help with icons on vista home premium

[wingnut2003]

Hello, i have a strange thing happening. my icons goto a "generic" one, but the original is still there underneath it. i just recently udated quicktime player when this happened. i did at a later time install dvd fab6 and it caused the same thing to happen. i haven't messed with the registry at all. i have installed other programs and all was fine. any ideas, thanks in advance.


as a side note, the icon for the recycle bin is fine.

[edDV]

You can get it back by creating a new shortcut to the app exe file or editing the shortcut icon.

[wingnut2003]

i just tried the making a new shortcut and changing the icon, it still does the same thing. i also have tried uninstalling the application, restarting and it stays the same.

[edDV]

May be reformat reinstall time.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Apple traditionally stomp their crap all over Windows. It happened to me recently - even with QT uninstalled, all my media files had those damned iTunes icons instead of the right ones. The "Open with..." trick failed. Ultimately, I searched the the registry for all occurrences of Quicktime, Apple and iTunes, and found a couple of entries relating to default icons. I deleted the entries and all the correct icons reappeared automagically. Sorry - can't recall the exact registry entry.

[edDV]

Apple traditionally stomp their crap all over Windows. It happened to me recently - even with QT uninstalled, all my media files had those damned iTunes icons instead of the right ones. The "Open with..." trick failed. Ultimately, I searched the the registry for all occurrences of Quicktime, Apple and iTunes, and found a couple of entries relating to default icons. I deleted the entries and all the correct icons reappeared automagically. Sorry - can't recall the exact registry entry.

Quicktime for Windows has always attempted to hijack file associations. It was worse in the late 90's.

I got a ticket in Cupertino for crossing the shoulder line to reach an exit during stopped traffic. With me in traffic school was an Apple Quicktime engineer. I used this as an 8 hour opportunity to express my displeasure with Quicktime for Windows taking over file associations. The poor guy must have lacked influence.

[wingnut2003]

i am not having issues with file associations, everything still works fine. it's just that my icons have a second icon placed over them. i never had this problem before. also, even though the icons are the way they are, they still work.

[edDV]

File associations cause all affected files to change icons.

If you are just having icons change to default, it indicates a Windows issue.

[Ai Haibara]

Actually, since the OP mentioned the original icons are still there, with the 'undefined' icon pasted over them (look at the picture in the OP's post - you can even see part of the Winamp 'lightning bolt' from the icon emerging from the sides of the 'second' icon), I don't think it's a file association or regular icon issue - at least, not normally.

wingnut2003: Does this happen with all of your icons, including the Start Menu, or just the desktop?

If it's just the Desktop, what happens if you left-click on the desktop and hit F5? And, if you have a mouse wheel, clicking on the desktop, then holding Ctrl and scrolling the mouse wheel?

Does it persist if you reboot? (Edit: I did see that you attempted rebooting at least once or twice, so ignore this (unless you want to go ahead and try it, again... )

(At least in Vista (and probably Win7 as well), Windows now treats the desktop and the icons on it as 3D objects, IIRC. For all I know, that could be one of the ways icon cache corruption manifests in Vista.)

[wingnut2003]

Ai Haibara, refreshing the desktop did nothing, but holding the ctrl key and scrolling the mouse wheel made the "other" icon get smaller and show the original icon like it should. it appears that the little arrow that vista puts there to show that it a shortcut is corrupt. i have included a picture.



forgot, it is just the desktop icons, all others are fine.

[Ai Haibara]

This might help:
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/67615-shortcut-arrow.html

I haven't tried any of these methods (haven't had the problem), so I can't guarantee they'll work.

[wingnut2003]

Ai Haibara, that did it, everything is back. thank you and everyone for the help.