Losing "Customize Desktop..." icons and names.

[Ant]

Hello,

Once in a while Windows XP Professional SP1 (all updates) will reset my
customized desktop back to the defaults. I only changed a few icons (My
Computer, My Network, and Recycle Bin). Also, their renamed names get
changed back to originals.

It can happen any time. It is not from rebooting or anything either. Why
does this happen? It is very annoying!

Thank you in advance.
--
"An ant is a wise creature for itself, but it is a shrewd thing in an
orchard or garden." --Francis Bacon
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip Pi (Ant); The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Remove ANT if replying by e-mail from a newsgroup.
( )

 

[Ant]

Once in a while Windows XP Professional SP1 (all updates) will reset my
customized desktop back to the defaults. I only changed a few icons (My
Computer, My Network, and Recycle Bin). Also, their renamed names get
changed back to originals.

It can happen any time. It is not from rebooting or anything either. Why
does this happen? It is very annoying!

Thank you in advance.

No one knows or has any ideas?
--
"The antics begin!" --SimAnt Game
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip Pi (Ant); The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Remove ANT if replying by e-mail from a newsgroup.
( )

 

[Ant]

How is that? Does it detect something not right to reset?

Grr. It happened again last night. How annoying! For kicks, I checked
Windows XP's event log viewer and found nothing interesting.

Is anyone else using custom icons and renamed icon labels on his/her
desktop?
--
"A centipede is an ant made to government specs." --unknown
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip Pi (Ant); The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Remove ANT if replying by e-mail from a newsgroup.
( )

 

[Jack]

your welcome.....

 

[Ant]

your welcome.....

Eh?
--
"A centipede is an ant made to government specs." --unknown
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip Pi (Ant); The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Remove ANT if replying by e-mail from a newsgroup.
( )

 

[roger]

Hi Ant,

Is anyone else using custom icons and renamed icon labels on his/her
desktop?

Yeah, I was using a customized icon and name for the recycle bin in
two accounts, suddenly the original name/icon came up :-\

I noticed 3 direct accesses to the customized icon on my documents, do
you notice something like that in yours?

Cheers.

 

[Phillip Pi]

Yeah, I was using a customized icon and name for the recycle bin in
two accounts, suddenly the original name/icon came up :-\

I noticed 3 direct accesses to the customized icon on my documents, do
you notice something like that in yours?

Roger, I only saw these icon properties get changed: My Computer, My
Network, and Recycle Bin. Ironically, my network share shortcuts to my
old Red Hat Linux 7.1 box (Samba) never changes.

I have no idea what's going on. Maybe Windows doesn't like us tampering
with its stuff and doesn't care about our shortcuts we made?
--
Phillip Pi
(e-mail address removed) (remove SYMC to reply by e-mail)
Software Quality Assurance Analyst
Norton SystemWorks
Symantec

Please do NOT e-mail me for technical support. DISCLAIMER: The views
expressed in this posting are mine, and do not necessarily reflect the
views of my employer.

 

[roger]

Roger, I only saw these icon properties get changed: My Computer, My
Network, and Recycle Bin. Ironically, my network share shortcuts to my
old Red Hat Linux 7.1 box (Samba) never changes.

I have no idea what's going on. Maybe Windows doesn't like us tampering
with its stuff and doesn't care about our shortcuts we made?

Hi Phillip,

In my case My computer, Internet Explorer and Recycle Bin got changed,
the first two are easy to customize, but for the Recycle bin the
registry needs to be searched.
What's strange is that when the customization disappeared, three
direct accesses with the changed name and appearance of the Recycle
bin turned up on My Documents.

Apparently the registry changed to its default values, what's strange
is that only these customizations are lost and all others are
respected.

 

[dOinK]

Ant

I think I might be on to something here... I have the same problem as you
describe, and after a while I noticed that the resetting of the icons
happened during a certain period of the day -- and I have three scheduled
tasks (backups) going on at that time. So yesterday I turned off the task
scheduling; and my icons remained the way I had customized them.

