Personal User Shell Folders

How to Fix a Personal User Shell Folder Displayed as a Standard Yellow Folder Icon in Vista​

   Information

If you open your personal user folder in the Start menu or from C:\Users\(user name), and a user folder has a standard yellow folder icon instead of the special green folder icon, then this will show you how to restore the green folder icon for that particular user folder.

   Note

This usually can occur when the desktop.ini file in the shell folder is missing or incorrect, or the user folder has no read only attribute set to it.

EXAMPLE: Special Green Personal User Profile Folder Icons

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OPTION ONE

For the User Name Folder

NOTE: This is the User Name folder that appears in the Desktop folder tree view in Windows Explorer or the Start Menu.

1. Right click on a empty area of the desktop and click on Personalize.​

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2. Click on Change desktop icons in the upper left corner. (See screenshot below)​

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3. In the lower box, click on your User Name folder to highlight it in blue. (See screenshot below)​

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4. Click on the Restore Default button. (See screenshot above)​

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A) Click on Apply.​

NOTE: If it did not restore the default User Name folder icon, then proceed to step 5.​

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B) Go to step 6.​

5. Click on the Change Icon button. (See screenshot below step 3)​

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A) If not already in the top line, then click on the Browse button and browse to C:\Windows\system32\imageres.dll.​

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B) Select the default User Name folder icon and click OK. (See highlighted in blue icon in the screenshot below)​

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6. Click on OK. (See screenshot below step 3)​

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OPTION TWO

For the User Folders in the User Name Folder

1. Verify that the user folder has it's correct default path in METHOD THREE here.​

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STEP ONE:​

Shell Command​

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2. Open the Start Menu.​

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3. Type in the Shell command (see table below) for the Personal User folder and press Enter..​

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User Folder	Shell Command
Contacts	shell:Contacts
Desktop	shell:desktop
Documents	shellersonal
Downloads	shell:downloads
Favorites	shell:Favorites
Links	shell:Links
Music	shell:My Music
Pictures	shell:My Pictures
Saved Games	shell:SavedGames
Searches	shell:Searches
Videos	shell:My Video

4. This will open the personal user folder from it's location.​

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5. Close the personal user folder window.​

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6. Check to see if the personal user folder has turned back to the special green folder in the start menu.​

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A) If yes, then your done.​

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B) If not, proceed to STEP TWO below.​

STEP TWO:​

Replace Desktop.ini File for User Folder​

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7. Have Show hidden files and folders dotted and Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) unchecked in Folder Options.​

NOTE: For how, see OPTION TWO here:How to Hide or Show Hidden Files and Folders in Vista​

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8. Click on the download button below to download the User Folders.zip file, then click on Save and save it to the Desktop.​

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9. Right click on the User Folders.zip file (on Desktop) and click on Open.​

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10. Extract the same folder(s) for your user folder name with the standard yellow icon displayed to the Desktop.​

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11. Open the extracted folder and right click on the desktop.ini file and click Copy. (See screenshot below)​

NOTE: This file is set as a hidden file. This is why it is faded.​

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12. Open the user folder that has the standard yellow folder icon displayed.​

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A) Right click on a empty area in the folder's window and click Paste.​

NOTE: If you are asked if you want to replace the old desktop.ini file, then click Copy and Replace. (See screenshot below)​

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B) Repeat step 11 for each user folder you need to fix.​

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13. Close all windows.​

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14. Open a elevated command prompt.​

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15. If prompted, click on Continue in the UAC prompt.​

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16. In the elevated command prompt, type the command below (see table below) for the user folder name you need to fix. (See screenshot below table)​

NOTE: This will set the user folder as Read-only. You can Copy and Paste these to make it easier for you. ​

WARNING: If you have changed the default location of your user folder, then you will need to type the full path of it's new location after attrib +r instead of the default %USERPROFILE% location below. For example, attrib +r D:\New location​

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User Folder	Command
Contacts	attrib +r -s -h %USERPROFILE%\Contacts /S /D
Desktop	attrib +r -s -h %USERPROFILE%\Desktop /S /D
Documents	attrib +r -s -h %USERPROFILE%\Documents /S /D
Downloads	attrib +r -s -h %USERPROFILE%\Downloads /S /D
Favorites	attrib +r -s -h %USERPROFILE%\Favorites /S /D
Links	attrib +r -s -h %USERPROFILE%\Links /S /D
Music	attrib +r -s -h %USERPROFILE%\Music /S /D
Pictures	attrib +r -s -h %USERPROFILE%\Pictures /S /D
Saved Games	attrib +r -s -h %USERPROFILE%\"Saved Games" /S /D
Searches	attrib +r -s -h %USERPROFILE%\Searches /S /D
Videos	attrib +r -s -h %USERPROFILE%\Videos /S /D

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17. Repeat step 16 for each user folder that you replaced the desktop.ini file for.​

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18. Close the elevated command prompt.​

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19. Restart the computer, or logoff and login again for the changes to take effect.​

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20. Confirm that the folder icon is back to normal.​

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21. You can now delete the downloaded folders on the desktop and set your hidden files and folders settings back to normal in step 7 above.​

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That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

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• How to Change a Folder Icon in Vista
• How to Use the Vista Shell Command
• How to Change a Personal User Folder Location in Vista
• How to Rebuild the Icon Cache in Vista
• How to Restore a Missing Personal User Folder in Vista
• How to Fix a Public Folder Displayed as a Standard Yellow Folder Icon in Vista
• How to Change a File Extension Type Icon in Vista
• How to Prevent or Allow User Profile Folders Location Change in Vista
• How to Change the Default Location of a User Profile in Windows 7 and Vista

 

[Zhang's Home Premium]

done.
just had to switch off FDM temporarily
fixing it up now

done thx a lot man

 

[Brink]

Your welcome Zhang. I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted out. Thank you for letting us know that it was your Free Download Manager that was the cause of download problem.

