Shortcut icons replaced by white page icon

[jsbergman]

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 When my computer came back to life after the restart almost all of my desktop shortcut icons had been replaced by a generic white page icon.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.

 

[Brink]

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

 

[jsbergman]

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).

 

[Brink]

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.

 

[jsbergman]

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!

 

[Brink]

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.

 

[jsbergman]

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.

 

[citabria]

Was Object Desktop MyColors a Stardock product. This is a known issue for the Stardock product and there are fixes that can be found.

 

[Brink]

Jsbergman,

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

 

[jsbergman]

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.

 

[citabria]

Read these forums for a possible fix: Vista x64 Icons are White » Forum Post by Gutts1985

Also, you might search the Stardock forums.
good luck.