Desktop Icons Wont Stay Changed

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?Zachariah=AE?=]

Whenever I customize my desktop icons they don't stay
customized. Every time I reset my computer or switch
users the customized desktop icons change back to the
default icons. This problem just recently happened and I
do not know what to do.


-Zachariah®

 

[adamman123]

Wow I totally just posted the same thing 15 minutes ago.
What have you tried?

 

[anonymous]

after you change the icons switch back to 'theme' tab.
if the box has (modified) use the save as button to save
you new theme to a file. save this file. if your theme
changes you can use this file to bring back the desired
theme. you can have as many theme files as you desire.
one for each day is cool.

 

[Chad Harris]

Whenever I customize my desktop icons they don't stay
customized. Every time I reset my computer or switch
users the customized desktop icons change back to the
default icons. This problem just recently happened and I
do not know what to do.


-Zachariah®

____________________________________________________________________________
________

Zacharia--

This may be a different issue entirely because I'm not sure what they
default back to but I wanted to make sure you know that you can right click
an icon>Properties> and use the change icon dialogue box or you can use
"favicon.ico" as a url suffix to find a favicon--often disguised in a black
square and sometimes not and sub it for the bland IE "e" but you have to 1)
change the name of the favicon 2) save it in a folder

Actually there are hundereds of icons you could sub for it by going a little
further down that path without even using one of the icon harvesters (free
or about $30) that abound on the web. Here's how:

*Harvesting Icons from A Windows OS without a 3rd Party Icon Harvester*

Just to add that this is a route toward harvesting hundreds of icons native
to a Windows operating system. Right click a shortcut> or a
folder>Properties>Change Icon Button>(or Modify in case of some
folders)>Browse>Change Icon Dialogue Box.
1) You can use the small icons in the system 32 folder to troll. Stretch
that folder to as large as you can . Behind many of them will be a cache of
icons both those with the .dll extention and without it. You have to just
try them all. For example, moricons.dll, pifmgr.dll, hiticons.dll,
shell32.dll are examples. This is one track.
2) Every other folder, especially installed program folders, even hidden
folders are game, and yield icons. System folders usually won't yield icons.
Never say never. Even hidden folders that are unhidden by the setting in
Explorer>Tools>Folder Options>View Tab>Show All Hidden Folders and Show
Windows Folders.
3) Use the pulldown at the top the "Look In" slot, to navigate as if it were
Windows Explorer, and go into every drive you have, and recently used
folders will show up for quick access at the "file name" pull up at the
bottom. Only so much room there; folders get bumped by newest.

Right click on an icon>properties>change icon . From that property box you
can search a lot of places, and when you open these folders, you will see
icons in many of them--some 5, some 20 or 30, some over 100. With some
icons, you have to hit the "customize button" first. Many of the iconnettes
in that shell32 folder have icons stashed in them, particularly the ones
with icons instead of bland manilla folders and many more of the .dlls have
them in that folder. When you get a minute search wherever you have some of
your programs, search the Microsoft Word>Word> and Microsoft Word>Outlook
for example folder or Win Media Player Folder or any Adobe program if you
have one or any Program folder (using the Rt. Click Properties route to
them) and using the "Look In" pull down at the top of the "Change Icons
Properties Dialogue Box" to get to them.

You can also get a number of icons by adding "favicon.ico" to a url, and
dragging it to the desktop. To keep it, you have to 1) change the name 2)
Drag it into a folder or clearing temporary internet files will clear your
new icon. You can then go the route above to apply this new "saved
favicon."

hth--may be off topic, but it will allow you to nail a lot of extra icons
and keep them from disappearing on reboot or when you clear temporary
internet files where favicons are stored.

Chad Harris

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?Zachariah=AE?=]

Thank you all for your generosity in sharing knowledge.
Unfortunately everything that was suggested did not work.
My main icons such as "My Computer," "My Network
Places," "My Documents" and "Recycle Bin" continue to
change back to their default Windows XP icons every time
I reset, switch users or log off. I tried saving
everything as a theme, but even when I loaded the theme
the main icons would not change to the customized icons
that I had changed them to.

"Adamman123," to answer your question, I tried just about
everything that was suggested, but still had no luck.

"Anonymous," thank you for your attempt to try and help
me out, but unfortunately it didn't work.

"Chad Harris," I didn't understand half of the stuff you
were talking about, but thanks for your help anyway. I do
know that you can change shortcut and folder icons by
doing the right-click>properties>change icon> thing, but
I am not having difficulties keeping my shortcut or
folder icons to stay customized. They stay customized
whenever I reset, switch users or log off. On the other
hand I am having difficulties keeping my main icons ("My
Computer," "My Network Places," "My Documents"
and "Recycle Bin") to stay customized after I reset,
switch users or log off.

On my other user account I have no problem customizing
the main icons and having them stay customized. It is
just my main user account that I have the problem on. I
have found out that the problem lies within the main user
account folder. Somewhere in the main user account folder
something is causing my main icons to change back to
their default Windows XP icons every time I reset, switch
users or log off. The only way that I have found to get
rid of this problem is to create a new administrative
account and then delete the old administrative account
that the problem persists in. It is sort of like having
to start all over. Thank you again for your attempts to
help me fix this small, but annoying computer problem.


-Zachariah®

 

[Chad Harris]

Thank you all for your generosity in sharing knowledge.
Unfortunately everything that was suggested did not work.
My main icons such as "My Computer," "My Network
Places," "My Documents" and "Recycle Bin" continue to
change back to their default Windows XP icons every time
I reset, switch users or log off. I tried saving
everything as a theme, but even when I loaded the theme
the main icons would not change to the customized icons
that I had changed them to.

