standard icons have disappeared 1

[JillC]

This computer has only one icon style on the desktop - mycomputer, recycle bine, folders, whatever - it always tries to display them with the same icon symbol which looks like a white note with a folded corner and a directory list with 6 little coloured blobs. I have discovered that if I go into Control Panel, Display, I can change the settings to old icons that look like they've come from the Win95 days. Even though the standard icons are sitting in the list, if I select them, they won't display on the desktop (nor in the start menu).

What should I do?

 

[SirBlack]

Windows maintains a cached copy of all the icons on your system. The cache may be too small or corrupted. You can try increasing the cache size or simply clean it out.

To clear the icons cache make sure you can view hidden files and then open the Windows folder in Windows Explorer and delete the file called "ShellIconCache". In XP, icons are usually located in Windows\system32\SHELL32. When you restart Windows, the icon cache file will be automatically recreated.

Hope this helps!

Bob B-)

 

[linney]

If the above suggestion does not work you could try using System Restore to get back to better days.

Do you see the same problem in Safe Mode or in Normal Mode but as a different user?

generic icons??
thread779-1265755

Desktop Icons Not Displaying Correctly
thread779-1178742

 

[JillC]

I couldn't find the shelliconcache file anywhere, SirBlack. And it was the same in Safe Mode or Normal, Linney. I tried the icons fix script but it didn't work. Eventually I tried a repair install. That didn't work either!

Then I did a search for iconcache and found a series of files in the user profiles and system folder. I deleted and restored each one individually until I found the one which was corrupted in one of the user profiles and the standard icons resurfaced. So I'll give you the star SirBlack for being closest to the mark.

 

[SirBlack]

Thanks for the star JillC. Glad I was able to help albeit in a round about way.

Bob B-)