blank file icons

[Asp]

Using Win2k, SP5.1

There are some filetypes where everything works, if I click on the icon the appropriate program opens, but the icon is a blank, not the image from the associated program.

This happens to me for two filetypes.

One is .txt. I installed Ultraedit, then used Folder options/filetypes to select Ultraedit to be the default for .txt.

But in an Explorer window now text files are blank boxes.

Similarly for a video app I associated with .avs files.

It may be related to the way I installed these programs, simply by copying a folder to the Program files directly, then making some shortcuts for the start menus.

The programs run as normal, but -- no icons on their files.

Where are the icons actually defined? A registry entry that I can edit?

[tomasz86]

Do they look like this one?

[submix8c]

Explorer->Tools->Folder Options->File Types

Find the "bad ones", click once on it/them, click Advanced->Change Icon

For "TXT" the Standard Icon is in "C:\WINDOWS\system32\shell32.dll"

For "AVI" it's "C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe"

For that "AVS" it could very well be inside the Program in question.

IF "AVS" isn't there, I couldn't tell you... that program probably should have been Installed to "create" that type.

You "copied" the folders and expected the Registry to be updated. I'm really unsure if there are actually other files necessary.

[Asp]

Do they look like this one?

Not quite. No shadow or underline. Just a plain white rectangle with one corner cut. So invisible on a white background. See below.

Explorer->Tools->Folder Options->File Types

Find the "bad ones", click once on it/them, click Advanced->Change Icon

There is no "Change icon" option for these. Only "Restore", which puts the association back to Notepad.

See screencap.

The file "D4history.txt" shows the icon that I have now for txt files. Just a blank, white rectangle.

For "TXT" the Standard Icon is in "C:\WINDOWS\system32\shell32.dll"

For "AVI" it's "C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe"

For that "AVS" it could very well be inside the Program in question.

IF "AVS" isn't there, I couldn't tell you... that program probably should have been Installed to "create" that type.

AVS is Avisynth; actually the type was created when I installed that, with the default app Windows Media Player, which I change to VirtualDubMod.

There is no problem with default associations.

You "copied" the folders and expected the Registry to be updated. I'm really unsure if there are actually other files necessary.

Of course I don't expect the Registry to update itself. That's why I asked how to do it.

Plenty of apps can be simply installed by copying and work. with a bit of tweaking; that's what "portable" apps are.

I do it for some apps to preserve my settings from an archived version.

This is the first time I've had the problem with icons, having done it many times before.

Edited June 27, 2012 by Asp

[tomasz86]

I'm almost sure the problem is related to the unofficial shell32.dll and 32-bit icon support. You said you had UURollup installed... which versions is installed now? Could you try to install the newest one?

[WildBill]

What happens if you use TweakUI to rebuild your icon cache?

[Asp]

I'm almost sure the problem is related to the unofficial shell32.dll and 32-bit icon support. You said you had UURollup installed... which versions is installed now? Could you try to install the newest one?

9b

I was intending waiting till your 5.2 was stable before doing more rollups though.

Do you think UU 10 would fix this?

I tried "Iconphile" which lets you change icons for apps and associations; though I could choose the correct icon it did not affect what Explorer showed.

What happens if you use TweakUI to rebuild your icon cache?

No change.

Edited June 27, 2012 by Asp

[tomasz86]

UURollup-v10 is the last (final) version and it should be stable At least no one has complained about it. In UURollup-v10 there is a new version of BlackWingCat's shell32.dll included so yes, there's a high probability it will fix the icon problem You can install it over v9b - all files will be replaced.

After installing it you may also want to do

regsvr32 /u shell32.dll
regsvr32 /i shell32.dll

and reboot.

Edited June 27, 2012 by tomasz86

[GrofLuigi]

Here it is for avisynth:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.avs]
@="mplayerc.avs"

This first part is only for checking. I doubt there's something wrong with it on your system. In my case .avs is associated with Media Player Classic - Home Cinema, but that shouldn't matter. Now see the second part with only the default icon and adapt it to your needs (your VirtualDubMod association):

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\mplayerc.avs\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\AviSynth.dll,0"

[Asp]

UURollup-v10 is the last (final) version and it should be stable At least no one has complained about it. In UURollup-v10 there is a new version of BlackWingCat's shell32.dll included so yes, there's a high probability it will fix the icon problem You can install it over v9b - all files will be replaced.