Anyone else with the same experience? Is there a resolution (except
disabling task scheduling)
dOinK

 

[Kelly]

Yes, many users have claimed the same.

 

[dOinK]

That's a comfort! Any workaround, except disabling task scheduling (or
removing the tasks)?

Best Regards
dOinK

 

[Phillip Pi]

Hmmm, I didn't have anything in my scheduler.

Ant

I think I might be on to something here... I have the same problem as you
describe, and after a while I noticed that the resetting of the icons
happened during a certain period of the day -- and I have three scheduled
tasks (backups) going on at that time. So yesterday I turned off the task
scheduling; and my icons remained the way I had customized them.

Anyone else with the same experience? Is there a resolution (except
disabling task scheduling)
dOinK

--
Phillip Pi
(e-mail address removed) (remove SYMC to reply by e-mail)
Software Quality Assurance Analyst
Norton SystemWorks
Symantec

Please do NOT e-mail me for technical support. DISCLAIMER: The views
expressed in this posting are mine, and do not necessarily reflect the
views of my employer.

 

[Phillip Pi]

I think I resolved my issue. I think having my custom icons in c:\
helps. I have not seen my icon titles and graphics get changed the last
two weeks so far. I used to have the icons in d:\winstuff\icons\
folder/directory.

Can you guys plesae try that and see if that works for you too? I will
follow-up if the problem returns.

Thank you in advance.

--
Phillip Pi
(e-mail address removed) (remove SYMC to reply by e-mail)
Software Quality Assurance Analyst
Norton SystemWorks
Symantec

Please do NOT e-mail me for technical support. DISCLAIMER: The views
expressed in this posting are mine, and do not necessarily reflect the
views of my employer.

 

[Ant]

ARGH!!!!!!! It just happened again when I was doing file searches. ARGH!
[bangs head on table] OK, so having icons on C:\ doesn't matter. I
wonder if we can make a script so we don't have to keep fixing this
annoyance.

I think I resolved my issue. I think having my custom icons in c:\
helps. I have not seen my icon titles and graphics get changed the last
two weeks so far. I used to have the icons in d:\winstuff\icons\
folder/directory.

Can you guys plesae try that and see if that works for you too? I will
follow-up if the problem returns.

Thank you in advance.

--
"The evaluator counts the ants at the picnic of progress." --Mohan Singh
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip Pi (Ant); The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Remove ANT if replying by e-mail from a newsgroup.
( )

 

[Phillip Pi]

I have a similiar setup on my Windows 2000 SP4 (with all updates)
workstation at work, and the icons and their titles never get reset.
Hmm, this makes me want to dump XP and install 2000 instead!

ARGH!!!!!!! It just happened again when I was doing file searches. ARGH!
[bangs head on table] OK, so having icons on C:\ doesn't matter. I
wonder if we can make a script so we don't have to keep fixing this
annoyance.

I think I resolved my issue. I think having my custom icons in c:\
helps. I have not seen my icon titles and graphics get changed the
last two weeks so far. I used to have the icons in d:\winstuff\icons\
folder/directory.

Can you guys plesae try that and see if that works for you too? I will
follow-up if the problem returns.

Thank you in advance.

--
Phillip Pi
(e-mail address removed) (remove SYMC to reply by e-mail)
Software Quality Assurance Analyst
Norton SystemWorks
Symantec

Please do NOT e-mail me for technical support. DISCLAIMER: The views
expressed in this posting are mine, and do not necessarily reflect the
views of my employer.

 

[Keith Miller]

Possible workaround:

When I customize My Computer, an new key is created under:

"HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID"

with the CLSID for My Computer, {20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D} as the key name and a subkey
named "DefaultIcon" which contains the path to the icon.

After setting your icons the way you want, export the CLSID key so you have a quick way to restore
until this is fixed.

