System Icons for Hard Drives--restore

  • Thread starter Thread starter the2daves
  • Start date Start date
T

the2daves

Not sure how it happened but the drive icons I used to see when opening MY
COMPUTER, have been replaced by a generic icons.

Is there a way to restore the original system icons for the hard drives that
were installed with XP Pro, shy of re-installing the OS?

I've searched on the net but most of the sites suggest editing the registry,
and I'm not really comfortable doing that ...
not to mention, I don't really understand the changes they tell me to make.

Thanks-Dave
 
Thank you for your suggestions,

I have no "Autorun.inf" files in the root directory of any of the drives.

I have already run Tweak UI, but it does not restore or rebuild the icons
associated with the individual drives when exploring "My Computer".

Any other suggestions?

Can you tell me where the system icons are actually located? I did a search
for ico files and didn't find any -- I have the search for hidden files and
folders option checked.

Thanks-Dave
 
Have you recently installed or uninstalled a third party theme software?
Could be one reason for Generic Icon as program failed to register icons. Try
this:

1. Click Start - Run - type REGEDIT and press enter key and navigate to the
following location:

2. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE \Microsoft \Windows
\CurrentVersion \Explorer \DriveIcons \<drive>
Example:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \Explorer
\DriveIcons \C

3. Backup the key by exporting it as a REG file. See here for more
information.
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/registry.htm

4. After backing up the key, delete the <drive> key from the registry.

5. Navigate to the following key, backup and delete the <drive> key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \Applications \explorer.exe \ Drives
\<drive>

6. Close Registry Editor and restart Windows.

If that doesn't help then:

1. Open My Computer - click Tools - Folder Options - click File Types
2. Here select the file type "Drives"
3. Click Advanced button and notice the Icon.
4. If it is the Default Icon then try changing it with a different icon and
the back to default.

Hope this help, let us know!
 
Have you recently installed or uninstalled a third party theme software?
Click to expand...

No themes have ever been applied on this OS

1. Click Start - Run - type REGEDIT and press enter key and navigate to
the
following location:

2. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE \Microsoft \Windows
\CurrentVersion \Explorer \DriveIcons \<drive>
Click to expand...

Drive key was not there (I believe I deleted this key at the suggestion of
a previous post)

5. Navigate to the following key, backup and delete the <drive> key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \Applications \explorer.exe \ Drives
\<drive>
Click to expand...

No subkey "Drives" was found listed under explorer.exe

if that doesn't help then:

1. Open My Computer - click Tools - Folder Options - click File Types
2. Here select the file type "Drives"
3. Click Advanced button and notice the Icon.
Click to expand...

The icon shown was the generic icon
4. If it is the Default Icon then try changing it with a different icon
and the back to default
Click to expand...

No effect.

Thank you for your suggestions, and for explaining what to do, in a way I
could understand the instructions--I wish it had worked. I suppose I'll
just have to live with this little glitch until the next time I re-install
the OS. I don't know why MS felt the need to make it so hard to change
drive icons, from what I read when searching for a solution to my problem,
it was never this hard in previous OS's. You could change drive icons the
same way you changed any other item icons. Oh well

Thanks again--Dave
 
Back
Top