Blank Desktop Icon

When I create a shortcut desktop icon which links to an MS-DOS "EXE" file, the desktop icon is blank (just white with no Icon). When I go to the Properties window and select an Icon, the selected Icon shows up on the "Program" sheet but not on the "General" sheet - of the Properties window. How do I get Vista to show the selected Icon on the desktop?

TIA,

Dellco

So you are making shortcut of cmd.exe?

Well I tried it and my icon shows right. I think best course of action would be try aplying some other icon to your shortcut (I have non english Vista so I'm not 100% sure about name of tabs) Properties -> Program -> Change Icon -> Browse You can use any exe file with icon or %systemroot%System32/Imageres.dll has some general icons.

If other icons work and you want original icon back just change icon to what you find from %systemroot%System32/cmd.exe

Hi Hyan:

If I make a shortcut of the Cmd.Exe, it also works for me. My problem is attempting to create a shortcut to an executable in DOS which I create myself (a compiled C program or a Bat file, etc). If I create a duplicate of any previously created Icon (the Cmd.Exe for example) and choose different Icon, that works fine. But as soon as I enter the path to my own executable file, the desktop Icon turns white or blank. Apparently Vista knows it isn't a windows file and doesn't seem to want to apply an Icon. I just bought this new computer with Vista and have been playing with this problem for a few days. My old machine (Win2000) allowed me to do this. But everything I try with Vista makes the desktop Icon turn blank.

I did find something on the net about "exefix_vista" which supposedly fixes associations in Vista. I thought maybe that might fix this problem. But when I downloaded it and followed the instructions, Vista came back and said that the Register Editor could not be accessed.

I hate to give up but I've messed with this problem long enough. I will just use the blank Icons. I can give them names OK and they do what I need. Thanks for the response.

Dellco