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some icons show up, many don't
Published on September 30, 2008 By sixshot In OS Customization

Please move the thread if necessary.  I don't know where else to post this issue I'm having, which I hope someone out there knows about it.

I'm using Vista Business x86 w/ SP1.  I don't know when the problem started but I know it was recent.  For some reason, many of the software icons disappeared and won't show up any more.  By disappear I mean they appear like the default icons.  I currently use IconPackager to switch between icon themes.  But even when I tried to have it switch to the Vista default theme, many of the icons still don't show up properly.  File type icons seem to work as needed.  But software shortcuts don't.  Even install and executable files don't show their icons properly.

What's even weirder is that when I go to my Start Panel and try to browse through my programs, opening up folder isn't instantaneous any more.  It just sits there like it's waiting for something and I get that animated icon as though it's searching for files.

I've tried clearing the icon cache and I also tried rebuilding icons through IconPackager.  Neither seem to work.  I even tried deleting the icon cache database file but that doesn't appear to work.  I hope someone out there knows something so I can get those icons back.  It's awful having to see a bunch of shortcuts to your softwares and games appear as default icons.


Comments
on Sep 30, 2008

In Icon packager, go to the settings tab and rebuild the Icon Cache and repair shell icons, and repair Icon images.

on Sep 30, 2008

Did that, still nothing.  Any more suggestions?

on Oct 16, 2008

A bit of an update to a persistent problem I had.  I dunno what I did, how it did it, or whether or not it's something else.  Apparently I have fixed this problem I had.

First off, I was doing the usual googling to see if I can find information on this problem.  I had a lead but I thought it turned up dead when I couldn't get Vista to rebuild or refresh the icon cache (via deleting IconCache.db).  I don't know if this was the case but I landed on this page where these small registry entries would fix file type icons.  As even simple exe files residing on my desktop wouldn't show me its icons, I figure I'd try the exe fix.  Tried to get the system to refresh the icons.  Nothing.  Deleted the icon cache.  Still nothing.  Figure I'll go back to using IconPackager again, I reinstalled it (it was uninstalled when I was testing these fixes).  Out of random, I went to IP's settings page and clicked on "Rebuild Icon Cache" and magically, all of my program icons came back as normal.

I'm still confused as to how this all happened.  And I wonder if this issue I had was a bug that was introduced between versions of IP.  The "History" dialog for IP did not mention anything and I'm curious to hear if Stardock know anything regarding this very issue (be it a bug on their part or a mishap on mine).