Shortcut icons replaced by white page icon

J

jsbergman

New Member
Last week I bought a new computer that runs Vista Ultimate x64. All was fine until I tried to install Object Desktop MyColors two days ago. It didn't seem to go well but I left the program alone and hooked up my new external hard drive to use as a backup. This required a system restart and thus the problem. When my computer came back to life after the restart almost all of my desktop shortcut icons had been replaced by a generic white page icon. First I uninstalled MyObject then did 3 System Restores at different points, but to no avail. Then I tried to change the icons from the properties menu attached to each icon. This was successful in about half of the cases. Some of the remaining icons had their proper picture associated with the program in the Start or Program menus so I just dragged then to the desktop and deleted the "white paper" icon. Now I'm left with 4 damaged icons. In each of these cases the icon properties page doesn't allow the option to change the icon, this choice is grayed out. The programs are: Microsoft Word (came already installed on the new commputer); iTunes and Smart FTP (I had installed these programs several days ago, before the problem occurred); Expression Web 2 (installed yesterday after the icon exchange). None of these programs has a copy of the proprietary icon anywhere that I can find. The Start menu shortcuts are white pages, as are the icons in the Programs menu. I fear something may have deleted a folder that these programs use to store their icons but I have absolutely no idea where to go from this point. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 

My Computer

System One

Hello Jsbergman,

It seems like the shortcut arrow overlay may have been improperly replaced using the XP method instead of the method for Vista. The tutorial below can help you restore the default shortcut arrow and hopefully fix the icons for you.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/67615-shortcut-arrow.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2, 4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2, 8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system, Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam, HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn, APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI, Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
The shortcut arrow is still on all of my icons, but 5 of these icons are identical, little white rectangles with shortcut arrows on top. The original problem was that all icons had been changed to rectangles - I was able to fix most of them but the last 5 don't allow me the option to change the icon from the "properties" menu. The only way to tell the difference between Word, Expression Web, or the other 3 icons is to read the text beneath the icon. BTW, I never messed with trying to change or delete the shortcut arrow (as annoying as it is).
 

My Computer

System One

Some tweaks or customizing type programs may have a option to change the shortcut arrow, so it had to be checked to be sure. :)

You might see if uninstalling and reinstalling those specific programs that have messed up icons can fix them for you.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2, 4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2, 8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system, Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam, HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn, APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI, Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
Already tried that but no success. In fact, 2 of the programs (including ExpressionWeb 2) were installed after the icon problem occurred and they placed the white rectangle icon on my desktop during the install. I'm truly at a loss!
 

My Computer

System One

Have you already tried to create new shortcuts directly from the exe file of these programs to see if they will work instead?

You might also see if rebuilding the icon cache can help any.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2, 4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2, 8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system, Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam, HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn, APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI, Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
The shortcuts work for all my desktop icons, the problem is that the icons themselves for many of my shortcuts have been replaced by a generic small white rectangle icon. This forces me to read each shortcut's name to select the program I want to run. Unfortunately, the proprietary icon that is always associated with a given program, for example, the blue M for Microsoft Word, is missing and not available from any source that I can find. It does not exist on my desktop, the start menu, or in the program menu. All of these locations have replaced the proprietary icon with the white rectangle icon. It's almost like the folder that Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Power Point, One Note) and many other programs use to store their icons has been moved or deleted.
 

My Computer

System One

Jsbergman,

Do you have any older restore points dated before you installed the suspect Object Desktop MyColors program that you can use?
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2, 4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2, 8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system, Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam, HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn, APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI, Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
MyColors is a Stardock product. I've run 3 System Restores from points prior to the installation of MyColors, no luck. Just did the icon cache rebuild and, again, no luck.
On further research, all icons associated with exe files in the Program Files or Program Files (x86) have been replaced by white rectangles. This includes the main program file and any and all other exe files in any given folder folder.
 

My Computer

System One

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