Many shortcuts suddenly appear as default icon, but they still wor

[Guest]

I have an issue that just came up where many, but not all, of my shortcut
icons appear as the default Vista icon. The shortcuts still work and point
to the correct applications. I've tried going through the properties of the
shortcuts and changing their icons to something else and back to the original
icon, but it permanantly stays in the default icon state. Any suggestions?

 

[Chad Harris]

Hi Ryan--

I'm not clear which shortcut icons you refer to and do you mean for folders
or for web pages?

In order to make a specific shortcut icon other than the default "e" to
stick, in XP or Vista, you must fulfill two conditions:

1) Change the name of the favicon
2) Place it in a folder to protect it. You can make a new one for this and
name it anything you like.

In my experience you can sub other icons including favicons, or from program
files in XP for a shortcut icon to a web page, but in Vista it must be for a
for a folder for whatever reason. There are about 2000 available icons
intrinsic to XP or Vista contained in the System 32 .dll folders and program
folders when you right click a folder in Vista or a shortcut or folder icon
in XP>Properties>Change icon.

CH

 

[Guest]

The shortcut icons I refer to are of the kind for programs/executables
created on the desktop, start menu, recent programs menu, etc which either I
create or installation programs create. None of them have anything to do
with IE. Normally, for instance, the shortcut for Microsoft Word has the
icon for Microsoft Word. In my case, overnight, it changed to a default
system icon and I can't change it back to Word, even though I know how to do
that normally.

If you look at the icon set in %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll, that first
(non-descript) icon is what is applied to half or more of my shortcuts all of
the sudden. If I try to change them back to the icon they should have, they
stay as this default icon.

 

[Chad Harris]

Ryan--

Thanks for the clarification--this helps a lot. It may show back up as
suggested, but one move that might work for you is this:

Delete the folder created for the program icon. then in the
'Start Search' bar on the start menu, type:

shell:downloads<Enter>

This will recreate the folder in it's default location, with it's default
name, and the customized icon.

Alternatively or as an additional help, try running SFC. Type cmd into the
Search box above the Start Button>then rt. click it to "run as admin">at the
cmd prompt type "sfc /scannow" without the quotes.

CH