Help! All Programs Icons gone & Desktop.ini won't behave!

[Miguel Sandoval]

I uninstalled an Icon utility recently and when it went, it took all the
folder icons in my All Programs menu (in the Start Menu). I saw that this
was because the DESKTOP.INI file for Programs pointed to an icon file that
no longer existed. I have IconPackager installed so I tried to have
DESKTOP.INI file point to one of the icons in the icon theme installed in
my system. Like so:

[.ShellClassInfo]
[email protected],-21782
IconFile=C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object
Desktop\IconPackager\Themes\Yttrium\Yttrium Icon 18.ico
IconIndex=0

Well, that didn't do anything. Not even copying the same DESKTOP.INI as
the other user on the system (who has working icons!), made my All Programs
icons reappear:

[.ShellClassInfo]
[email protected],-21782
[LocalizedFileNames]
Windows Media Player.lnk=@C:\WINDOWS\inf\unregmp2.exe,-4
Remote Assistance.lnk=@%systemroot%\system32\rcbdyctl.dll,-152

I checked to be sure my DESKTOP.INI file wasn't hidden, I added a ", 0" to
the end of the IconFile line, I removed the "IconIndex" line, and I even
tried removing the DESKTOP.INI file in the hopes that WinXP would take
pity on me and create a new one... nothing worked! Still can't get my All
Programs icons back. What do I have to do to convince XP that I should
have my icons back?

 

[Keith Miller]

Not sure what icon you're talking about....the green arrow to the right of all programs? The system
folder icon?

Try rebuilding your icon cache. Display Properties -> Appearance -> Advanced -> icon. Change the
icon size by one point and apply.

Keith

 

[Miguel Sandoval]

Not sure what icon you're talking about....the green arrow to the right
of all programs? The system
folder icon?

Try rebuilding your icon cache. Display Properties -> Appearance ->
Advanced -> icon. Change the
icon size by one point and apply.

Keith

I'm referring to the little folder icons in the All Programs menu, the one
next to each folder item in the menus and submenus (its ONLY the folders.
The programs themselves still have their individual icons). Changing the
icon size did nothing btw. I've already used IconPackager to rebuild the
cache and repair icons. It also did nothing. So I'm at a complete loss as
to how to get those tiny icons back!

I uninstalled an Icon utility recently and when it went, it took all the
folder icons in my All Programs menu (in the Start Menu). I saw that
this
was because the DESKTOP.INI file for Programs pointed to an icon file
that
no longer existed. I have IconPackager installed so I tried to have
DESKTOP.INI file point to one of the icons in the icon theme installed
in
my system. Like so:

[.ShellClassInfo]
[email protected],-21782
IconFile=C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object
Desktop\IconPackager\Themes\Yttrium\Yttrium Icon 18.ico
IconIndex=0

Well, that didn't do anything. Not even copying the same DESKTOP.INI as
the other user on the system (who has working icons!), made my All
Programs
icons reappear:

[.ShellClassInfo]
[email protected],-21782
[LocalizedFileNames]
Windows Media Player.lnk=@C:\WINDOWS\inf\unregmp2.exe,-4
Remote Assistance.lnk=@%systemroot%\system32\rcbdyctl.dll,-152

I checked to be sure my DESKTOP.INI file wasn't hidden, I added a ", 0"
to
the end of the IconFile line, I removed the "IconIndex" line, and I even
tried removing the DESKTOP.INI file in the hopes that WinXP would take
pity on me and create a new one... nothing worked! Still can't get my
All
Programs icons back. What do I have to do to convince XP that I should
have my icons back?

 

[Keith Miller]

Do you have a value named '36' in the right hand pane under this registry key?

"HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons"

If so, delete it, then refresh the icon cache again.

Keith

Not sure what icon you're talking about....the green arrow to the right
of all programs? The system
folder icon?

Try rebuilding your icon cache. Display Properties -> Appearance ->
Advanced -> icon. Change the
icon size by one point and apply.

Keith

I'm referring to the little folder icons in the All Programs menu, the one
next to each folder item in the menus and submenus (its ONLY the folders.
The programs themselves still have their individual icons). Changing the
icon size did nothing btw. I've already used IconPackager to rebuild the
cache and repair icons. It also did nothing. So I'm at a complete loss as
to how to get those tiny icons back!

