Icon disappears

  • Thread starter Thread starter Scott
  • Start date Start date
S

Scott

I have a number of shortcuts on my desktop. From time to time, the icons of
the shortcuts disappear and replaced with IE icon. Can someone advise the
possible causes and fixes.

Thanks,

Scott
 
They were deleted when you emptied your Temporary Internet Files folder.

Read about it here...
[[Favicons are usually lost when you delete your Temporary Internet Files,
but FavOrg preserves them.]]
FavOrg
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,108438,00.asp

Download it here...
108. Right hand side
FavOrg - Restore and Save Favorite Icons
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Direct download of favorg.zip
http://www.gratilog.net/anglais/internet/favorg.zip

These Icons are stored in >>
%userprofile%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
or
C:\Documents and Settings\YourNameHere\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files

The contents of these files get deleted. Icons revert back to the generic
ugly IE e.

IE | Tools | Internet Options | General tab | Settings button | View Files
button | Scroll down to whatever *.ico files you want to keep | Left click
favicon.ico | Drag to Desktop | Rename to whatever | Store in a folder such
as >> C:\Documents and Settings\YourNameHere\My Documents\ICONS

Open Favorites | Right click whatever item | Properties | Change Icon |
button | Browse button | Click: My Documents or wherever *.ico are stored |
Click whatever *.ico | Open button | Click OK | Click Apply | Click OK
Repeat as necessary.

If you move any *.ico files after customizing your shortcut/favorite, the
icon will revert back to the blue e

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
Scott said:
I have a number of shortcuts on my desktop. From time to time, the icons of
the shortcuts disappear and replaced with IE icon. Can someone advise the
possible causes and fixes.

Thanks,

Scott
Click to expand...


Scott

The custom icons for websites are temporary and will disappear when the custom icon file is automatically deleted from the Temporary Internet Files folder.

To make these shortcut icons permanent, you need to locate the icon in the TIF and copy it to another, permanent folder on the hard drive. You can then open the properties for the shortcut and use the Change Icon feature to associate that icon with the shortcut.

To do this manually:
1. Open Windows Explorer and create a new folder called Custom Icons. Click Tools/Folder Options/View Tab. Select these two options: "Display the contents of system folders" and "Show hidden files and folders".

2. Open C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files. On the Toolbar, select Search/All files and folders. Type, favico for the search term and click Search.

3. The search results will show all of the Favico (Favorite Icons) files. In the search window, select View/Thumbnails from the menu bar. This will reveal the images for the favico files.

4. Use drag and drop to copy the icon file you want to save to the folder you created in step 1. Rename each file with an intuitive name as you copy them to the new icons folder.

5. You can now right click a desktop shortcut and select Properties/Change Icon Button. Click the Browse button to navigate to the new icon folder and select the custom icon you wish to associate with that shortcut. This will make that icon permanent for that shortcut.

If you have a large number of internet shortcuts to change, and would rather make this process more automatic, go to the following website:

Troubleshooting Windows XP, Tweaks and Fixes for Windows XP:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Scroll down to Line 108, right side. Click the "FavOrg-Restore and Save Favorite Icons" link to download the program. Unzip the file and run the Setup.exe to install. Read the Help file for instructions.
 
Ronnie & Wesley,

Many thanks for your detail explanation. I downloaded the Fav-Org and
installed it. However, I am still unsure how it works to retain my icons
after the Temporary Internet Files folder is clear. Why does Microsoft make
the icon temporary?

Scott

Scott said:
I have a number of shortcuts on my desktop. From time to time, the icons
of
the shortcuts disappear and replaced with IE icon. Can someone advise the
possible causes and fixes.

Thanks,

Scott
Click to expand...


Scott

The custom icons for websites are temporary and will disappear when the
custom icon file is automatically deleted from the Temporary Internet Files
folder.

To make these shortcut icons permanent, you need to locate the icon in the
TIF and copy it to another, permanent folder on the hard drive. You can then
open the properties for the shortcut and use the Change Icon feature to
associate that icon with the shortcut.

To do this manually:
1. Open Windows Explorer and create a new folder called Custom Icons. Click
Tools/Folder Options/View Tab. Select these two options: "Display the
contents of system folders" and "Show hidden files and folders".

2. Open C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>\Local Settings\Temporary
Internet Files. On the Toolbar, select Search/All files and folders. Type,
favico for the search term and click Search.

3. The search results will show all of the Favico (Favorite Icons) files. In
the search window, select View/Thumbnails from the menu bar. This will
reveal the images for the favico files.

4. Use drag and drop to copy the icon file you want to save to the folder
you created in step 1. Rename each file with an intuitive name as you copy
them to the new icons folder.

5. You can now right click a desktop shortcut and select Properties/Change
Icon Button. Click the Browse button to navigate to the new icon folder and
select the custom icon you wish to associate with that shortcut. This will
make that icon permanent for that shortcut.

If you have a large number of internet shortcuts to change, and would rather
make this process more automatic, go to the following website:

Troubleshooting Windows XP, Tweaks and Fixes for Windows XP:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Scroll down to Line 108, right side. Click the "FavOrg-Restore and Save
Favorite Icons" link to download the program. Unzip the file and run the
Setup.exe to install. Read the Help file for instructions.
 
The icon files that are part of the websites you visit are just a small part of the total files that are downloaded for each website. Visit 5 or 10 websites and you could get several thousand files, which you would not want to keep indefinitely. This is the reason for having the TIF folder and why these files are marked as temporary.

To use FavOrg, unzip the file and double click the Setup.exe file to install. After the installation, go to Start/All Programs and you should see a new item called PC Magazine Utilities with a link to the FavOrg program. Click the FavOrg link.

When the program starts, it will automatically scan all of the Favorites (Bookmarks) in Internet Explorer.

Note: This process can take a few minutes depending on how many favorites you have saved.

Note: to retrieve a favicon, the website must be saved to your Favorites.

Once this scan is complete, simply click the GO Button and all of the favicons will be retrieved from the associated websites. This could take some time. The icons will all be saved in the C:\Program Files\PC Magazine Utilities\<user name>/_Data folder. (Where <user name> is the name of your profile on XP)

Once the process is complete, follow the instructions from my previous message (Below) to associate the icons with the shortcut to that website. You can skip steps 1 thru 4 since you will already have all of the icons in the FavOrg sub-folder.
 
Why does Microsoft make the icon temporary?

Everything that you see online using Internet Explorer is downloaded to
Temporary Internet Files. If you think about it, there is no way that you
want to keep all of that temporary crap on your machine. Why MS doesn't
seperate favicons from the other crap? I have no idea. Maybe there too
busy writing hotfixes for Windows XP and trying to get Windows Vista to
sell.

<quote>
I used to see favicons, but now they've all disappeared. What happened?

Favicons are cached similarly to html documents. When they are deleted from
the cache, they revert to the standard IE icon. If you want to prevent the
icon from disappearing:

1. Create a local directory (e.g., c:\favicons)
2. Copy the desired favicon into the directory created above.
3. Right click the mouse over the favorite/bookmark and select properties.
4. Enter the path (or use the 'browse' feature) to the favicon you want for
that bookmark.

Another temporary solution is to hold down the mouse button while holding
shift over the default IE icon in the address bar and then let go of the
mouse button anywhere in the address bar. This seems to 'update' the
favicon.
<quote>
from...
Internet Explorer Troubleshooting Favicons
http://favicon.com/ie.html

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
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