"Adamman123," to answer your question, I tried just about
everything that was suggested, but still had no luck.

"Anonymous," thank you for your attempt to try and help
me out, but unfortunately it didn't work.

"Chad Harris," I didn't understand half of the stuff you
were talking about, but thanks for your help anyway. I do
know that you can change shortcut and folder icons by
doing the right-click>properties>change icon> thing, but
I am not having difficulties keeping my shortcut or
folder icons to stay customized. They stay customized
whenever I reset, switch users or log off. On the other
hand I am having difficulties keeping my main icons ("My
Computer," "My Network Places," "My Documents"
and "Recycle Bin") to stay customized after I reset,
switch users or log off.

On my other user account I have no problem customizing
the main icons and having them stay customized. It is
just my main user account that I have the problem on. I
have found out that the problem lies within the main user
account folder. Somewhere in the main user account folder
something is causing my main icons to change back to
their default Windows XP icons every time I reset, switch
users or log off. The only way that I have found to get
rid of this problem is to create a new administrative
account and then delete the old administrative account
that the problem persists in. It is sort of like having
to start all over. Thank you again for your attempts to
help me fix this small, but annoying computer problem.


-Zachariah®

______________________________________________________

Zachariah--

Now I understand you want to change your *system icons.* These are not
regular shortcut icons and need special measures. That's *why they revert.*
See Doug Knox's site below. His main site is www.dougknox.com :

Rename Desktop (System) Icons
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/xp_rename_icons.htm

Chad Harris

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?Zachariah=AE?=]

"Chad Harris,"

Thanks for you information on how to rename my "system
icons," but I am trying to figure out how to change the
icon itself to a custom icon. Thanks for the information
anyway.


-Zachariah®

 

[anonymous]

You can choose custom icons for "My Computer," "My
Network Places," and the "Recycle Bin." Simply right-
click an open area on the desktop, and choose
Properties. When the Display Properties window appears,
select the Desktop tab and Customize desktop button.
Click the icon that you want to change (for instance, My
Computer), and then click the Change Icon button. Pick a
new icon from those presented.

After you change the icons switch back to 'theme' tab.
if the box has (modified) use the save as button to save
you new theme to a file. save this file. if your theme
changes you can use this file to bring back the desired
theme. you can have as many theme files as you desire.
one for each day is cool.
======================================================

 

[Steve C. Ray]

Right click on the icon, click properties, click on Change Icon, browse to
the location where the desired icon is located.

--
Steve C. Ray
Replace "mail" with "36db"
"Chad Harris,"

Thanks for you information on how to rename my "system
icons," but I am trying to figure out how to change the
icon itself to a custom icon. Thanks for the information
anyway.


-Zachariah®

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?Zachariah=AE?=]

"Steve C. Ray,"

Yes, I am aware that you can change shortcut and folder
icons, by doing the right-click>properties>change icon>
thing, but what I am talking about is changing the main
icons or "system" icons "My Computer," "My Network
Places," "My Documents" and "Recycle Bin." Every time I
change those icons they do not stay changed. Whenever I
reset, switch users or log off they go back to their
default Windows XP icons. Thanks anyway.


-Zachariah®

 

[_ _ J]

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
Line 30. (Windows XP Doesn't Save User Settings)

--
Regards,
Jan

ô¿ô
\-/

Please reply in newsgroups
--------------------------


Whenever I customize my desktop icons they don't stay
customized. Every time I reset my computer or switch
users the customized desktop icons change back to the
default icons. This problem just recently happened and I
do not know what to do.


-Zachariah®

 

[anonymous]

You can choose custom icons for "My Computer," "My
Network Places," and the "Recycle Bin." Simply right-
click an open area on the desktop, and choose
Properties. When the Display Properties window appears,
select the Desktop tab and Customize desktop button.
Click the icon that you want to change (for instance, My
Computer), and then click the Change Icon button. Pick a
new icon from those presented.

After you change the icons switch back to 'theme' tab.
if the box has (modified) use the save as button to save
you new theme to a file. save this file. if your theme
changes you can use this file to bring back the desired
theme. you can have as many theme files as you desire.
one for each day is cool.
======================================================

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?Zachariah=AE?=]

"anonymous,"

Yes, I was already given that advice and I already tried
it, but it did not work. Every time I reset, switched
user or logged off the main icons changed back to their
default Windows XP icons. After they did that I then
loaded the saved .theme file that I had previously saved,
but the main icons did not change back to the custom
icons that I had saved in the .theme file. Thanks
anyway...


-Zachariah®

 

[Chad Harris]

"anonymous,"

Yes, I was already given that advice and I already tried
it, but it did not work. Every time I reset, switched
user or logged off the main icons changed back to their
default Windows XP icons. After they did that I then
loaded the saved .theme file that I had previously saved,
but the main icons did not change back to the custom
icons that I had saved in the .theme file. Thanks
anyway...


-Zachariah®

______________________________________________________

Zachariah--

1) Possibly your folder settings are not being remembered. Go to Kelly's
site and read the Folder Settings portion here under "F"--only 400 folder
settings are remembered in Windows XP.

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_abc.htm

2) Also if this was working for you recently (that's not clear), then why
not try System Restore?

Chad Harris

 

[Durand]

Hi,

Jan's advice should be the final answer to the system icon problem.
There is one more thing you can try, you may have to rebuild the icon
cache, do a search on your windows partition for "shelliconcache" sans
quotes and delete it. A reboot should force windows to rebuild the
cache assuming you made the changes prior to rebooting. An alternative
method is to acquire tweakui for xp and use that to rebuild the shell
icons.

 

[S.Daley]

As per subject line..

SD