Shawn

 

[zorro1582]

Hi there I am having the same problem as Flexo where its not the icons in the user folder its the actual user folder icon itself and I've tried the suggested ways to fix it but it is still showing up as a standard yellow folder. Hope you can help me...

 

[Brink]

Hi Zorro, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Try using the attrib command attrib +r %USERPROFILE% in step 9 under STEP TWO in this tutorial, but this time in a elevated command prompt and restart the computer afterwards. The tutorial has been updated for this.

If this still does not help, then see if rebuilding the icon cache may.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/117229-icon-cache-rebuild.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[CheesyQuaver]

Hi
There is nothing wrong with my icons they are the normal green vista icons, I have made a new folder for Vuze downloads, and I have managed to change the folder to the green vista folder, However its the green username folder i want but can not find, I want the green icon like the one you find on your desktop, not the plain green one. Can you help? Please

 

[zorro1582]

Thanks for your help brink but it still didn't work.
I have solved it now and I can't believe how I didn't think of it, I'm kicking myself that I didn't try this already as it was so simple.
What I did was right clicked the desktop > Personalize > Tasks (on the left of the window) > Change desktop Icons
Click on your User Folder (What ever you've named it) > Change Icon...
Navigate to C:\Windows\system32\imageres.dll
Find the default icon (Top row 30th across for me) and that did it!
Thanks for your help with the other folders!
Z

 

[Brink]

LOL Z,

I guess we were both try to make it harder than it was. LOL, it should have been so obvious.

Thank you for posting back your solution. I have updated the tutorial to include it.

Shawn

 

[titan11]

i am new in this forum, I'm looking fix my pictures shell folder and i did it with this help, thanks very much for your help

 

[Brink]

Your welcome Titan, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Shawn

 

[CheesyQuaver]

Thanks Brink
It looks much better now, I found your thread very helpful, my Vuze folder looks just how i like it now :D

 

[Brink]

You're welcome CheesyQuaver.

Shawn

 

[reno7rox]

Hey, I've been having a problem with my icons steadily becoming normal yellow folders. At first I just lived with it, but today I noticed that almost all of them had become yellow. I'd searched the net for a guide to help before, but couldn't find anything that helped. I searched long and hard today to solve this problem and ended up here.

Long story short, your guide helped me out and I have my pretty icons again :D lol.
Thanks alot, and hope you continue to write more great tutorials and tips in the future

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Reno7rox, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Thank you,
Shawn

 

[Ramzy]

THANK YOU!

I just installed Vista Ultimate x64 (upgrade from Vista Home Premium x86) and this bug hit me. I tried using Winbubble and a bunch of other useless applications to fix the issue, but my Contacts, Links, and Saved Games folders refused to be repaired... This method worked perfectly.

Although, using the command "attrib +r %USERPROFILE%\Saved Games" did not work, it kept on returning an invalid parameter error... I figured it was because of the space. Using this fixed it:

attrib +r %USERPROFILE%\"Saved Games"

Thanks again.

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Ramzy. Thank you for the correction for the Saved Games command. It has been updated in the tutorial so others will not have problems with it.

Shawn

 

[Maccaro]

Just one quick note you might like to add, if the directory has been moved to another drive by the user they will need to type the full filepath in after the attrib +r. Hope this helps, Marcus.

 

[Brink]

Thank you Maccaro. Good point, I will add that to the tutorial.

Shawn

 

[Dragor]

Hey Brink! Thanks to your tutorial, I recovered my "Music" and "Pictures" folder icons.

Reading through all the 6 pages, I have noticed that no matter how hard we try, those exclusive icons eventually are replaced by normal folder icons.

Isn't there a way to lock the icons to the respective folders? It seems pretty tiring to go through the entire process.
What mystifies me more is why the icons are replaced by normal icons in the first place?

Thanks again!

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Dragor,

I'm happy to hear that you got the correct folders back for those.

It can switch to a yellow folder if something went wrong while changing their default locations. Usually it will be the desktop.ini file that gets corrupted or missing, and the filder loses it's read only status.

Shawn

 

[shmish]

Hi Brink,

Thanks for the tutorial! One problem I had for a while is that while I extracted the folders from the zip file, they weren't getting copied correctly because I already had desktop.ini in my windows temp folder. It was prompting me to replace the file but I neglected to do so because it wasn't obvious to me which file it wanted to overwrite. It wasn't until I saw that it was a temp file that I actually replaced it, and then everything sorted out nicely.

thanks!