Vista - All regular folder icons have changed, please help!

After running a VERY old windows98 game in Vista, all regular folder icons have changed to a very plain and ugly bright yellow. Special folders like Documents and Music have not changed. This does not happen on the folders on the desktop (yes, my desktop is a mess), Please don't flame me if this has been answered before. I did search the forums for two hours, and found no solution. I have attached a small screenshot (my 'Drivers' folder) to give you an idea of how it looks now.

http://www.winhelponline.com/articles/130/1/
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Andre
Blog: http://adacosta.spaces.live.com
My Vista Quickstart Guide:
http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog...3DB!9709.entry
"breadfan" <breadfan.2zrbw1@xxxxxx-mx.forums.net> wrote in message
news:breadfan.2zrbw1@xxxxxx-mx.forums.net...

Thanks, but I'm afraid this does not answer my problem.

You see, the 'special purpose' folders like Documents, Music, Saved Games etc have *not* changed. The problem is with all the other folders (the normal folders that people create).

It's 4:30am and I've been trying for too many hours now to find a solution...

Sorry, didn't see the attachment. Looks like your display Settings changed.
Right click your Desktop > click Personalize > click 'Display Settings' >
click in the Color quality list box and select 'Higher (32-bit)'.
--
Andre
Blog: http://adacosta.spaces.live.com
My Vista Quickstart Guide:
http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog...3DB!9709.entry
"breadfan" <breadfan.2zrfd2@xxxxxx-mx.forums.net> wrote in message
news:breadfan.2zrfd2@xxxxxx-mx.forums.net...

Hi Breadfan,

Welcome to the Vistax64.com forum.

If you only had a few folders like this, I would recommend to just change the folder icon back. Since you have this many though, I would recommend doing a Repair install. It will be faster for you. See this tutorial for details and for how to do it.

Repair Install For Vista

Shawn

Thank you for your answers.

Andre, my Display Settings color depth is already @ 32 bit.

Shawn, maybe a Repair Install will fix this. But I suspect something less dramatic should do it, since the change happened all at once...

The problem appears on the Small Icons, List and Details views of Windows Explorer. Medium, Large and Very Large icon are OK. Since the problematic views share the same folder icon, I think I must find a way to change this icon for all folders.

When selecting a random, regular folder, if I try to change the folder icon,
I bring it back to the original by using one of the icons in imageres.dll.
But this has two drawbacks.
a) When I open the folder, the folder icon no longer changes to the open folder icon.
b) I have to do this to all the folders in my computer manually...

Well, thank you all for taking your time to answer me.... Looks like I'm gonna be stuck with the ugly folder icons.

PS Since this looks like a user setting, and not a corrupted file, I suspect that a Repair Install may do nothing.

Hi Breadfan,

I still think a Repair Install will do the trick, but you can try to see if running a sfc /scannow command will help. You can see how in this tutorial.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66...tem-files.html

Shawn

After many, many days of trying to find a solution, after many unneeded registry hacks, dll registrations etc, the solution to my messed-up folder icons was SO simple:

Step 1. Change to 16-bit color depth, reboot
Step 2. Change back to 32-bit color depth, reboot

That's all. Unbelievable...

My sincere thanks to everyone who gave it a try.

Breadfan,

Glad to hear you got it fixed. I will have to remember this one. Thank you for the feedback on the solution that you found.

Shawn