Desktop icons

I have several icons for home-compiled programs that date from XP.

Can they be converted to become Windows 10 compliant?

I've been scanning the www but so far haven't found anything that looks
convincing.

There is nothing like experience.


--
Mageia 5 for x86_64, Kernel:4.4.16-desktop-1.mga5
KDE version 4.14.5 on an AMD Phenom II X4 Black edition.

On 29/09/2016 19:29, pinnerite wrote:
I have several icons for home-compiled programs that date from XP.

Can they be converted to become Windows 10 compliant?

I've been scanning the www but so far haven't found anything that looks
convincing.

There is nothing like experience.


Have you tried running them on Win10? Do you get any error messages?
Have you got the source code for them? Then why don't you recompile
them on Windows 10 using Visual Studio 15 Community Edition.

Alternatively, you could download Embarcadero C++ Compiler free edition
that you can use to recompile your source code. I am, of course,
assuming that these are C++ or C programs otherwise VS 15 can compile
C++, C, VB, C# or F#.



--

If you want to filter all of my posts then please read this article:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/organize-your-messages-using-filters
In step 7 select "Delete"

With over 350 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

Good Guy wrote:

On 29/09/2016 19:29, pinnerite wrote:
I have several icons for home-compiled programs that date from XP.

Can they be converted to become Windows 10 compliant?

I've been scanning the www but so far haven't found anything that looks
convincing.

There is nothing like experience.


Have you tried running them on Win10? Do you get any error messages?
Have you got the source code for them? Then why don't you recompile
them on Windows 10 using Visual Studio 15 Community Edition.

Alternatively, you could download Embarcadero C++ Compiler free edition
that you can use to recompile your source code. I am, of course,
assuming that these are C++ or C programs otherwise VS 15 can compile
C++, C, VB, C# or F#.



They are picture files. As far as I am aware they either display or they
don't. As for investing in a whole pile of Microsoft programs just to
'compile' a couple of icons, that sounds like the proverbial sledgehammer
and nut.

But thanks for the investment advice.

--
Mageia 5 for x86_64, Kernel:4.4.16-desktop-1.mga5
KDE version 4.14.5 on an AMD Phenom II X4 Black edition.

On Thu, 29 Sep 2016 19:29:46 +0100, pinnerite
wrote:

I have several icons for home-compiled programs that date from XP.

Can they be converted to become Windows 10 compliant?

I've been scanning the www but so far haven't found anything that looks
convincing.

There is nothing like experience.


Nor technology. Try:
http://www.axialis.com/download/
I did, & I.m happy.

pinnerite wrote:

I have several icons for home-compiled programs that date from XP.

Can they be converted to become Windows 10 compliant?

I've been scanning the www but so far haven't found anything that looks
convincing.

There is nothing like experience.

Since the shortcut's icon comes from an .exe, .dll, or other resource
file included in the software, why can't you continue using that for our
old program's shortcuts in Win10?

Or were you grabbing icons from some non-program related resource file
(e.g., shell32.dll, moricons.dll)? If so, you will need those same
resource files if similar icons are not available in the new instance of
Windows.

You never mentioned from WHERE the icons were retrieved for your old
shortcuts.

In alt.comp.os.windows-10, on Thu, 29 Sep 2016 19:29:46 +0100, pinnerite
wrote:

I have several icons for home-compiled programs that date from XP.

Can they be converted to become Windows 10 compliant?

Why do you think they won't work.

I've been scanning the www but so far haven't found anything that looks
convincing.

Maybe that's because there's nothing to say about it.

Like converting from a 24" bicycle to a 27" bicycle.

There is nothing like experience.

VanguardLH wrote:

pinnerite wrote:

I have several icons for home-compiled programs that date from XP.

Can they be converted to become Windows 10 compliant?

I've been scanning the www but so far haven't found anything that looks
convincing.

There is nothing like experience.

Since the shortcut's icon comes from an .exe, .dll, or other resource
file included in the software, why can't you continue using that for our
old program's shortcuts in Win10?

Or were you grabbing icons from some non-program related resource file
(e.g., shell32.dll, moricons.dll)? If so, you will need those same
resource files if similar icons are not available in the new instance of
Windows.

You never mentioned from WHERE the icons were retrieved for your old
shortcuts.

My icons were hand crafted and converted in 32x32, 42x42 48x48 over the
years for different environments. The accompanied programs created and
compiled by me and happily played with every version of Windows from Win-98
to XP.

I have them in ico, png and jpeg formats.

But under win-10 they will not display although they do n the properties
dialog where one tries to change them.

I addressed this NG because I assumed that something had been changed by MS
as just part of its way of making computers simpler to manage.

Incidentally, I can no longer remove the hated shortcut arrows without
losing the right-click start menu. Another MS improvement.


--
Mageia 5 for x86_64, Kernel:4.4.16-desktop-1.mga5
KDE version 4.14.5 on an AMD Phenom II X4 Black edition.

I just created a text file, dragged it o the desktop and changed the icon to
one of mine. Ni problem.

But a short-cut to one of programs with the same icon set will not display
it.

Those of you who are post-Win-98 have probably never encountered programs of
that era and understandably were sceptical of my comments about non-
displaying icons.

