Icons on desktop

Most applications have an icon that appears on the desktop. Sometimes
a generic looking icon appears instead. Any ideas why this should be,
and is there a way to refresh the desktop to get the real thing? TIA.

Scott wrote in
:

Most applications have an icon that appears on the desktop. Sometimes
a generic looking icon appears instead. Any ideas why this should be,
and is there a way to refresh the desktop to get the real thing? TIA.


The prosaic way is to go to the folder where the main program is, right
click on it's main .exe file, drag it out to the desktop, and from the menu
click "Create shortcut here". That is a "start button" for the program
that *should* have the correct icon.

I do sympathize, though - that problem never, ever happened to me in XP,
but it's not infrequent in Windows 7, for some reason.

Tony

In article ,
says...

Most applications have an icon that appears on the desktop. Sometimes
a generic looking icon appears instead. Any ideas why this should be,
and is there a way to refresh the desktop to get the real thing? TIA.

The exe file the shortcut pointer refers to must have an imbedded icon
in it for that to automatically happen. When you get the generic icon
instead first check and look at the exe file in question diectly by
examining the folder it's in and if icon view also shows some generic
icon then only option is you can change the properties of the original
shortcut and specify your own icon instead otherwise try changing the
icon to the exe file manually as that should work.

Scott wrote:
Most applications have an icon that appears on the desktop. Sometimes
a generic looking icon appears instead. Any ideas why this should be,
and is there a way to refresh the desktop to get the real thing? TIA.

That happened to me last month, except ALL icons except the basic
Recycle Bin, Windows Explorer, and Computer reverted to generic icons.
Next step was everything I clicked on brought up an error message
that I did not have authority to open that. Then Windows died. It
got caught up in trying to open the last good setup and would not
start at all. The last straw was that Acronis would not restore,
saying that my restore file (on an external HD) was not a real acronis
backup file.

--
GW Ross

If it's comprehensible, it's obsolete.

On 25/05/2015 20:27, G. Ross wrote:
If it's comprehensible, it's obsolete.

Me like your motto! And if it is not comprehensible, that means you are
getting too old!

On Mon, 25 May 2015 11:24:23 -0500, Tony
wrote:

Scott wrote in
:

Most applications have an icon that appears on the desktop. Sometimes
a generic looking icon appears instead. Any ideas why this should be,
and is there a way to refresh the desktop to get the real thing? TIA.


The prosaic way is to go to the folder where the main program is, right
click on it's main .exe file, drag it out to the desktop, and from the menu
click "Create shortcut here". That is a "start button" for the program
that *should* have the correct icon.

I do sympathize, though - that problem never, ever happened to me in XP,
but it's not infrequent in Windows 7, for some reason.

Yes, in Win 7 all my DOS programs have the same icon, a blank white
square, so I have to read the text underneath them to see which
program is which. In Win XP they have different icons, either ones
that came with the program itself, or ones I put there using the
Properties tab on the shortcut.


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

Steve Hayes wrote:

Yes, in Win 7 all my DOS programs have the same icon, a blank white
square, so I have to read the text underneath them to see which
program is which. In Win XP they have different icons, either ones
that came with the program itself, or ones I put there using the
Properties tab on the shortcut.

Windows programs come in *.exe files that include many things besides
the executable code. One of these is the icon to be displayed to
represent the program. Old-style DOS programs don't come with an icon.
Newer 32 (or 64) bit console programs - which some folks may call DOS
programs, since they run at the command line - should include an icon.

--
Tim Slattery
tim at risingdove dot com

On Tue, 26 May 2015 11:03:28 -0400, Tim Slattery
wrote:

Steve Hayes wrote:

Yes, in Win 7 all my DOS programs have the same icon, a blank white
square, so I have to read the text underneath them to see which
program is which. In Win XP they have different icons, either ones
that came with the program itself, or ones I put there using the
Properties tab on the shortcut.

Windows programs come in *.exe files that include many things besides
the executable code. One of these is the icon to be displayed to
represent the program. Old-style DOS programs don't come with an icon.
Newer 32 (or 64) bit console programs - which some folks may call DOS
programs, since they run at the command line - should include an icon.

Some DOS programs come with icons, which the .pif file displays.
Others don't, and with Win XP you can put any icon you like in the
properties of the short cut, but Win 7 doesn't display them .



--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

On Tue, 26 May 2015 21:22:49 +0100, John wrote:

On Tue, 26 May 2015 20:36:50 +0200, Steve Hayes
wrote:

On Tue, 26 May 2015 11:03:28 -0400, Tim Slattery
wrote:

Steve Hayes wrote:

Yes, in Win 7 all my DOS programs have the same icon, a blank white
square, so I have to read the text underneath them to see which
program is which. In Win XP they have different icons, either ones
that came with the program itself, or ones I put there using the
Properties tab on the shortcut.

Windows programs come in *.exe files that include many things besides
the executable code. One of these is the icon to be displayed to
represent the program. Old-style DOS programs don't come with an icon.
Newer 32 (or 64) bit console programs - which some folks may call DOS
programs, since they run at the command line - should include an icon.

Some DOS programs come with icons, which the .pif file displays.
Others don't, and with Win XP you can put any icon you like in the
properties of the short cut, but Win 7 doesn't display them .

You can always go into "Properties"/"SHORTCUT" tab/"Change Icon" and
look for %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll or MOREICONS.DLL and pick
one you like. Or go to the *.exe file's target directory to look for a
*dll file to see if *that* has an icon in it.

Yes, did that, it works in Win XP, but not in 7.


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

On 5/25/2015 11:45 AM, Scott wrote:
Most applications have an icon that appears on the desktop. Sometimes
a generic looking icon appears instead. Any ideas why this should be,
and is there a way to refresh the desktop to get the real thing? TIA.

If all else fails there are programs available to extract Icons imbedded
in files so they can be saved in a folder and used as desired.

Google: windows extract icons

"Scott" wrote in message ...

Most applications have an icon that appears on the desktop. Sometimes
a generic looking icon appears instead. Any ideas why this should be,
and is there a way to refresh the desktop to get the real thing? TIA.
--------------------------------------------
I have that problem, but there is a way to correct it.

There is a program titled "ICON CACHE REBUILDER"

To find the program go to Google and type ICON CACHE REBUILDER.

You can get this program from here.

PUZZLEMENT