windows 7 - All icons are Internet Explorer

08
2014-07
  • Lile

    My partner was doing something on our laptop, and now all our icons look the same (the Internet Explorer icon). When you open something up (eg Windows Media Player), it goes straight to Internet Explorer, everything I open is Windows Explorer.

    How do I get them back to their original icons?

    • Answers
  • techie007

    Perhaps try Windows 7's built in System Restore to go back to a point before this happened?

  • w7pro

    I think that a system restore would be worth a try, as well. Also, you might want to consider running Microsoft Security Essentials just to make sure that there isn't anything harming your computer: http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

  • Indrek

    Working from the command line might bypass this. Press Win+R, then type cmd, then click OK. Obviously, you'll need to know how to do this. Also:

    it goes straight to Internet Explorer, everything I open is Windows Explorer.

    Contradicting statements: Internet Explorer browses the web, and Windows Explorer browses files on your computer.


    • Related Question

    desktop - Icon changes to old one when filename matches old one
  • Moshe

    I'm using Vista Home Premium x64.

    I wrote a program in Visual Studio 2008 I put it on my desktop.

    Then, I deleted the program and changed the icon in Visual Studio and recompiled it.

    Then I moved the program with the new icon from the output folder in Visual Studio onto my desktop.

    The icon changed back to the old one. When I renamed the file, the icon changed to the new one again.

    Why is this? (My hunch is that this is related to the search/indexing service...)

    EDIT:

    Ganesh's solution did not work...

    EDIT 2:

    How can I fix the icon(s)? In Diago's words: "How can I stop this from happening?"


    • Related Answers
  • romkyns

    Why is this? (My hunch is that this is related to the search/indexing service...)

    It's because Explorer caches the icons for performance reasons and fails to figure out you've changed it. Been there... quite annoying.

    I haven't found a reliable way to clear the cache - incidentally, you didn't state whether this is what you actually wanted to ask ;)

  • Ganesh R.

    Try rebuilding the Windows Explorer Icon Cache Procedure here.

  • efotinis

    I was able to replicate this problem on Vista Ultimate x64 SP2. Changing the desktop mode to 16- and then back to 32-bit fixed it immediately (no restart or logging off required).