The next time the icons are reset to default, check this location to see what is happening -- Is the
value of "DefaultIcon" being deleting or changed? Is the entire subkey being deleted? Once this is
determined, you should be able to modify the permissions for the appropriate key to prevent it from
happening again.

If you don't want to wait, a good start would be to customize the icons to your liking, then modify
permissions for the "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID" branch and deny
set value and delete permissions to your username and possibly the system as well (I have no idea
what process is causing the problem, but it is most likely running under your name)

CLSIDs for the other folders are:
Recycle Bin {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
My Network Places {208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}
My Documents {450d8fba-ad25-11d0-98a8-0800361b1103}

Good luck,
Keith

ARGH!!!!!!! It just happened again when I was doing file searches. ARGH!
[bangs head on table] OK, so having icons on C:\ doesn't matter. I
wonder if we can make a script so we don't have to keep fixing this
annoyance.

I think I resolved my issue. I think having my custom icons in c:\
helps. I have not seen my icon titles and graphics get changed the last
two weeks so far. I used to have the icons in d:\winstuff\icons\
folder/directory.

Can you guys plesae try that and see if that works for you too? I will
follow-up if the problem returns.

Thank you in advance.

--
"The evaluator counts the ants at the picnic of progress." --Mohan Singh
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip Pi (Ant); The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Remove ANT if replying by e-mail from a newsgroup.
( )

 

[Ant]

Thanks!!!! I will have to try this the next time it happens. I will
follow-up if this didn't work.

Possible workaround:

When I customize My Computer, an new key is created under:

"HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID"

with the CLSID for My Computer, {20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D} as the key name and a subkey
named "DefaultIcon" which contains the path to the icon.

After setting your icons the way you want, export the CLSID key so you have a quick way to restore
until this is fixed.

The next time the icons are reset to default, check this location to see what is happening -- Is the
value of "DefaultIcon" being deleting or changed? Is the entire subkey being deleted? Once this is
determined, you should be able to modify the permissions for the appropriate key to prevent it from
happening again.

If you don't want to wait, a good start would be to customize the icons to your liking, then modify
permissions for the "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID" branch and deny
set value and delete permissions to your username and possibly the system as well (I have no idea
what process is causing the problem, but it is most likely running under your name)

CLSIDs for the other folders are:
Recycle Bin {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
My Network Places {208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}
My Documents {450d8fba-ad25-11d0-98a8-0800361b1103}

Good luck,
Keith

ARGH!!!!!!! It just happened again when I was doing file searches. ARGH!
[bangs head on table] OK, so having icons on C:\ doesn't matter. I
wonder if we can make a script so we don't have to keep fixing this
annoyance.

I think I resolved my issue. I think having my custom icons in c:\
helps. I have not seen my icon titles and graphics get changed the last
two weeks so far. I used to have the icons in d:\winstuff\icons\
folder/directory.

Can you guys plesae try that and see if that works for you too? I will
follow-up if the problem returns.

Thank you in advance.



Hello,

Once in a while Windows XP Professional SP1 (all updates) will reset my
customized desktop back to the defaults. I only changed a few icons (My
Computer, My Network, and Recycle Bin). Also, their renamed names get
changed back to originals.

It can happen any time. It is not from rebooting or anything either. Why
does this happen? It is very annoying!

Thank you in advance.

--
"When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them
all." --Edward O. Wilson, 1992
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip Pi (Ant); The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Remove ANT if replying by e-mail from a newsgroup.
( )

 

[dOinK]

Ok, here's an update:

The entire KEY is being deleted, not just the "DefaultIcon" subkey. (I only
watched My Network Places, My documents and My Computer, and do not know
which other keys might have been removed).

And this happens even if I add the "Deny Delete" to all groups/users listed
in the key permissions (i.e. Administrators, SYSTEM and myself). In other
words, it seems like the Deny setting is ignored(?). I've tried setting this
permission to both the key and subkey.

