FortKnox's Journal: WinXP Help: Lost most of my icons?

OK, I was just putting in my AvP2 disc into the CD Rom, and just when the 'autoplay' menu popped up, all my icons switched to the standard 'default' icon. My computer, my docs, internet explorer (for windows updates... I'm still a firefox guy)... actually, it looks like the windows-based icons are the ones that are lost, cause CD ROM is gone, but the firefox, AVG, and other game icons are still fine.

Any clue as to what's going on and how to change them? When I change "My Computer" to something else, it'll come up with the new icon... I switch it back, and it goes back to the default "I can't find the icon" icon. Rebooting did squat. Putting another (and the same) CD in and letting it autoplay did nothing.

Any idea what happened or how to fix it? Its very annoying.

Rebuild Shell Icon Cache?

[Cyberdyne]

Sounds rather like a corrupt "shell icon cache" to me - the Tweak UI control panel applet can fix this, under the Repair tab (select 'Rebuild Icons', hit 'Repair Now', then reboot).

Re:Rebuild Shell Icon Cache?

[Safety Cap]

Sounds rather like a corrupt "shell icon cache" to me - the Tweak UI control panel applet can fix this, ~.

If that doesn't work, switch to a higher resolution/# of colors, then back. It will force Windows to reload the ico info.

Re:Rebuild Shell Icon Cache?

[FortKnox]

Aye, that fixed the problem! Thanks much!

Maybe

[bofkentucky]

Control Panel -> Display Properties -> Desktop -> Customize Desktop
There are checkboxes for what should be on the deskto versus what microsoft wanted Luna to look like. Not sure why it reset all that though, might want to send an angry bug report.

Suggestion

[Planesdragon]

So, your default desktop icons are all the white "default program" boxes, but if you change their names, they're fine?

Try bringing up the display menu (right-click on the desktop and bring up "display" or use the Control Panel), go to the "Desktop" tab and select "Customize Desktop."

See if you can set the Win icons to their default, or just choose something new.

I don't use XP as my default Windows OS but...

[WIAKywbfatw]

There is a Windows XP version of TweakUI and this should be what you need. TweakUI, if you're not familiar with it, is the name given to the official but unsupported Microsoft user interface, uh, tweaker that's part of the set of Power Toys that have been available for every version of Windows since Windows 95.

In each version that I've used (I'm currently using Windows 2000 Pro), TweakUI lets you do various things that should restore your icons to their original state. For example, you can Repair Icons (just what the name suggests) and you can add or remove particular icons associated with the OS to and from the desktop (eg, My Computer, My Documents, Internet Explorer). These two options alone should fix your problem.

I'm in the middle of something right now, so I will just leave you with the URL where you can get TweakUI for XP as well as the other Power Toys for XP: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/p owertoys.asp [microsoft.com].

Let us know how you get on.

Re:I don't use XP as my default Windows OS but...

[FortKnox]

The "Repair icon cache" fixed the problem... but I d/l'ed a lot of the powertoys... lotsa neat stuff in there. Thanks for the help!

I can tell you how to fix it...

[TechnoLust]

INSTALL LINUX! HAHA! just kidding. I just wanted to get it in there before any of the linux trolls. Steal their thunder kinda thing, ya know? :-)

Re:I can tell you how to fix it...

[the_mad_poster]

INSTALL BSD! HAHA!

Nyah.. :-P

Re:I can tell you how to fix it...

[linzeal]

Install a random operating system [tunes.org]