Topic: Help needed again from you long suffering computer sweeties.

[Jeannine]

My desk top icons seem to be changing themselves. I know it sounds crazy but it is true. If I try to do a new one I get the same icon. eg. I have A4A on three sites now, the name underneath is right and when I click on it the correct site comes up but the picture is wrong..and it does change.

I had 1 Fedex logo which took me to the Fedex site, now  today the Fedex logo has  migrated to two other sites.

No, I am not losing it, this really is happening.


Help!!
XX Jeannine

[BarriedaleNick]

Very odd!

When you create a shortcut to a web site the default icon is displayed.  If Internet Explorer is your default browser you'll get the big blue E.  Firefox - the orange foxy icon. What icon do you get by default??  If you create a link to http://www.alleyns.org.uk what icon do you get??

However a site (like a4a) can have something called a favicon which will become the desktop icon when you create a shortcut.  Hence a shortcut to this site will have the simple A4A icon and the BBC has their own too.

Quite why the a4a icon should "migrate" to other shortcuts is a bit of a mystery - you can change the icon by rightclicking on the shortcut and selecting properties...maybe someone has been fiddling??

You havent installed new browser recently by chance??

[amphibian]

I've seen this happen to favicons in my bookmark toolbar, seems to be an issue with Firefox. They always seem to settle down again.

[nilly71]

Jeannine you should have a section all to yourself ;D
Try changing the resolution of your screen from 32bit to 16bit save it then change it back again, you might need to re-start the pc in between.
To do this right click on a blank area on your desktop - properties-screen setting(i can't remember the correct words as i'm using W7)

Neil

p.s my icons duplicated themselves once by about 10, so i had about a 1000 icons on my desktop, it was after the kids installed a game. >:(

[Jeannine]

There is only me on the pooter, what used to happen is I made a shortcut and it came up on the drsktop with the name and a picture up above, mostly the pictures had the logo from the site on.

Changes recently are.. I had a new hard drive installed, mostly after that I just got the big e but some were logos. Other change is I have had Norton installed since the hard drive went in, first on a trial then I bought it..it is always updating stuff.

XX Jeannine

[Jeannine]

 I did the shortcut to the school and I got a big blue e.. just noticed too, several of the pictures on my desktop a big blue e's but they have ticks on them, some are blue sort of twisted ticks ( school) and some are green regular ticks ? XX  Jeannine

[BarriedaleNick]

The blue tick indicates a shortcut - the blue E is the default Icon for web shortcuts (if you use IE) so that is what is expected unless the site specifies a favicon.
The green ticks are possibly related to Norton - it ticks files with a backup status - this may confuse issues!!

So if you create a shortcut to A4A now you should get the A4A logo with a blue tick/arrow cos it has a favicon specified for the site.

If you have had a hard drive replaced your PC has probably been reinstalled from scratch so things may well be a bit different and norton does tend to take over a bit as well..

Nilly's suggestion is well worth trying  :D

[Jeannine]

right clicking on a blank part of my desk top didn't offer me properties or screen settings..


I am getting so sick of this laptop, it was perfect till they changed to drive , now I just found out that support for Vista ran out this April.. they only installed it in March!!

I think I will scrap it.

XX Jeannine

[nilly71]

Are you sure that you right clicked??? it should of brought up a small menu with properties at the bottom, in W7 it says screen resolution about 3rd from the bottom. If not try Start - control panel- screen settings(or something simular)

Neil

[Jeannine]

Niel, I found it through start,control panel etc..I did it and checked, I have differences but not sure if they just happened  as I didn't scrutinise the screen before I logged , or   wether it happened after I logged off this morning   but the following changes have happened..

My credit union logo is now a rose,Google is now Fedex,Tatianastomatoes is A4A,Freecycle is also Fedex,Amazon Canada is now ssc?? e bay Canada is a big m,and a logo that was a tomato is now an eggplant.

The names below the logos are OK and clicking does take ,e to the right site.

Another thing I have noticed is things keep moving about, I put them back in the places I prefer them and they move again..my junk bin keeps going all over the place.

I am beginning to get a bit scared as something is doing it's own thing and it is a bit unsettling.

It is not happening on the house pooter only on my laptop.

Am I going nuts here??

I will not be offended if you stop trying to help,I realise I am being a pain, and truly am appreciative .

XX Jeannine

[nilly71]

I've had a little search and it looks like the problem for changing icons as the ShellIconCache sometimes caused my Norton products.
 

Try deleting or renaming "c:\windows\ShellIconCache". Then reboot.

 my computer- C - Windows - shelliconcache rename the shelliconcache file to something like icon that way it's easy to change back to the original file name if you have any problems.

Microsoft site http://support.microsoft.com/kb/132668/en-us

Sometimes the icons move because of the desktop setting. It's been a long while since i have used XP but try right click on the desktop and there should be something like sort, inside that should give you different settings to try.

You can ask as many times as you like, I like a challenge ;D

Neil