Are we getting any closer to figuring this out?

dOinK

Possible workaround:

When I customize My Computer, an new key is created under:

"HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID"

with the CLSID for My Computer, {20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D} as the key name and a subkey
named "DefaultIcon" which contains the path to the icon.

After setting your icons the way you want, export the CLSID key so you have a quick way to restore
until this is fixed.

The next time the icons are reset to default, check this location to see what is happening -- Is the
value of "DefaultIcon" being deleting or changed? Is the entire subkey being deleted? Once this is
determined, you should be able to modify the permissions for the

appropriate key to prevent it from

happening again.

If you don't want to wait, a good start would be to customize the icons to your liking, then modify
permissions for the

"HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID" branch and
deny

set value and delete permissions to your username and possibly the system as well (I have no idea
what process is causing the problem, but it is most likely running under your name)

CLSIDs for the other folders are:
Recycle Bin {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
My Network Places {208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}
My Documents {450d8fba-ad25-11d0-98a8-0800361b1103}

Good luck,
Keith

ARGH!!!!!!! It just happened again when I was doing file searches. ARGH!
[bangs head on table] OK, so having icons on C:\ doesn't matter. I
wonder if we can make a script so we don't have to keep fixing this
annoyance.

I think I resolved my issue. I think having my custom icons in c:\
helps. I have not seen my icon titles and graphics get changed the last
two weeks so far. I used to have the icons in d:\winstuff\icons\
folder/directory.

Can you guys plesae try that and see if that works for you too? I will
follow-up if the problem returns.

Thank you in advance.


Hello,

Once in a while Windows XP Professional SP1 (all updates) will reset my
customized desktop back to the defaults. I only changed a few icons (My
Computer, My Network, and Recycle Bin). Also, their renamed names get
changed back to originals.

It can happen any time. It is not from rebooting or anything either. Why
does this happen? It is very annoying!

Thank you in advance.

--
"The evaluator counts the ants at the picnic of progress." --Mohan Singh
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip Pi (Ant); The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Remove ANT if replying by e-mail from a newsgroup.
( )

 

[Keith Miller]

Weird. Not sure what would do that. If you don't mind the same icons under all users, you could
modify the values under HKCR.

Keith

Ok, here's an update:

The entire KEY is being deleted, not just the "DefaultIcon" subkey. (I only
watched My Network Places, My documents and My Computer, and do not know
which other keys might have been removed).

And this happens even if I add the "Deny Delete" to all groups/users listed
in the key permissions (i.e. Administrators, SYSTEM and myself). In other
words, it seems like the Deny setting is ignored(?). I've tried setting this
permission to both the key and subkey.

Are we getting any closer to figuring this out?

dOinK

Possible workaround:

When I customize My Computer, an new key is created under:

"HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID"

with the CLSID for My Computer, {20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D} as the key name and a subkey
named "DefaultIcon" which contains the path to the icon.

After setting your icons the way you want, export the CLSID key so you have a quick way to restore
until this is fixed.

The next time the icons are reset to default, check this location to see what is happening -- Is the
value of "DefaultIcon" being deleting or changed? Is the entire subkey being deleted? Once this is
determined, you should be able to modify the permissions for the

appropriate key to prevent it from

happening again.

If you don't want to wait, a good start would be to customize the icons to your liking, then modify
permissions for the

"HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID" branch and
deny

set value and delete permissions to your username and possibly the system as well (I have no idea
what process is causing the problem, but it is most likely running under your name)

CLSIDs for the other folders are:
Recycle Bin {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
My Network Places {208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}
My Documents {450d8fba-ad25-11d0-98a8-0800361b1103}

Good luck,
Keith

ARGH!!!!!!! It just happened again when I was doing file searches. ARGH!
[bangs head on table] OK, so having icons on C:\ doesn't matter. I
wonder if we can make a script so we don't have to keep fixing this
annoyance.


