desktop icons

[Kinz]

When I try to place an icon on the desktop, it won't let me. It automatically puts the Internet Explorer icon (with the earth and white box). I can right click, hit properties and it shows the correct icon there, but when I place it on the desktop, it's the earth, not the correct icon that shows under the shortcut tab. Any ideas? Thanks.

[carol123]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kinz

When I try to place an icon on the desktop, it won't let me. It automatically puts the Internet Explorer icon (with the earth and white box). I can right click, hit properties and it shows the correct icon there, but when I place it on the desktop, it's the earth, not the correct icon that shows under the shortcut tab. Any ideas? Thanks.

This is EXACTLY my problem and why I came here to this forum. Can someone come up with a fix for this annoying problem?

[Xenomorph]

Ok, the both of you...Don't panic, i'm sure there is a fix for this!

1. Try rebooting the computer as a first attempt (click start then there should be an arrow at the bottom right of the menu and hover your mouse to it and then click Restart

2. If that fails, then try to update you graphics card.

3. Try going to task manager, find explorer.exe and terminate it. Then click new task go type in the box: C:\windows\explorer exe. (The blue part of the location may vary if your windows directory does.)

If all those fail just come back here and ask again, i might have some more ideas by then.

[carol123]

I'm sorry - I did try the other suggestions - but then did you mean that I was to uninstall Explorer.exe to attempt to fix this problem? Not sure I want to try that especially if I go through it all and it doesn't work. Is there anything else short of that I can attempt? Thanks for your help. Carol

[carol123]

I'm sorry - I did try the other suggestions - but then did you mean that I was to uninstall Explorer.exe to attempt to fix this problem? Not sure I want to try that especially if I go through it all and it doesn't work. Is there anything else short of that I can attempt? Thanks for your help. Carol

[Xenomorph]

terminating processes through Task manager does not uninstall anything! It just closes programs that can't be closed due to good or bad reasons.

Explorer.exe is what allows you to see your desktop and browse through folders, it cannot be uninstalled, and it cannot be closed without Termination because it is a part of windows and it was built that way.

By following my instructions on termination, you just restart explorer.exe, you don't delete it.

[carol123]

Oh - I see - this is my problem though - in Windows XP I knew exactly where the Task Manager was, I can't find it in Vista (I just got a new computer about a month ago and am a new Vista user - sorry! ) I even did a "search" to no avail. Thanks for your patience!

[Xenomorph]

There are a couple of ways to find Task Manager:
1. Right click on the taskbar (even a "duh" should know what that is) and there is task manager. (most effective)
2. Instead of searching "Task Manager" search "taskmgr.exe" (very effective)
3. press control-alt-del and the last option (just before "Cancel") there is the option to start task manager.

Kinz PM'd me that he/she still has the problem, even after all these fixes, so if you still experience problems, just come back here and I will give you instructions on what to do next.

[carol123]

I forgot all about the right-click-tool-bar thing! I did it, found the Task Manager stopped explorer.exe - restarted my PC and the same generic looking icon for Comcast (for instance) is still sitting on my desktop. What is SO infuriating is if I right click on the icon and click Properties the Comcast icon is THERE as if that's what's showing on my desktop!
Thanks so much for your help! Hoping you have some other ideas that might work! carol

[Xenomorph]

IconChange.JPG

How to change an icon:
1. go to the highlighted button "ChnageIcon"
2. Choose your icon, normally, if the shortcut is to a program with its own icon(s) embedded in it, this tool with try to find icons from there. (Example: if the file is "C:\Xenomorph.exe, then the icons you see should be from xenomorph.exe)

3. Click OK, then apply.

This should be the simplest fix for this problem, but if it doesn't work, then I will have to do a further investigation of the problem.