Stumped on Windows Desktop Shortcut Display issue

A few days ago my Desktop shortcut icons went to hell. I'm stumped. I tried a restore but it had issues reapplying the registry. Ran a reg cleaner as a last resort and nothing. I'd imagine it is some sort of registry thing, but I'm not an expert on it. I may be wrong too. I have no idea where to even begin, nor what to search for.

All of my shortcuts are displaying the normal shortcut icon with a "file" icon on top. Non shortcuts do not have this problem (IE My Computer, any exe or .jpg I put on my desktop).



Any ideas at all?

Hi.

I think this should help you. If not, please let us know:

Fix Blank or White Shortcut Icons on Desktop

Where it shows this: C:\Users\\AppData\Local\

It really should be C:\Users\{YOURUSERNAMEHERE}\AppData\Local\

Originally Posted by TorrentG

Hi.

I think this should help you. If not, please let us know:

Fix Blank or White Shortcut Icons on Desktop

Where it shows this: C:\Users\\AppData\Local\

It really should be C:\Users\{YOURUSERNAMEHERE}\AppData\Local\

Thanks.

Followed it exactly and there was no effect. Still the white icons on top of the normal icons.

Also, I followed the MS10-046: Vulnerability in Windows Shell could allow remote code execution that was in the discussion area of your link and it had no affect as well.

Any more ideas?

Have you tried deleting the Icon Cache folder for your user account?
Run cmd.exe (don't think you need elevated privs)
Kill Explorer.exe so it's not running (or better yet do this in safe mode)

CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
DEL IconCache.db /a
EXIT

Restart Explorer and/or computer, does this solve your issue?

Originally Posted by Josephur

Have you tried deleting the Icon Cache folder for your user account?
Run cmd.exe (don't think you need elevated privs)
Kill Explorer.exe so it's not running (or better yet do this in safe mode)

CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
DEL IconCache.db /a
EXIT

Restart Explorer and/or computer, does this solve your issue?

I rebooted in safemode. By the way, they displayed incorrectly in safemode too.

I loaded cmd.exe, killed explorer.exe , and deleted the IconCache.db file and rebooted. Still messed up.

I looked more closely at your screenshot and it appears the icons are there but another icon overlay is missing that's supposed to be overlay-ed on top of them, for instance the "shortcut to" arrow that displays when a shortcut points to something. What happens when you turn off this overlay, does this fix the issue?

64-bit:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Shell Icons]
"29"="C:\\Windows\\Blank.ico,0"

32-bit:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Shell Icons]
"29"="%SystemRoot%\\Blank.ico,0"

Originally Posted by Josephur

I looked more closely at your screenshot and it appears the icons are there but another icon overlay is missing that's supposed to be overlay-ed on top of them, for instance the "shortcut to" arrow that displays when a shortcut points to something. What happens when you turn off this overlay, does this fix the issue?

64-bit:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Shell Icons]
"29"="C:\\Windows\\Blank.ico,0"

32-bit:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Shell Icons]
"29"="%SystemRoot%\\Blank.ico,0"

Ahhh! It worked!

I had to improvise a little though and download a Blank.ico off the web (maybe I could have made one, not sure).

KUDOS!

Hmm there should be a blank icon in shell32.dll you might be able to use, let me open it up and look... looks like Icon 30 in Shell32.dll might be the normal shortcut icon..
Icon 50-53 looks blank, you could try those too.

%systemroot%\\System32\\Shell32.dll,30
etc...

Originally Posted by Josephur

I looked more closely at your screenshot and it appears the icons are there but another icon overlay is missing that's supposed to be overlay-ed on top of them, for instance the "shortcut to" arrow that displays when a shortcut points to something. What happens when you turn off this overlay, does this fix the issue?

64-bit:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Shell Icons]
"29"="C:\\Windows\\Blank.ico,0"

32-bit:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Shell Icons]
"29"="%SystemRoot%\\Blank.ico,0"

THANKS! my problem is fixed