033.mspx#EI
>
> For more information about the Icons used on Vista, you can refer to this
> document:
>
> Icons
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511280.aspx
>
> If you need further help on this problem, please feel free to let me know.
>
> Sincerely,
> Zhi-Xin Ye
> Microsoft Managed Newsgroup Support Team
>
> Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
> suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
> feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
> provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
> (E-Mail Removed).
>
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
> rights.
>
>
>

Dear Alex,

Thank you for the feedback.

After more research on this issue, I find that this behavior is caused by
the icon caching, instead of file versions, I'm sorry for the confusion.

OS uses icon caching to speed up showing icons for files, so when
displaying icons, the OS tries to use the cached copy of icon instead of
the one embedded in the file. And for Vista, the cached icons are store in
the hidden IconCache.db file, which is located at "C:\Users\(your account
name)\AppData\Local".

So to display the correct icon, we can delete the IconCache.db file to
force the icon files to display new image. There're two ways to do this:

Solution1:

1. Click the Start button;
2. Hold down CTRL+SHIFT keys and right click on empty area in the Start
Menu;
3. Click "Exit Explorer";
4. Hold down CTRL+SHIFT+ESC keys to open the Task Manager;
5. Click File->New Task, and input "cmd.exe", press Enter key;
6. In the command line window, type "cd %userprofile%\AppData\Local", press
Enter key;
7. Type "attrib -h IconCache.db" and press Enter key;
8. Type "del IconCache.db" and presss Enter key;
9. Type "start explorer" and press Enter key;

Solution 2:

1. Open Control Panel;
2. Click "Classic View" link on the left;
3. Double click the "Folder Options";
4. Click the "View" tab;
5. Click the "Show hidden files and folders" option from the list;
6. Open Windows Explorer and go to "C:\Users\(your account
name)\AppData\Local";
7. Delete the hidden IconCache.db file;
8. Reboot;

After the steps in either solutions, the Vista Icon Cache should have been
rebuilt.

I notice that you mentioned you "take manual steps to clear the icon cache"
and even perform a reboot, could you please let me know your steps to
clear the icon cache? Does your steps the same as mine?

I'm looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,
Zhi-Xin Ye
Microsoft Managed Newsgroup Support Team

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
(E-Mail Removed).

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Hi Zhi-xin,

I took virtually identical steps to your "solution 2", deleting the
IconCache.db file and then rebooting, but it still didn't seem to display
the .ico file properly. It was more of an oddity than anything else, as the
..exe *did* display the correct icon just fine.

Could it be that Vista's treatment of .ico files is different to .exe files
in terms of displaying large icons on the desktop?

Thanks,
Alex



"Zhi-xin Ye" <v-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Dear Alex,
>
> Thank you for the feedback.
>
> After more research on this issue, I find that this behavior is caused by
> the icon caching, instead of file versions, I'm sorry for the confusion.
>
> OS uses icon caching to speed up showing icons for files, so when
> displaying icons, the OS tries to use the cached copy of icon instead of
> the one embedded in the file. And for Vista, the cached icons are store in
> the hidden IconCache.db file, which is located at "C:\Users\(your account
> name)\AppData\Local".
>
> So to display the correct icon, we can delete the IconCache.db file to
> force the icon files to display new image. There're two ways to do this:
>
> Solution1:
>
> 1. Click the Start button;
> 2. Hold down CTRL+SHIFT keys and right click on empty area in the Start
> Menu;
> 3. Click "Exit Explorer";
> 4. Hold down CTRL+SHIFT+ESC keys to open the Task Manager;
> 5. Click File->New Task, and input "cmd.exe", press Enter key;
> 6. In the command line window, type "cd %userprofile%\AppData\Local",
> press
> Enter key;
> 7. Type "attrib -h IconCache.db" and press Enter key;
> 8. Type "del IconCache.db" and presss Enter key;
> 9. Type "start explorer" and press Enter key;
>
> Solution 2:
>
> 1. Open Control Panel;
> 2. Click "Classic View" link on the left;
> 3. Double click the "Folder Options";
> 4. Click the "View" tab;
> 5. Click the "Show hidden files and folders" option from the list;
> 6. Open Windows Explorer and go to "C:\Users\(your account
> name)\AppData\Local";
> 7. Delete the hidden IconCache.db file;
> 8. Reboot;
>
> After the steps in either solutions, the Vista Icon Cache should have been
> rebuilt.
>
> I notice that you mentioned you "take manual steps to clear the icon
> cache"
> and even perform a reboot, could you please let me know your steps to
> clear the icon cache? Does your steps the same as mine?
>
> I'm looking forward to hearing from you soon.
>
> Sincerely,
> Zhi-Xin Ye
> Microsoft Managed Newsgroup Support Team
>
> Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
> suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
> feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
> provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
> (E-Mail Removed).
>
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
> rights.
>

Dear Alex,

I don't think Vista's treatment of .ico files is different to .exe files in
terms of displaying large icons on the desktop.

