Desktop Icons Repainting Themselves

[Ron]

Trying to help my father (through email) find a solution to his
desktop icons repainting themselves on a Windows XP Home system.

3.20GHz Intel Celeron - 2GB of RAM - 80GB HDD 75% full.

This is what we've done so far, and they are still repainting.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q132668

(I had the same problem a while back and changing the Max Cached Icons
value to 4096 corrected my problem, we have his set to 8192)

Changed the icon size from 32 to 34.

Tried Tweak UI.

And the last thing that we tried was running scandisk.

I wanted him to try scf /scannow but he doesn't have a OS disc.

I'm out of options after searching Google for a week now.

Help please.

 

[Elmo]

Trying to help my father (through email) find a solution to his
desktop icons repainting themselves on a Windows XP Home system.

3.20GHz Intel Celeron - 2GB of RAM - 80GB HDD 75% full.

This is what we've done so far, and they are still repainting.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q132668

(I had the same problem a while back and changing the Max Cached Icons
value to 4096 corrected my problem, we have his set to 8192)

Changed the icon size from 32 to 34.

Tried Tweak UI.

And the last thing that we tried was running scandisk.

I wanted him to try scf /scannow but he doesn't have an OS disc.

That would be SFC /SCANNOW It stands for System File Checker. If your
dad's computer has the \i386 folder, and hasn't updated to a sp newer
than the OS he started with, SFC should work anyway. I doubt it would
help with the icons refreshing though.

I'm out of options after searching Google for a week now.

Help please.

Maybe this:

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
Line 157. Prevent Automatic Folder and Icon Refresh - Enable

 

[Ron]

That would be SFC /SCANNOW  It stands for System File Checker.  If your
dad's computer has the \i386 folder, and hasn't updated to a sp newer
than the OS he started with, SFC should work anyway.  I doubt it would
help with the icons refreshing though.

Yeah, he had SP2 and is now on SP3.

Maybe this:

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
Line 157.  Prevent Automatic Folder and Icon Refresh - Enable

That only changes the Max Cached Icons value to some unbelievably high
number. (over 8192) I tried that tool on my computer when I had the
same problem.

 

[Big_Al]

Ron said this on 2/15/2009 1:41 PM:

Yeah, he had SP2 and is now on SP3.


That only changes the Max Cached Icons value to some unbelievably high
number. (over 8192) I tried that tool on my computer when I had the
same problem.

Out of curiosity, how many icons does he have? If its high, could he
make folders on the desktop and store some of the desktop items in a few
folders?
Or better yet, could he make a folder elsewhere like C:\stuff and then
make a link on the desktop to that folder and put most of the desktop in
C:\stuff folder. I'm not a avid fan of storing everything on the
desktop, only the 8 frequent links. I find most of my software is on
the start menu. Yes I know, the desktop is just what its for but I'm
still not into it. Just a thought!

 

[Ron]

Ron said this on 2/15/2009 1:41 PM:






Out of curiosity, how many icons does he have?   If its high, could he
make folders on the desktop and store some of the desktop items in a few
folders?
Or better yet, could he make a folder elsewhere like C:\stuff and then
make a link on the desktop to that folder and put most of the desktop in
C:\stuff folder.     I'm not a avid fan of storing everything on the
desktop, only the 8 frequent links.   I find most of my software is on
the start menu.  Yes I know, the desktop is just what its for but I'm
still not into it.   Just a thought!

He has just over 50, about the same amount that I have. All of his are
programs, except for 3, one for Google, one for eBay and one for
Craigslist. All of mine are programs, and work perfectly since
changing the Max Cached Icons value to 4096.

 

[Ron]

Trying to help my father (through email) find a solution to his
desktop icons repainting themselves on a Windows XP Home system.

3.20GHz Intel Celeron - 2GB of RAM - 80GB HDD 75% full.

This is what we've done so far, and they are still repainting.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q132668

(I had the same problem a while back and changing the Max Cached Icons
value to 4096 corrected my problem, we have his set to 8192)

Changed the icon size from 32 to 34.

Tried Tweak UI.

And the last thing that we tried was running scandisk.

I wanted him to try scf /scannow but he doesn't have a OS disc.

I'm out of options after searching Google for a week now.

Help please.

Anyone else have an solution?

Also, is there supposed to be a "Shell Icon Cache" file on XP?

I've read that on XP it's the same thing as "Icon Cache.db" but my
computer has both and my fathers computer only has the "Icon Cache.db"
file which we deleted and it recreated itself.

 

[Kelly]

See line 157: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm


--

All the Best and Happy Mardi Gras,
Kelly (MS-MVP/DTS&XP)

Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm

Trying to help my father (through email) find a solution to his
desktop icons repainting themselves on a Windows XP Home system.

3.20GHz Intel Celeron - 2GB of RAM - 80GB HDD 75% full.

This is what we've done so far, and they are still repainting.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q132668

(I had the same problem a while back and changing the Max Cached Icons
value to 4096 corrected my problem, we have his set to 8192)

Changed the icon size from 32 to 34.

Tried Tweak UI.

And the last thing that we tried was running scandisk.

I wanted him to try scf /scannow but he doesn't have a OS disc.

I'm out of options after searching Google for a week now.

Help please.

Anyone else have an solution?

Also, is there supposed to be a "Shell Icon Cache" file on XP?

I've read that on XP it's the same thing as "Icon Cache.db" but my
computer has both and my fathers computer only has the "Icon Cache.db"
file which we deleted and it recreated itself.

 

[Ron]

See line 157:  http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

What *exactly* does that do? I tried line 121. "Increase Icon Cache"
when I first started working on this problem, and it changed the Icon
Cache value to 12000! That is waaaaaaaay higher than highest
recommended setting of 8192.

 

[smlunatick]

Trying to help my father (through email) find a solution to his
desktop icons repainting themselves on a Windows XP Home system.

3.20GHz Intel Celeron - 2GB of RAM - 80GB HDD 75% full.

This is what we've done so far, and they are still repainting.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q132668

(I had the same problem a while back and changing the Max Cached Icons
value to 4096 corrected my problem, we have his set to 8192)

Changed the icon size from 32 to 34.

Tried Tweak UI.

And the last thing that we tried was running scandisk.

I wanted him to try scf /scannow but he doesn't have a OS disc.

I'm out of options after searching Google for a week now.

Help please.

I've encountered this when using McAfee anti-virus. If the settings
are set to scan all file types, the desktop will be constantly
refreshed.

 

[Ron]

I've encountered this when using McAfee anti-virus.  If the settings
are set to scan all file types, the desktop will be constantly
refreshed.

He's using AVG free.