After installing it you may also want to do

regsvr32 /u shell32.dll
regsvr32 /i shell32.dll

and reboot.

Did all that.

Now instead of plain white icons, I have white icons with a black outline, and a transparent hole in the middle.

So at least I can see where it is.

After UU10 all the icon colours were weird, but I did a rebuild icons from TweakUI and that made the others normal.

One weird thing -- I reverted the association for txt to notepad, and then they all had the "UE" icon, even though they opened with notepad. I changed it back to UE and then I got back the same white icon.

But a serious (for me) side effect of UU10: It broke Tapin Radio, something I use all day long. Now it won't launch.

I was going to report that at the RyyanVM board, but you have to be approved before you can post there.

[tomasz86]

As for the icons, I'll try to install Ultraedit here and check if the problem occurs.

What do you mean by "breaking" Tapin Radio? I don't use it but I've just installed and checked it on my desktop (of course with UURollup-v10 installed) and it seems to work... Could you try to reinstall the program (or use a portable installation)?

Edit: One more question related to the icon problem - Have you got 32-bit colours (True Color) enabled?

Edit: I can confirm for sure that Tapin Radio works. I'm listening to it right now.

Edited July 1, 2012 by tomasz86

[Asp]

As for the icons, I'll try to install Ultraedit here and check if the problem occurs.

What do you mean by "breaking" Tapin Radio? I don't use it but I've just installed and checked it on my desktop (of course with UURollup-v10 installed) and it seems to work... Could you try to reinstall the program (or use a portable installation)?

Edit: One more question related to the icon problem - Have you got 32-bit colours (True Color) enabled?

Edit: I can confirm for sure that Tapin Radio works. I'm listening to it right now.

The icon thing isn't related to Ultraedit. If I change any association to any other app, I get the same white folder icon with the empty box inside.

For instance, Irfanview had taken over the .psd extension when I installed it. So I changed that back to Photoshop, and now these open with Photoshop, but now they have the white folder icon, not the Photoshop (or Irfanview) one.

Seems any manual change to icons has this result.

Well, good thing I have extensions shown, it seems icons are screwed up for me now.

Is 32 colours set by "Show icons using all possible colours" on desktop properties?

I've tried it both on and off. Same result.

As for Tapin, that's sort of encouraging you can get it working, but I still can't.

The process starts, (I can see it in Process Explorer), but then just stalls, never opens a window.

I've reinstalled and still no go.

I'll try the portable version and see if that works.

(I can use other Radio apps, but Tapin is my favourite, as its list of stations is updated every week. Other apps work, but their station lists are very stale and mostly dead.)

-- Just tried the portable Tapin install. Still fails to launch.

In Process Explorer, if I try to look at Tapin's "threads", Process Explorer itself locks up and I have to kill it.

Edited July 1, 2012 by Asp

[tomasz86]

I think we should try to fix the Tapin Radio problem first because something definitely seems to be broken in the system. Have you ever installed any other unofficial packages except for UURollup?

Could you run WinUpdatesList and create a report (just select all items -> File -> Save Selected Items)?

Could you also run from commandline "tasklist.exe>tasklist.txt" and post the result?

Edit: Actually a HTML report from WinUpdatesList will be better than a text one.

One more thing: Is "UURollup-10.log" present in your "%systemroot%\" directory? I'd like to check whether there were any errors during the installation of UURollup.

Edited July 1, 2012 by tomasz86

[Asp]

Attached "UURollup-10.log", and also for 9b. Lots of errors in that, but I think they're all about devices I don't have.

The WinUpdatelist is pretty simple: 5.1, UU9b, UU10

I tried to start Tapin before I ran tasklist, so its process is listed.

In Process Explorer, the "Window" option is unavailable for Tapin, so it never gets to the stage of creating one.

Thanks for looking at this.

logs.rar

Edited July 2, 2012 by Asp

[tomasz86]

I can't see anything strange in the logs. The errors you can see at the beginning are the "standard" one always present in these logfiles.

I wonder whether the problem with Tapin Radio may be related to this one. Could you try to open a website in IE6 and right-click on it?

Edited July 2, 2012 by tomasz86