On 3/3/2004 12:36 PM PT, Phillip Pi wrote:

I think I resolved my issue. I think having my custom icons in c:\
helps. I have not seen my icon titles and graphics get changed the last
two weeks so far. I used to have the icons in d:\winstuff\icons\
folder/directory.

Can you guys plesae try that and see if that works for you too? I will
follow-up if the problem returns.

Thank you in advance.


Hello,

Once in a while Windows XP Professional SP1 (all updates) will reset my
customized desktop back to the defaults. I only changed a few icons (My
Computer, My Network, and Recycle Bin). Also, their renamed names get
changed back to originals.

It can happen any time. It is not from rebooting or anything either. Why
does this happen? It is very annoying!

Thank you in advance.
--
"The evaluator counts the ants at the picnic of progress." --Mohan Singh
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip Pi (Ant); The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Remove ANT if replying by e-mail from a newsgroup.
( )

 

[dOinK]

I'm not sure I understand, do you refer to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT? I do not mind
trying to set the same icons for all users, where do I specify that?

Came to think that my Scheduled Task service might be corrupt, since this
happens every time it runs -- is there a way to repair/reinstall that one?

dOinK

Weird. Not sure what would do that. If you don't mind the same icons under all users, you could
modify the values under HKCR.

Keith

Ok, here's an update:

The entire KEY is being deleted, not just the "DefaultIcon" subkey. (I only
watched My Network Places, My documents and My Computer, and do not know
which other keys might have been removed).

And this happens even if I add the "Deny Delete" to all groups/users listed
in the key permissions (i.e. Administrators, SYSTEM and myself). In other
words, it seems like the Deny setting is ignored(?). I've tried setting this
permission to both the key and subkey.

Are we getting any closer to figuring this out?

dOinK

Possible workaround:

When I customize My Computer, an new key is created under:

"HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID"

with the CLSID for My Computer, {20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

as
the key name and a subkey

named "DefaultIcon" which contains the path to the icon.

After setting your icons the way you want, export the CLSID key so you have a quick way to restore
until this is fixed.

The next time the icons are reset to default, check this location to

see
what is happening -- Is the

value of "DefaultIcon" being deleting or changed? Is the entire

subkey
being deleted? Once this is

determined, you should be able to modify the permissions for the

appropriate key to prevent it from

happening again.

If you don't want to wait, a good start would be to customize the

icons to
your liking, then modify

permissions for the

"HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID" branch and
deny

set value and delete permissions to your username and possibly the

system
as well (I have no idea

what process is causing the problem, but it is most likely running

under
your name)

CLSIDs for the other folders are:
Recycle Bin {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
My Network Places {208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}
My Documents {450d8fba-ad25-11d0-98a8-0800361b1103}

Good luck,
Keith


ARGH!!!!!!! It just happened again when I was doing file searches. ARGH!
[bangs head on table] OK, so having icons on C:\ doesn't matter. I
wonder if we can make a script so we don't have to keep fixing this
annoyance.


On 3/3/2004 12:36 PM PT, Phillip Pi wrote:

I think I resolved my issue. I think having my custom icons in c:\
helps. I have not seen my icon titles and graphics get changed the last
two weeks so far. I used to have the icons in d:\winstuff\icons\
folder/directory.

Can you guys plesae try that and see if that works for you too? I will
follow-up if the problem returns.

Thank you in advance.


Hello,

Once in a while Windows XP Professional SP1 (all updates) will

reset
my

customized desktop back to the defaults. I only changed a few

icons
(My

Computer, My Network, and Recycle Bin). Also, their renamed

names
get

changed back to originals.

It can happen any time. It is not from rebooting or anything

either.
Why

does this happen? It is very annoying!

Thank you in advance.
--
"The evaluator counts the ants at the picnic of progress." --Mohan Singh
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Phillip Pi (Ant); The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
| |o o| | E-mail: (e-mail address removed) or (e-mail address removed)
\ _ / Remove ANT if replying by e-mail from a newsgroup.
( )