Where are Desktop shortcut icon pictures stored?

[Bob Kent]

When I send a shortcut to the Desktop from Internet Explorer an icon is
created which usually has a unique picture displayed. The problem is that if
I want to use this icon picture for some other icon, I don't know where it is
stored. Presumably it is somewhere under \Documents and Settings for the
user that I am logged in as, but I have been unable to find it there. It
must be stored somewhere in order for it to be displayed on the Desktop each
time I log in.

 

[Big_Al]

Bob Kent said this on 1/26/2009 1:21 AM:

When I send a shortcut to the Desktop from Internet Explorer an icon is
created which usually has a unique picture displayed. The problem is that if
I want to use this icon picture for some other icon, I don't know where it is
stored. Presumably it is somewhere under \Documents and Settings for the
user that I am logged in as, but I have been unable to find it there. It
must be stored somewhere in order for it to be displayed on the Desktop each
time I log in.

I just tried to find it and I can't find it readily either.
I have looked at things like shortcuts in bookmarks.html used by FireFox
browser. And these <a href> links have the web page favicon embedded
in the link. <A href="...." ICON=.....> etc.
So I thought it might be that clever. But nope. And I can go to CMD
and look at the size of webpage.lnk and its only 60 bytes, meaning not
much is embedded in that link.
I'll stay tuned to see who responds, but I'm on your side... where? if
for no reason other the dang curiosity.
My only guess is explorer.exe does just what IE does and grabs the
favicon from the web site maybe? But I'd still think it would be more
rational to store it and maybe it does in the registry. I just didn't
search there.
Stay tuned folks.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

When I send a shortcut to the Desktop from Internet Explorer an icon is
created which usually has a unique picture displayed. The problem is that
if
I want to use this icon picture for some other icon, I don't know where it
is
stored. Presumably it is somewhere under \Documents and Settings for the
user that I am logged in as, but I have been unable to find it there. It
must be stored somewhere in order for it to be displayed on the Desktop
each
time I log in.

Pictures are not stored in the shortcut file, only a reference to the
picture. Right-click the shortcut, select "Properties", click the "Shortcut"
tab, then click the "Change Icon" button to see the reference.

 

[Theslaz]

Pictures are not stored in the shortcut file, only a reference to the
picture. Right-click the shortcut, select "Properties", click the "Shortcut"
tab, then click the "Change Icon" button to see the reference.

I could be wrong; but aren't the icon's pulled from within the "Exe"
file that runs the program.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I could be wrong; but aren't the icon's pulled from within the "Exe" file
that runs the program.

You're right: This is the default location. However, there is nothing
preventing you from nominating a different picture file.

 

[Big_Al]

Pegasus (MVP) said this on 1/26/2009 9:30 AM:

You're right: This is the default location. However, there is nothing
preventing you from nominating a different picture file.

Unfortunately the OP is creating a URL shortcut via IE. Not a program
shortcut. And when I tried it, there is a change icon option in the
properties, but it points to shell32.dll and not to a specific icon.
He's trying to find the icon. Not change it, but find it.

 

[Elmo]

When I send a shortcut to the Desktop from Internet Explorer an icon is
created which usually has a unique picture displayed. The problem is that if
I want to use this icon picture for some other icon, I don't know where it is
stored. Presumably it is somewhere under \Documents and Settings for the
user that I am logged in as, but I have been unable to find it there. It
must be stored somewhere in order for it to be displayed on the Desktop each
time I log in.

Do a search for Favicons for more information on how to save them.

Ju.C offers a good explanation here:

http://groups.google.com/group/micr.../90110371910dd0a4?q=favicons#3b9f98a844f07ecd

 

[Theslaz]

Do a search for Favicons for more information on how to save them.

Ju.C offers a good explanation here:

http://groups.google.com/group/micr.../90110371910dd0a4?q=favicons#3b9f98a844f07ecd

There are some free ware programs that will retrieve the icon from the
"Exe" file so that you can use them else ware. A google search will
probably lead you in the right direction.

 

[dadiOH]

I could be wrong; but aren't the icon's pulled from within the "Exe"
file that runs the program.

OP's shortcuts are internet shortcuts (favicons, else they would be the
standard "page with a e").



dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

 

[Richard In Va.]

One other thing you can try...

Open the web page of interest, go to your Menu tool bar and select... View
then Source. This will open the web page html code in notepad.

From the Notepad menu, select Edit then Find, type "favicon" in the search
window and if available you should see something like...
href="http://hp.msn.com/global/c/hpv10/favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon"

The image your looking for should have a .ico file extension.
Copy & paste the complete file name and URL location to your address bar,
should look something like...
http://hp.msn.com/global/c/hpv10/favicon.ico

Hit enter, now you should see the image, file save-as to a local folder on
your hard drive.

Now go back to your desktop to the shortcut and edit it's properties so the
icon location points to your image of choice.

A poor-mans method, but should work... unless the favicon is loaded via CSS.
If so, then you got to chase down the CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) file. If
you use Firefox, the Firebug extension would make it alot easier. The
Firebug extension helps you to view and understand the html code of web
pages. It will show you the CSS files and images too. Just right-click and
save for your icon image... Really Cool app!

Hope this helps!

Richard in Va.
+++++++++++++

 

[Gary Brandenburg]

When I send a shortcut to the Desktop from Internet Explorer an icon is
created which usually has a unique picture displayed. The problem is that if
I want to use this icon picture for some other icon, I don't know where it is
stored. Presumably it is somewhere under \Documents and Settings for the
user that I am logged in as, but I have been unable to find it there. It
must be stored somewhere in order for it to be displayed on the Desktop each
time I log in.

If you're talking about the favicon, it's in Control Panel/Internet Options-General.
Under Browsing History click View Files & look in the temporary internet files.

I created a folder called Favicons & copy the ones I like, to it.(there are some cool
ones embedded in some web sites-just look at the address bar)
It usually names it favicon.ico so I go into the folder & rename it to something that
better describes it. When I rename it, I change only the favicon name & leave the
..ico extension. Otherwise it will become unusable.

Then I can go to any program, file, or favorite's properties that doesn't use a
distinct icon & Change Icon & browse to my Favicons Folder to find a more preferable
one.

That's the way to do this without any third party software.

I hope this is what you're looking for.

~Gary