Why are My Computer icons changed?

[MidiMagic]

Why are the icons in My computer all nearly alike now?

All of them (except the folders) now look like little blue pieces of paper with a very tiny little picture of the icon that used to be there inside.

I can't visually tell them apart now. This makes it much harder to find the file I want easily.

In addition, My Computer won't let me change the icons to the old ones.

I don't care that the file is a "document." I need to be able to tell at a glance what KIND of document it is. All I see for all of the following kinds of files is a blue piece of paper with a folded down edge, and a little red-orange smudge inside:

bmp, gif, htm, html, jpg

The smudges are different, but not different enough to tell at a glance which kind of file it is. This makes it much harder to do my work. Whoever thought this up deserves a kick into next week.

What's going on?

[beefstick720]

make sure that your using a .ico file

[MidiMagic]

I am trying to use the icons that used to be displayed. So they are definitely .ico files.

When I use "Change Icon" in Properties in My Computer, it goes through the motions, but the icons do not change in the File Types list.

Also, my computer suddenly changed from defaulting to Firefox to defaulting to IE at the same time. This all happened the day after MS upgraded IE.

[beefstick720]

well that sounds very odd i'm not sure why it does that. one time i had to run my whole computer from the command prompt for a awhile because explorer didn't want to process. i'll look into it and let you know man

[MidiMagic]

Still waiting for a reason and a solution.

[MidiMagic]

I still need an answer for this. It is slowing down my work.

[beefstick720]

alright well just make firefox your default again by going to tools options and the main tab. as far as the icons go did you check your system for virus'? try using avg it seems to be the most on top of things

[hughv]

Let's try changing just one, say jpgs:
Right-click any jpg
Select "open With"
Select "Choose Program"
Select the Program
Check "always use..."
See if the icon changes
You may need to reboot.

[caperjack]

Why are the icons in My computer all nearly alike now?

All of them (except the folders) now look like little blue pieces of paper with a very tiny little picture of the icon that used to be there inside.

Im still trying to figure out what file icon you are talking about ,you say in my computer ,do you mean when you open MYComputer ,or just in general, in my computer !anywhere on the hardrive you look .if its what it think, then you may have install a new program that took over as the main program to use to open these file types .instead of maybe a few different programs that once did it ,therefor using many different icons .make sense!

[MidiMagic]

I already fixed the default browser problem the day it happened. I just mentioned it because both effects started together.

This happened right after an IE update from Microsoft. Nothing else was done to the computer when this happened.

These are the icons I see in My Computer and My Documents.

The icons used to look like these:

Now they look like these (click to open):

The original icon seems to have been shrunk and enveloped inside an image of a piece of paper that says "this is a document."

As you can see, it is very hard to tell the file types apart at a glance.

The strange thing about this this is that these icons do not appear in the list of icons that come with the programs. I don't know where they come from,. But I can't change the icons back to the ones that come with the programs. It goes through the motions, but the icons do not change.

[caperjack]

yeah ,mine all changed like that one time too,not sure why ,but i just change the view to thumbnail and i can see all

[MidiMagic]

I have too many files to use thumbnail view. I would be madly scrolling to find the files I need. It is hard to select multiple files when you have to scroll.

[hughv]

I have too many files to use thumbnail view. I would be madly scrolling to find the files I need. It is hard to select multiple files when you have to scroll.

Maybe it's time you organized your folders better, or used more descriptive file names..
That looks like detail view. Change to Tiles.

[MidiMagic]

I need list view to simultaneously select which files to move as a group to the development folders. Tiles view shows way too few files to be useful.

The folder is a copy of a website, used for testing addressing and compatibility. There is no opportunity to use subfolders without making the pages unable to find each other

And I certainly can not simultaneously select multiple files to move to the development area if they are in different folders.

Some of the reasons I keep files where they are have to do with limitations of the web server used:

- subfolders are not allowed on the real website. Each user is allowed one folder.

- The real website OS requires DOS-compatible 8+3 filenames.

Stop telling me to change my file usage, and FIND HOW TO FIX THE ICONS!

-----

Everything was fine, until someone without a brain got the stupid idea of putting a "THIS IS A DOCUMENT" frame around every icon that is in the form of a document, and shrinking the original icons to 1/4 the size to put inside the useless frames. And then to enforce their lack of brains, they made it impossible to change the icons.

This sounds like the kind of change some security experts would ask Microsift for, so they can spot non-document files in document folders easily. But it cuts way down on user productivity.

I want this change GONE!

I want the original icons back.

[hughv]

'Stop telling me to change my file usage, and FIND HOW TO FIX THE ICONS!'

Heavens! I think you're finding this problem frustrating.
Still, you're no fun to work with, so, the best of luck to you.