I uninstalled an Icon utility recently and when it went, it took all the
folder icons in my All Programs menu (in the Start Menu). I saw that
this
was because the DESKTOP.INI file for Programs pointed to an icon file
that
no longer existed. I have IconPackager installed so I tried to have
DESKTOP.INI file point to one of the icons in the icon theme installed
in
my system. Like so:

[.ShellClassInfo]
[email protected],-21782
IconFile=C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object
Desktop\IconPackager\Themes\Yttrium\Yttrium Icon 18.ico
IconIndex=0

Well, that didn't do anything. Not even copying the same DESKTOP.INI as
the other user on the system (who has working icons!), made my All
Programs
icons reappear:

[.ShellClassInfo]
[email protected],-21782
[LocalizedFileNames]
Windows Media Player.lnk=@C:\WINDOWS\inf\unregmp2.exe,-4
Remote Assistance.lnk=@%systemroot%\system32\rcbdyctl.dll,-152

I checked to be sure my DESKTOP.INI file wasn't hidden, I added a ", 0"
to
the end of the IconFile line, I removed the "IconIndex" line, and I even
tried removing the DESKTOP.INI file in the hopes that WinXP would take
pity on me and create a new one... nothing worked! Still can't get my
All
Programs icons back. What do I have to do to convince XP that I should
have my icons back?

 

[Miguel Sandoval]

Do you have a value named '36' in the right hand pane under this
registry key?

"HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons"

If so, delete it, then refresh the icon cache again.

Keith

Thanks for the expert help Keith. That's a clever trick, but I didn't need
it, as I fooled around some more yesterday and finally figured what was
happening. There IS no icon to display. As mentioned, I'm using
IconPackager to change my system icons. Well, my current favorite set,
"yttrium" happens to have no small version of the Program Group icon. This
would be what would go in the All Programs menu. It has a small version of
every OTHER icon, except this one! There is only a black dot instead of an
icon. So black dots started showing up when I uninstalled the previous
Icon utility, because it had placed its own icons in that part of the
Start Menu. I used iconpackager to change the All Programs icon to a
slightly different one, and now have some icons there, instead of black
dots...

Not sure what icon you're talking about....the green arrow to the right
of all programs? The system
folder icon?

Try rebuilding your icon cache. Display Properties -> Appearance ->
Advanced -> icon. Change the
icon size by one point and apply.

Keith

I'm referring to the little folder icons in the All Programs menu, the
one
next to each folder item in the menus and submenus (its ONLY the
folders.
The programs themselves still have their individual icons). Changing the
icon size did nothing btw. I've already used IconPackager to rebuild the
cache and repair icons. It also did nothing. So I'm at a complete loss
as
to how to get those tiny icons back!

I uninstalled an Icon utility recently and when it went, it took all the
folder icons in my All Programs menu (in the Start Menu). I saw that
this
was because the DESKTOP.INI file for Programs pointed to an icon file
that
no longer existed. I have IconPackager installed so I tried to have
DESKTOP.INI file point to one of the icons in the icon theme installed
in
my system. Like so:

[.ShellClassInfo]
[email protected],-21782
IconFile=C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object
Desktop\IconPackager\Themes\Yttrium\Yttrium Icon 18.ico
IconIndex=0

Well, that didn't do anything. Not even copying the same DESKTOP.INI as
the other user on the system (who has working icons!), made my All
Programs
icons reappear:

[.ShellClassInfo]
[email protected],-21782
[LocalizedFileNames]
Windows Media Player.lnk=@C:\WINDOWS\inf\unregmp2.exe,-4
Remote Assistance.lnk=@%systemroot%\system32\rcbdyctl.dll,-152

I checked to be sure my DESKTOP.INI file wasn't hidden, I added a ", 0"
to
the end of the IconFile line, I removed the "IconIndex" line, and I even
tried removing the DESKTOP.INI file in the hopes that WinXP would take
pity on me and create a new one... nothing worked! Still can't get my
All
Programs icons back. What do I have to do to convince XP that I should
have my icons back?

 

[Keith Miller]

Thanks for the expert help Keith. That's a clever trick, but I didn't need
it, as I fooled around some more yesterday and finally figured what was
happening. There IS no icon to display. As mentioned, I'm using
IconPackager to change my system icons. Well, my current favorite set,
"yttrium" happens to have no small version of the Program Group icon. This
would be what would go in the All Programs menu. It has a small version of
every OTHER icon, except this one! There is only a black dot instead of an
icon. So black dots started showing up when I uninstalled the previous
Icon utility, because it had placed its own icons in that part of the
Start Menu. I used iconpackager to change the All Programs icon to a
slightly different one, and now have some icons there, instead of black
dots...

Glad you got it fixed. I wouldn't have guessed that since I'm unfamiliar with iconpackager & its
workings. The '36' entry is the way to change the program group icon without 3rd party software.

Keith