As I tested with both solutions I posted in my last reply on many Vista
machines, they all work fine.

Have you tried my solution 1? Maybe keeping the Windows Explorer off while
deleting the IconCache.db file would make some differences.

You can also try my solutions on another Vista machine or another account
to see whether this problem still exist or not.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you soon!

Sincerely,
Zhi-Xin Ye
Microsoft Managed Newsgroup Support Team

Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
(E-Mail Removed).

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Hi Zhi-xin,

This is the weirdest thing, but it's stopped working altogether now!

I have created my .ico file and I have followed your guidelines. In my .ico
file, I have:

256x256x32bit, PNG
128x128x32bit, PNG
64x64x32bit, no compression
64x64 256 colors, no compression
48x48 256 colors, no compression
32x32 256 colors, no compression
16x16 256 colors, no compression

Now, either as a .ico file or embedded as my application's main icon, I
cannot get it to display as a large icon. This is now happening either on
the Vista desktop or in a folder window!

I feel like maybe I changed something with the .ico file, but I can't think
what?

Does it make a difference that I'm on Vista Ultimate RTM and not SP1?

Kind regards,
Alex



"Zhi-xin Ye" <v-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:1ZeY3%(E-Mail Removed)...
> Dear Alex,
>
> I don't think Vista's treatment of .ico files is different to .exe files
> in
> terms of displaying large icons on the desktop.
>
> As I tested with both solutions I posted in my last reply on many Vista
> machines, they all work fine.
>
> Have you tried my solution 1? Maybe keeping the Windows Explorer off while
> deleting the IconCache.db file would make some differences.
>
> You can also try my solutions on another Vista machine or another account
> to see whether this problem still exist or not.
>
> I'm looking forward to hearing from you soon!
>
> Sincerely,
> Zhi-Xin Ye
> Microsoft Managed Newsgroup Support Team
>
> Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
> suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you. Please
> feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
> provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
> (E-Mail Removed).
>
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
> rights.
>
>
>

Hi Zhi-xin,

I tried your "solution 1" for clearing the icon cache (never knew that
little trick existed for exiting explorer, nice!) and it had the following
results:

1) It *did* work for my .exe - the large icon displayed perfectly straight
afterwards on the desktop and in the folder window

2) It does *not* appear to have worked for the .ico file. Interestingly, I
also have a shortcut to my app on the desktop and that doesn't display the
large icon either, however that was created during a Windows Installer setup
from before I altered the icon in my app, so I'm wondering if the installer
keeps its own copy of the icon somewhere when it creates that shortcut?

Thanks,
Alex


"Alex Clark" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi Zhi-xin,
>
> This is the weirdest thing, but it's stopped working altogether now!
>
> I have created my .ico file and I have followed your guidelines. In my
> .ico file, I have:
>
> 256x256x32bit, PNG
> 128x128x32bit, PNG
> 64x64x32bit, no compression
> 64x64 256 colors, no compression
> 48x48 256 colors, no compression
> 32x32 256 colors, no compression
> 16x16 256 colors, no compression
>
> Now, either as a .ico file or embedded as my application's main icon, I
> cannot get it to display as a large icon. This is now happening either on
> the Vista desktop or in a folder window!
>
> I feel like maybe I changed something with the .ico file, but I can't
> think what?
>
> Does it make a difference that I'm on Vista Ultimate RTM and not SP1?
>
> Kind regards,
> Alex
>
>
>
> "Zhi-xin Ye" <v-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:1ZeY3%(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Dear Alex,
>>
>> I don't think Vista's treatment of .ico files is different to .exe files
>> in
>> terms of displaying large icons on the desktop.
>>
>> As I tested with both solutions I posted in my last reply on many Vista
>> machines, they all work fine.
>>
>> Have you tried my solution 1? Maybe keeping the Windows Explorer off
>> while
>> deleting the IconCache.db file would make some differences.
>>
>> You can also try my solutions on another Vista machine or another account
>> to see whether this problem still exist or not.
>>
>> I'm looking forward to hearing from you soon!
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> Zhi-Xin Ye
>> Microsoft Managed Newsgroup Support Team
>>
>> Delighting our customers is our #1 priority. We welcome your comments and
>> suggestions about how we can improve the support we provide to you.
>> Please
>> feel free to let my manager know what you think of the level of service
>> provided. You can send feedback directly to my manager at:
>> (E-Mail Removed).
>>
>> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
>> rights.
>>
>>
>>
>
>