Icons changed - getting worse.

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Gorham
Posts: 2
Joined: 2015.05.26. 17:30

Icons changed - getting worse.

Post by Gorham »

Greetings and thanks for having this board.

I use Windows 7 64-bit with a themed desktop and Fences.

Quite suddenly all the icons for the hard drives shortcuts on my desktop changed. If I go to properties/change icon, I get the Hard Disk Sentinel icons choices but even after selecting one, the icons aren't changed.

The odd thing is that it appears the icons are Windows Explorer icons superimposed over the correct icons.
One of the icons on my current desktop
One of the icons on my current desktop
1.png (5.61 KiB) Viewed 7620 times
I've tried deleting and re-creating the shortcuts. I've tried completely uninstalling HDS. I've tried re-installing HDS. I've rebooted the machine. I've tried restoring Windows icons to default. I tried changing the icon size (through Windows help) and the icons underneath do indeed change. I've also tried moving the icons in and out of Fences. I tried un-personalizing my desktop.
Icon resized to medium
Icon resized to medium
2.png (7.56 KiB) Viewed 7620 times
Resized to large; makes the superimposition very clear
Resized to large; makes the superimposition very clear
3.png (12.71 KiB) Viewed 7620 times
The overlay icons persist. And the icons in my context menus seem to be okay although one did change to the overlay but it changed back to normal.

The other odd thing is that the shortcut to my User account is also affected.

I'm at my wit's end. I'm oh so hoping someone here can help.

Thanks so much.

-G.
Mahalo nui loa.
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hdsentinel
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Re: Icons changed - getting worse.

Post by hdsentinel »

Thanks for your message and the information.

But I can confirm that the problem you encounter is NOT related to Hard Disk Sentinel, caused by something else.

> The odd thing is that it appears the icons are Windows Explorer icons superimposed over the correct icons.

Yes. Hard Disk Sentinel never does that - so something else is trying to show an image "over" the correct icons.

> I've tried deleting and re-creating the shortcuts. I've tried completely uninstalling HDS. I've tried re-installing HDS.
> I've rebooted the machine.

Yes - as this image displayed "over" the icons is not related to HDS, it is normal that changing / adjusting any option (or even completely disabling / uninstalling HDS) does not help at all.

If you prefer to disable HDS to modify the icons, all you'd need to disable Configuration -> Disk Control -> Modify default icons in Windows Explorer option. Then Hard Disk Sentinel will not modify the icons at all - so if you see any weird image "over" the original icon, it is surely related to something else.
You can quickly check: if you disable that option in Hard Disk Sentinel, you may notice that the free-space graph on the top and the green check mark on the bottom will disappear from the drive icons - which will confirm that Hard Disk Sentinel restored the original icons. But as the overlay image is not related to it, HDS can't remove that.

> I've tried restoring Windows icons to default.
> I tried changing the icon size (through Windows help) and the icons underneath do indeed change.

Yes, these are excellent solutions to clear the icon cache and restore the system default icons - but these do not remove the image displayed "over" the icons.


> The other odd thing is that the shortcut to my User account is also affected.

Yes, this also confirms that the issue is not related to Hard Disk Sentinel which would never modify that.

According the position of this overlay (bottom left area, especially visible on the larger image), I suspect it may be a shortcut icon (the small arrow) of Windows. This would confirm why you see it also on the other shortcut to your User account.

Just that image may be somehow corrupted / removed, so Windows displays a generic image instead.

A quick thing to check: do you have AUTORUN.INF file in the root folder of the drive? If so, please delete it.
(it may be hidden, so you may need to enable display of hidden files to view it).
Not sure, but it is possible that a malware created the AUTORUN.INF file and points on some mailicious file. That may be removed by your antivirus software - but its reference in the AUTORUN.INF may still there. So the file is no longer available - but something still points on that, that's why the generic image remains displayed.
Gorham
Posts: 2
Joined: 2015.05.26. 17:30

SOLVED but not a HDS issue (was Icons changed - getting wors

Post by Gorham »

hdsentinel wrote:But I can confirm that the problem you encounter is NOT related to Hard Disk Sentinel, caused by something else.
Right. I was beginning to figure that out. I was casting about to try to find out why it happened. Still casting actually but I do realize it's not a HDS issue.
hdsentinel wrote: > I've tried restoring Windows icons to default.
> I tried changing the icon size (through Windows help) and the icons underneath do indeed change.

Yes, these are excellent solutions to clear the icon cache and restore the system default icons - but these do not remove the image displayed "over" the icons.
So I've come to realize. I wish I knew what was causing it and what I can do about it. Again, I know this isn't something HDS did or can fix.

hdsentinel wrote: According the position of this overlay (bottom left area, especially visible on the larger image), I suspect it may be a shortcut icon (the small arrow) of Windows. This would confirm why you see it also on the other shortcut to your User account.

Just that image may be somehow corrupted / removed, so Windows displays a generic image instead.

A quick thing to check: do you have AUTORUN.INF file in the root folder of the drive? If so, please delete it.
(it may be hidden, so you may need to enable display of hidden files to view it).
Not sure, but it is possible that a malware created the AUTORUN.INF file and points on some mailicious file. That may be removed by your antivirus software - but its reference in the AUTORUN.INF may still there. So the file is no longer available - but something still points on that, that's why the generic image remains displayed.
None of the drives has an autorun.inf so that wasn't it.

But I did try installing a program I thought I'd uninstalled before the problems began. Maybe not or maybe it just fixed it. I re-installed TweakNow PowerPack 2012 and asked it to rebuild my icons. It did. I rebooted. And I have my icons back!! :D

My apologies for my original post; it didn't belong here but I had erroneously suspected HDS as the culprit so I posted here. I do appreciate your taking the time to respond and I'm glad you set the record straight. I've tried to do my part in that by changing the subject to reflect the situation. But I'm not sure that'll work.

Anyway, thank you so much for your efforts.

-G.
Mahalo nui loa.
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