AumHa Forums

Hi
I started my Vista machine today and most of my destop icons are covered over by this white symbol of some sort. I did a system restore and deleted the icon cache and no joy
The shortcuts still work.

Screen shot

HUH!

Are you sure you do not have an Autorun infection known as "New Folder". It creates for every executable file a duplicate Folder with an indentical name. (or for every Folder, an executable file with the same name.) It looks to me like every LNK file has a new file created with an identical name other than file extension.

Reconfigure Windows Vista to show hidden files:
To enable the viewing of Hidden files follow these steps:

• Close all programs so that you are at your desktop.
• Open the Control Panel menu and click Folder Options.
• After the new window appears select the View tab.
• Put a checkmark in the checkbox labeled Display the contents of system folders.
• Under the Hidden files and folders section select the radio button labeled Show hidden files and folders.
• Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide file extensions for known file types.
• Remove the checkmark from the checkbox labeled Hide protected operating system files.
• Press the Apply button and then the OK button and exit My Computer.
• Now your computer is configured to show all hidden files.

Use Explorer and go to C:\Users\chasbox\Desktop
Do you see in the Detail listing of files duplicate entries for nearly every shortcut on your Desktop?
Could you provide a few examples of the (almost) duplicate file names?

Hi Bill

Lets take one as an example.
Right click the "Aumha Shortcut", Edit and it should open the file in Notepad.
Copy/Paste the contents back to the Forum. There are two key elements as to what is displayed for an internet shortcut -- the actual file to be used for the short icon, and the icon offset. All will be in Notepad plain text in that file.

I suspect all are point to shell32.dll, and the issue arises there.

Second question, have you used recently a USB Pen drive device, that possibly you shared with someone else to copy a file or they copied a file?

Let me know.
Sorry about the confusion, all my fault,
Bill

Hi Chasbox,

Did you install any third-party theme or skinning tool recently, and later uninstalled it? My guess is that the icon overlay (arrow icon) for shell links are being overridden somehow. Can you export the following registry key and post the contents here?

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons

Here is how to export the key:



Alternately you can open Regedit.exe, navigate to the above branch. From the File menu, choose Export.

Bill
I had forgotten about April 1st. I will do what what you ask when i get home from work.
Last week i downloaded a firmware update from sony for my PS3. I installed it and used the same thumb drive on my brothers PS3. It never entered his comp. They are not connected

Ramesh
I wiil do that tonight. i ran a script 4 or 5 months ago to get rid of the arrows.

Thanks Guys

Bill
When i right click on the shortcut icon edit is not available


Ramesh
No theme or skinning.and as i posted earlier i ran a script to get rid of the arrows

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Shell Icons]
"29"="C:\\Users\\BOCKO\\Desktop\\WinBubble16\\WinBubble16\\icons\\noicon.ico"

And you have not uninstalled WinBubble?
And this still file exists, and in a Desktop Folder WinBubble exactly as described?

C:\Users\BOCKO\Desktop\WinBubble16\WinBubble16\icons\noicon.ico

Hi Bill
I didn't uninstall anything yet. When i saw the reg key, uninstalling was my first thought I decided to wait for guidance. Thanks

I was not asking for an uninstall. My concern was since the registry showed a Shell Icon Overlay dependence on a file, that we make sure it in fact exists:
C:\Users\BOCKO\Desktop\WinBubble16\WinBubble16\icons\noicon.ico

I take it from your response that this file in fact does exist?

yes

The two possibilities that need to be dealt with:

1. That the file noicon.ico is damaged somehow;
2. That the Shell Icon Overlay portions of the registry dealing with the little "arrows" on the icon, are damaged somehow.

We might be able to test both cases at once. Use WinBubble and either restore the defaults of Vista for icon "arrow", or choose some other icon overlay choice. I do not have the software, but usually there are several choices.

Reboot and test and report on your results.

I have not completely ruled out malware, although of an AutoRun type seems less promising. There are several trojans right now that use the Shell Icon Overlay registry keys as loading points, so treating this as a malware case might be our next step.

Good news Bill
When the shortcut arrows were put back and i rebooted, all the white coverings disappeared. Everthing is back to normal.

Thank you