Desktop Shortcuts

[Gregory]

Hello, I just changed computers and converted from XPHSP2 to VistaHPSP1. It
was so easy to change desktop shortcut icons in XP and have groups of icons
for banking, sports sites, windows sites, etc. On my Vista shortcut
"Discussions in MS" icon that I want to change to a Windows Butterfly icon, I
right click icon > properties > change icon and the system32/SHELL32.dll
window pops up with the 67 rows of 4 icon choices. I click the Butterfly icon
in row 30 and click OK. System 32 window disappears and properties window
shows Butterfly icon. I click OK. Window vanishes but did not change my
desktop shortcut icon. Why didn't MS fix this problem in Service Pack 1 ? I
read some posts on it, one to change to Classic View....didn't work. Other
posts seemed to be written for geeks with degrees in Nuclear Software
Physics. Is there a simle way to change these icons ???

 

[Gregory]

P.S. My Vista is 64 bit. Could that be the problem ? Thanks,

 

[Chad Harris]

Hey Gregory--

It has nothing to do with X64--the same bug (probably not fixed because
there is little attention called to it to the shell team or whomever works
with icons). In my experience this happens frequently, but the icon either
will change to the butterfly or whatever you've chosen at random soon, or on
a reboot. I've seen the icon get changed correctly and then in a few
seconds revert and change back to your choice on a reboot.

I don't know any fix for this but you should get the butterfly soon as I
said.

BTW there are many many sources of icons intrinsic to windows--not just the
Shell32 folder, but many in System 32 and I also you

1) Program File icons for example if you go to C:\ or whichever drive
Program Files\Microsoft Office you can find many many icons there and from
other programs as well. Few 3rd party programs lack icons in their folders.

2) Many sites have a favicon you can pick off if you type the url and then
add favicon.ico to it at the end after a dot.

3) There are thousands of sites where you can dl free icons and thousands
more where you can buy huge icon collections.

To use 3rd party icons, make a folder and change the name if you're picking
them off from a favicon.ico addition to a url.

By that I mean for example www.nytimes.com/favicon.ico
Drag it to the desktop>change the name from favicon to somethng else>put it
in a folder yuu can select by browsing when you change the icon as you have
described above when you went to get the butterfly.

Good luck,

CH

 

[Gregory]

Thanks Chad, but icon does not change after several reboots.

 

[Gregory]

Vista should never have came out of beta so soon. Maybe they need another
programer living solely on fruit, as in their first days.

 

[Gregory]

I found the way in a Vista Forum. Right click empty spot on desktop>click
view> select classic icons. Presto ! Everything restored, everything able to
change icons. Thanks,