Windows 7 Corrupt Icons
Hi, On 3 new machines now which i have set up using Windows 7 Professional i have suffered an icon issue where lots of programs lose their icon pictures and revert to the windows default icon. I have read articles on deleting the iconcache file but this does not resolve this particular issue. It seems to be a common Windows 7 issue as i have now had it happen several times with no specific trigger. Im wondering whether a windows update is causing it. Any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated as currently only a system format cures the problem. Thanks, Louis
March 25th, 2010 1:32pm

Have you used any Registry cleaning tools? Incompatible Registry cleaning tools may incorrectly remove Registry keys. I suspect that file association related Registry keys are lost. You may create a new user account and see if it still occurs in the new user profile. If the issue does not occur, you may following the steps below to transfer personal data to the new account and use the new account instead. Transfer user profile===============1. Log on as the new user account (make sure the new user account has administrator privilege).2. Click the Start menu, and click Computer.3. Click the Organize button on the left top corner and choose Folder and Search Options. 4. Under View tab, check the "Show hidden files and folders" box and click OK to save settings.5. Navigate to the C:\Users\(old user name) folder. Note: The "old user name" refers to the user name of your old account. For example, if the user name of your old account is "Larry", the folder should be C:\Users\Larry. 5. Copy all files and folders in the C:\Users\(old user name) folder to the C:\Users\(new user name) folder. Note: To copy all files, we can press Ctrl+A, and then Ctrl+C in the C:\Users\(old user name) folder. After that, navigate to the C:\Users\(new user name) folder, click Ctrl+V. Replace them with the new files. Arthur Xie - MSFT
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March 26th, 2010 10:42am

I had a similar problem recently on Win 7, all office programs and acrobat lost their icons, all reverted to the default unknown icon. This included the applications and their associated files. I tried all of the options I could find in forums, clearing icon cache, plus a number of other registry tweaks, without success. The file associations were correct but the icons were all unknown. The only fix that worked for me was to open MS Word and under the Help tab, run Detect and Repair, this fixed all of the MS Office related icons and their associated files. For Acrobat I ran the install program again and it came up with the options for Install, Repair or Remove. Again I used repair and now all is back to normal. I still am unsure what caused the issue, but it did occur after attempting to install some third party software.
May 30th, 2010 4:40am

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