Must be some kind of pesky virus script that thats doing this. What happens is that i'll do something, open a folder or whatever, and the screen will flash like it's refreshing and all my icons will have changed from having the typical arrow that designates them as shortcuts to a different thing such as a small yellow square in place of the arrow. I then have to go to tweak ui to get them back to having the arrows. It can't be duplicated because if i try doing the same thing again, it doesn't happen, at least not at the moment. It seems like it's scripted to happen like once a day or so. I can't really say if it always happens when i open that same folder or not because i always forget what i'd clicked, opened, whatever, the last time it happened.

Any ideas as to either what it might be or how to find it? I tried looking for scp files to no avail. hellllllp!!

Thanks,-Dale

Hi Dale. Are you running The Cleaner (http://www.moosoft.com/download.php)? It sounds more like a trojan. You can download a trial at the link.

Thanks Elaine. I'll check it out .......Dale

Doesn't sound like the behaviour of any virus/trojan I know of. Sometimes your shell icon cache can be stuffed.

In windows 95/98/me it is easy to ifx. Windows 2000/XP not so easy.

Boot to a dos prompt and delete shelli~1 form the windows (or it might be the Windows\system dir) directory.

It has to be done from dos. Then windows will rebuild a new one upon reboot.

XP/2000, you might be able to use the rebuild icons option in tweakui

What OS are you running? Something similar happened to me once on a PC running 98SE.


Roger

Check the resolution at which you are working. Should be greater than or equal to 16 Bit (High Colour).

I'm running 98se. I used the "rebuild icons" feature in tweak ui, but the problem is i have to wait a day or 2 at least to see if it's gone because i can't duplicate the problem.
I tried the cleaner and it did it after that. Resolution is 32 bit......Dale

Start RegEdit from Start->Run.

Navigate to My Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics. If "Shell Icon BPP" is not listed in right hand pannel then create the new string value by right clicking over there. Or Press F3 and enter "Shell Icon BPP" as search string to find exsisting value.

The value of this key should be 16. If it's something else then you can double click the entry and put 16 instead.

Exactly below that there will be another value called "Shell Icon Size". Put this value as 32.

HTH!!

Does this only affect shortcuts? There is an icon that windows automatically overlays on all shortcuts. It appears that when your icons are refreshed this overlay is not, or the overlay image is somehow corrupted in memory before refreshing the screen. You can of course eliminate these overlays on shortcuts entirely.

Is this problem eliminated by a reboot, or even just right clicking the desktop and selecting Refresh?

Ok, let me clarify this problem. There are little arrows on the desktop icons, and yes, it only affects the icons which are shortcuts because as you know only shortcuts have arrows. (arrows of course are the designation that it's a shortcut)
What happens is that the arrows change to something else. I'm not sure, but i think they've changed to different things during the 5 or 6 times this has happened. Not positive about that tho. In any case, the last time it happened i noticed the arrows were replaced by yellow squares.

As for whether or not it gets fixed by re-booting, i don't know. I always fix it immediatly by using tweak ui. I check any box thats not checked in tweak ui's section that lets you change to no arrows, or "light" arrow, and a couple other choices. Then i click apply, then check the box for normal arrow and click apply again. Everything then is normal till next time it happens.

And by the way, the icon size does not change. Just the arrows change to a different thing, thats it.

Oh, and both registry strings are there and at the values MasterMind
stated.

Thanks,-Dale

The arrows are on the shortcut overlay which is a transparent icon with just the arrow. Try a simple refresh of the desktop or the folder you're viewing.

Have you considered that Tweak UI may be causing the problem you are using it to fix?

Just an idea have no technical reason as to why but there you go!

Tweak ui has been on my pc since i got it.....i doubt it's the cause.

Anyway, it just did it again and i think keymaster may be right, but i don't know how to find the overlay file. Heres a pic of one of the icons i screen captured after it just happened.........

http://www.onlinerock.com/musicians/dazco/icon.jpg

By the way, i just noticed it reverted back to the normal arrow. I left it alone this time instead of fixing it and it fixed itself. I did try refreshing the desktop as key said right after it happened, but that didn't work. It happened after about 10 minutes by itself.

-Dale

On all the Win9x kernel systems I've worked on, I've had problems like this with Icons, either displaying the wrong icon or corrupted icons. I guess it's just a Windows bug, or perhaps an application bug that windows doesn't catch, that writes someting to the wrong place. All programs are not well behaved and instead of calling standard routines to perform certain functions, write to memory directly. It then becomes a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.

BTW, here's an interesting trick to try. Next time click Start->Shutdown and then cancel the shutdown. This causes some registry settings to be refreshed.

I've got a similar problem on my win98se computer but it affacts all my icons by changing them to some other applications icon (E.G. all .txt files have a Zone Alarm icon and all .doc files have a Winamp icon)

Doesn't affect the way the way the file works but is (was) irritating.

I have tracked down the cause of this to be a (great) program I use for video editing called Virtual Dub. So after using the program I just do the same trick mentioned by Keymaster (Shutdown cancel).

Does it happen after using a certain program or performing a certain action? Keep an eye on everything you run and then check the icons after running every program to see if that's what is causing your problem.

I just got that bug on my pc after installing lotus smartsuite:(Now as stated above by keymaster my icons go all funny, for example at the moment I have a gamspy logo for Internet Explorer:DBut when I reboot its fine for a few minutes until I run a program.I am relieved that it is no more than a bug and I have read your remedies but would like to know what you guys reccommend:)Just a recap My icons are fine until I use a program but then when I reboot it is fine.This has happened occasionally in the past but nothing as bad as this,I think it was caused by running/changing the settings of another program.Thanks for your help:)

Did using tweakui's rebuild icons work for anyone?

Yes m8, normally it works just fine...

I tried it and so far my icons are great,thanks for this informative topic with help of the search button:D

Learn more about TweakUI at http://www.pcforrest.freeserve.co.uk/tweakui.htm (Thanks to Harry O for the link)