"MFC" in Desktop Icons?

[JorgeA]

Hello,

Today, after installing my Windows and Adobe updates for Vista and restarting the computer, some of my desktop icons came back with a new look. Instead of the previous little arrow in the lower left corner, they're now showing up with a set of three colored blocks that read "MFC" in capital letters. They look like this. (Hopefully it'll show up correctly.)

Does anybody know what the heck this is, and (just as important) why all of a sudden it showed up on my desktop today??

Any insights will be appreciated.

--JorgeA

[Tripredacus]

MFC is the Microsoft Foundation Class. For some programs, it is fine to have this icon, but programs that normally have other icons shouldn't. As to why this has happened for you, I am not sure.

[JorgeA]

MFC is the Microsoft Foundation Class. For some programs, it is fine to have this icon, but programs that normally have other icons shouldn't. As to why this has happened for you, I am not sure.

Tripredacus,

Thanks for the link. How bizarre! Maybe the programs whose desktop icons changed to MFC were written in that environment? (Examples: Spybot, CrystalDiskMark, Usbview, SpeedFan.)

Even if we don't know the exact cause -- what sorts of things could cause this change in some icons?

--JorgeA

[Tripredacus]

You should be able to tell if they are MFC applications with ResHack or a similar program. It would be interesting to know if the stock MFC icon exists within those EXEs. if they don't then this could be something else.

[JorgeA]

You should be able to tell if they are MFC applications with ResHack or a similar program. It would be interesting to know if the stock MFC icon exists within those EXEs. if they don't then this could be something else.

Tripredacus,

ResHack looks like a pretty cool program (thanks!), but I can't tell how to analyze the desktop icon for, say, SpeedFan. Selecting to open the icon in ResHack has no result. I can open SpeedFan.exe, but the only references to icons there lead to the famous "spiral" themed logo, but without any shortcut arrow or MFC blocks associated with it.

Where does one go to look for what the desktop shortcut icon is supposed to look like?

Doing a search, within ResHack, of "MFC" or "Microsoft Foundation Class" yielded zero results. I'm not sure how to tell whether SpeedFan (for example) is an MFC application or not.

Hope this info helps to guide us.

--JorgeA

EDIT: How bizarre. I decided to reboot to see what happened... and all the little arrows came back, and everything is fine again! Well, at least this served to introduce me to ResHack, which could come in VERY handy sometime. Thanks.

Still, if you have a theory as to what may have been going on (I sure don't), I'd be curious to hear it!

Edited September 17, 2011 by JorgeA

[Tripredacus]

I can open SpeedFan.exe, but the only references to icons there lead to the famous "spiral" themed logo, but without any shortcut arrow or MFC blocks associated with it.

This is how to do it. I am not surprised that an MFC icon was not present. So this leads to something else. Possibly you have any programs that allow for customized icons like WindowBlinds (or associated programs), or have you made any modifications to your Windows files in order to have a custom look?

Usually, if you end up with the "wrong" icon, you can get the pre-loading "default" icon that would appear before Desktop loads the correct icon, but unless your OS' default icon was changed to the MFC "blocks" icon, it shouldn't show up with that.

[JorgeA]

Tripredacus,

Nope, I haven't done anything as fancy as that. The only tinkering i've ever done with the desktop look is to the screensaver and the wallpaper (I settled on "black" for my background).

But now I've learned of a new way to customize the look (WindowBlinds) -- thanks!

The mystery continues...

--JorgeA