So no likely constructive advice on that subject here,

Regards, Alan


--
Mageia 5 for x86_64, Kernel:4.4.16-desktop-1.mga5
KDE version 4.14.5 on an AMD Phenom II X4 Black edition.

pinnerite wrote:

I just created a text file, dragged it o the desktop and changed the icon to
one of mine. Ni problem.

But a short-cut to one of programs with the same icon set will not display
it.

Those of you who are post-Win-98 have probably never encountered programs of
that era and understandably were sceptical of my comments about non-
displaying icons.

There are 2 types of program links. Maybe you're trying to change the
icon for the 2nd type and I don't think you can without having to delve
into the registry definition for that shell extension.

_LNK file as shortcut_

These are .lnk files within with the icon resource is defined. These
were introduced back in Windows 95. The IconIndex attribute is a 32-bit
signed integer that defines where is the image and which one to use from
that resource. For structure of content in a LNK file, I found
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd871305.aspx.
There is a Windows API to programmatically define LNK files; see
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb774950.aspx (TOC for topic
starts at https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd871305.aspx).

THere are tools to parse out and display the structures and attributes
(flags) defined within a LNK file. I've not had to use any of them.
One I found is https://tzworks.net/prototype_page.php?proto_id=11.

I found a site that has some forensics on the content of LNK files:
https://github.com/libyal/liblnk/blo...mat.asciido c
Some talk about programmatically extracting the icon from a LNK file:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3...-shortcut-file

Sounds like you are saying that you are trying to modify the properties
of a LNK shortcut by right-clicking on it, selecting Properties, and
using the Change Icon to browse to your resource file to find an icon,
select it, but it does not get used. After changing the icon, have you
logged out and back into your Windows account? Have you tried deleting
the iconcachedb file and logging out and back into your Windows account
(the same way it was done back in prior versions of Windows; see
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/rebuil...ache-windows)?

Have you configured File Explorer to show extensions to make sure the
shortcut on which you double-click is a .lnk file? Does the .lnk file
still work to launch the target program? If not, maybe the LNK filetype
association is broken; see
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/deskto...ing-in-windows.

Maybe the .lnk file for the shortcut is corrupt. Have you tried
deleting it and creating a new LNK shortcut to the target program and
changed the icon in that new shortcut?

_Shell Extension "shortcuts"_

These are not LNK shortcut files. They are shell extensions for objects
defined in the Windows registry. For example, the Recycle Bin shortcut
on the desktop, if shown, won't show you LNK properties when you
right-click on it and select Properties. You get a different set of
handlers for the context menu entries for that shell extension. Some
programs create these type of desktop icons rather than LNK files
because they want to add their own suite of functions in the context
menu.

I've not much played with this type of icon handler used as a shortcut
(as far as the user understands). I remember a long time back that
installing MS Office would put an icon handler (not a LNK shortcut) on
the desktop for Outlook. Google Images didn't have a copy of the
Outlook desktop icon for me to show you (I only did a quick 1-page
results search) but you can see an example of the Outlook icon handler
in the pic at http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html. I've used
Nirsoft's ShellExView to modify, delete, or disable many shell
extensions, especially those that like to pollute context menus rather
than provide an option to NOT integrate with Windows/File Explorer.

There are lots of programming articles on how to create shell extensions
and shell icon handlers, like:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...(v=vs.85).aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...(v=vs.85).aspx

However, that's a discussion best for asking in a programming newsgroup,
or maybe to those intimate with Class IDs and other objects defined
within the Windows registry.

_Other_

You had asked back on Aug 24 about "Link to local file?" because
something you installed back in Windows XP wasn't working in Windows 10.
Each major version of Windows may wipe out shell extensions, icon
handlers, and other registry tweaks plus old tools may no longer work.
That why, if the shortcuts are .lnk files, that I suggest you delete
them and create new ones to see if those will work to select an icon
(and then logout and back into your Windows account or go through the
iconcache.db rebuild process).

I rarely upgrade to a new major version of Windows. Too much pollution
gets carried along, some bad tweaks roll forward, and stuff that used to
work won't work plus changes to the registry can wipe out some of your
tweaks or those added by tools you used before. I don't recall if you
upgraded to Windows 10 or did a fresh install of it.

So no likely constructive advice on that subject here,

God doesn't visit Usenet.

pinnerite wrote in
:

I just created a text file, dragged it o the desktop and changed the
icon to one of mine. Ni problem.

But a short-cut to one of programs with the same icon set will not
display it.

Those of you who are post-Win-98 have probably never encountered
programs of that era and understandably were sceptical of my comments
about non- displaying icons.

So no likely constructive advice on that subject here,

Regards, Alan


Have you tried setting compatability mode in the properties? Long shot but
it might help.

On Fri, 30 Sep 2016 14:42:45 +0100, pinnerite
wrote:


There is nothing like experience.


Incidentally, I can no longer remove the hated shortcut arrows without
losing the right-click start menu. Another MS improvement.

No problems here using Ultimate Windows Tweaker 4 for Windows 10 on
one of my PCs. This is available from howtogeek.com at:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/35c893

I have also successfully used Windows Shortcut Arrow Editor. This is
available from winaero.com at:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/zhkv47q