on my desktop many of my icons have changed to have the program/ files proper icon, with the MS Paint icon on top. see image below.

does anyone know how i could change this back?

Screenshot: Click here

Sometimes happens its a little bug with windows just restart your pc should be ok

I've never seen anything like that! I've had icons that change to a different one, but not ones that overlap another

If you have TweakUI installed, then go to the Repair Tab and Rebuild Icons. It will probably help to reboot as Jay said to clear out the icon cache.

w00t Probably a bug as Jay said...Or maybe even a worm or virus...Do you have a virus scanner?

it appears to me that you have te active desktop turned on...

Maybe you took a screenshot of your desktop when it had all those paint icons, then you went and set it as your desktop picture lol, or, ye got a virus!

Maybe you took a screenshot of your desktop when it had all those paint icons, then you went and set it as your desktop picture  lol

yeah I agree there rofl

try this: http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/1153/

Windows maintains a cached copy of all the icons on the system to avoid having to reload the icons every time they are displayed. If this icon cache becomes corrupt then the wrong icons may be shown.

To clear the icons cache make sure you can view hidden files and then open your Windows directory in Explorer and delete the file called "ShellIconCache".

When you restart Windows the icon cache file will be automatically recreated.