[caperjack]

Fix= backup and format and reload ,or figure out what program/windows update YOU, installed that caused the change.
you problem is caused by something you done ,you may not have realized the final outcome .actually post #10's attachment shows 3 or 4 different icons ,no i'm not sure how you are going to fix this but its something like when you clear you Favorites in IE and lose all the icones from that web page to a default .

[caperjack]

in above post i meant when you clear you temporary internet files ,not you favorites!

also we try to help for free ,so don't bite the hand that feeds you ! Paid help might be you answer ,but it will cost you a lot more than the suggestions we make ,and most places you take it to get fix will only have the same suggestions as us !

in post #10 it shows you are using windows pictures and fax viewer as the default for opening the .jpg files ,has this always been the program you used to open said file type .or did you use another program and maybe uninstall that program recently .

[caperjack]

I have too many files to use thumbnail view. I would be madly scrolling to find the files I need. It is hard to select multiple files when you have to scroll.

highlite first one and hold down the shift key as you scroll and then click on the last one in the group you want to select

[MidiMagic]

Fix= backup and format and reload ,or figure out what program/windows update YOU, installed that caused the change.
you problem is caused by something you done ,you may not have realized the final outcome .actually post #10's attachment shows 3 or 4 different icons ,no i'm not sure how you are going to fix this but its something like when you clear you Favorites in IE and lose all the icones from that web page to a default .

The only thing that happened in that timeframe is that Microsoft downloaded a security upgrade for IE the day before this happened.

Post 10's icons are different for several different types of files, but I need a magnifying glass to tell them apart.

[MidiMagic]

highlite first one and hold down the shift key as you scroll and then click on the last one in the group you want to select

I know that (and it's the control key, not the shift key - i need some files without other files in between). But it is time consuming, compared to what I was doing before.

The problem is that this effect took a very quick task and turned it into a time-consuming task. Thus, I am not getting as much revising done in a day as I used to.

[MidiMagic]

in above post i meant when you clear you temporary internet files ,not you favorites!

This is not on the internet. It is happening in My Computer. No web browser is running.

also we try to help for free ,so don't bite the hand that feeds you ! Paid help might be you answer ,but it will cost you a lot more than the suggestions we make ,and most places you take it to get fix will only have the same suggestions as us!

I wasn't trying to be rude. Sometime text looks ruder than it is. But the suggestions I am getting won't replace the time lost by this change. Instead, they will consume MORE time, making me lose more production time in a day.

in post #10 it shows you are using windows pictures and fax viewer as the default for opening the .jpg files, has this always been the program you used to open said file type .or did you use another program and maybe uninstall that program recently .

I have always used Windows Picture and Fax Viewer to find image files. It is the default for ALL image files it can open. That way, I can see (or print) all of the images in one pass, without having to use different software for different kinds of images. This is not a recent change (I had the computer set up that way when I got it).

Is Windows Picture and Fax viewer causing this?

And why can't I change the icons?

[caperjack]

This is not on the internet. It is happening in My Computer. No web browser is running.

I know ,i was making reference to a complaint some people have about missing icons in ie favorites . ,if you open your ie favorites you will see all different icons for each web page ,if you go into your temp internet folder in your user acct and empty it you will loose all those icons because you deleted it from the temp internet folder .

so a windows update caused this ,i to noticed this on my computer when it happened ,bugged me but doesn't affect me as much as it does you ,sorry i have no answer as to why you cant change the icons i,I don't even get a option to change my file icons just folder icons .and they will change and stay to what i use .maybe your shell32.dll is corrupt .

[caperjack]

maybe software to change the folders /files look .
tweek ui for xp , might help fix them also
http://www.soft-go.com/view/Folder-Marker-Home---Changes-Folder-Icons_3634.html

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

[hughv]

There must be something really wrong with this machine.
If you want to select consecutive files, you click the first, then the last while holding the Shift key.. For non-consecutive files, use the control key.
I suspect further study of the Windows file system would benefit you (As it would many people).

[MidiMagic]

There must be something really wrong with this machine.
If you want to select consecutive files, you click the first, then the last while holding the Shift key.. For non-consecutive files, use the control key.
I suspect further study of the Windows file system would benefit you (As it would many people).

I used the icons to rapidly find the nonconsecutive files I wanted to move. It saved me a lot of time. Now I have to read the extensions of the files, or concentrate on the tiny icons inside the paper sheet images to do that.

Are you saying that this is not a change that happened to everyone?

Is there maybe a setting that causes this, maybe in IE? Microsoft is notorious for changing settings.

[hughv]

Take a look at the View/Customize menu.
Try changing the folder type to documents.

[MidiMagic]

The folder type is already documents.