I just installed Visual Studio .NET 2002 Pro and it seems to have messed up my icons for .HTM and .HTML file extensions. I went to Folder Options->File Types and tried to change the icons back to the IE icons, but it won't take into effect. Help, anyone? Thanks!
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Internet Explorer 6 Icon Problem
- Thread starter denbigh97
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #3
Metaliczombi
Technical User
have you tried opening internet options in IE 6 in the tools menu then clicking on the programs tab then clicking on the box for "Internet Elxplorer should check to see whether it is the default browser" Might help associate the files to IE.
- Thread starter
- #5
Metaliczombi, I've looked at that...the box is checked. All .HTM and .HTML files are associated with IE. Whenever I click on an .HTM or .HTML file, IE opens it up. But the IE icon still doesn't show for those files! I still get the default Windows icon for files that Windows doesn't recognize.
- Thread starter
- #7
Some general things to try.
See if System Restore will get you back to a restore point before your problem with Explorer.
Try running ChkDsk to check your drive for errors. Right click your Drive icon/ Properties/ Tools/ Error Checking.
Run the System File Checker program from the Run Box by typing.....Sfc /Scannow in it and have your XP CD handy.
HOW TO: Verify Unsigned Device Drivers in Windows XP
How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in Windows XP (Q318378)
From web.
"The ability to Repair Internet Explorer does not exist in the version that ships with Windows XP. This feature only becomes available after you upgrade to a newer version. This is normal and has been this way since Windows 98 and IE4. However, you can reinstall IE in Windows XP by clicking Start, Run and entering the following command:
rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 c:\windows\inf\ie.inf
You will need to have your XP CD available. (You might have to update it to SP1 afterwards).
If they don't work you could try repairing windows itself by running it over itself. You will lose all your windows updates but your files will be untouched.
How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP (Q315341)
See if System Restore will get you back to a restore point before your problem with Explorer.
Try running ChkDsk to check your drive for errors. Right click your Drive icon/ Properties/ Tools/ Error Checking.
Run the System File Checker program from the Run Box by typing.....Sfc /Scannow in it and have your XP CD handy.
HOW TO: Verify Unsigned Device Drivers in Windows XP
How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in Windows XP (Q318378)
From web.
"The ability to Repair Internet Explorer does not exist in the version that ships with Windows XP. This feature only becomes available after you upgrade to a newer version. This is normal and has been this way since Windows 98 and IE4. However, you can reinstall IE in Windows XP by clicking Start, Run and entering the following command:
rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 c:\windows\inf\ie.inf
You will need to have your XP CD available. (You might have to update it to SP1 afterwards).
If they don't work you could try repairing windows itself by running it over itself. You will lose all your windows updates but your files will be untouched.
How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP (Q315341)
- Thread starter
- #9
Give this a try:
Open Windows Explorer, select Tools, Folder Options..., then click on the File Types tab. In the File Types dialog box, left-click once on the HTM extension then click on the Advanced button. In the Edit File Type dialog box, click on Change Icon... button. In the Change Icon dialog box, the "Look for icons in this file:" text box should be pointing at your iexplorer.exe file (in my case C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe) or whatever file you want to pull an icon from. Select your desired icon, then click OK, OK, Close. If this works, repeat for your HTML extension.
Hope this works for you...
Open Windows Explorer, select Tools, Folder Options..., then click on the File Types tab. In the File Types dialog box, left-click once on the HTM extension then click on the Advanced button. In the Edit File Type dialog box, click on Change Icon... button. In the Change Icon dialog box, the "Look for icons in this file:" text box should be pointing at your iexplorer.exe file (in my case C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe) or whatever file you want to pull an icon from. Select your desired icon, then click OK, OK, Close. If this works, repeat for your HTML extension.
Hope this works for you...
- Thread starter
- #11
Freestone, that was the first method that I tried, but it didn't work...even though it did change the value in the DefaultIcon key within the registry...Other than that, IE itself works fine. It's just really annoying to see a generic icon for my HTM and HTML files.
I apologize for my previous post being redundant with your opening post, denbigh97.
I am able to duplicate your problem on my machine. I can change the icon via Folder Options, File Types, and though the registry entry HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\DefaultIcon changes, the displayed icon doesn't. Looking a bit further down the htmlfile entry, I see an entry ShellEx\IconHandler (HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\ShellEx\IconHandler}. The IconHandler contains a CLSID value. Searching on this CLSID from the top of the registry gets to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{42042206-2D85-11D3-8CFF-005004838597} and lo and behold, within this is entry: \Old Icon\htmlfile\DefaultIcon. When I change the DefaultIcon value, the icon for HTML files changes. Your CLSID, if you have one, more than likely will be different…
I continued searching on the CLSID, eventually turning up: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Approved
which describes it as Microsoft Office HTML Icon Handler
My take on all this is that if there is a ShellEx\IconHandler entry, it is this entry (CLSID) that is responsible for handling the icon.
I am able to duplicate your problem on my machine. I can change the icon via Folder Options, File Types, and though the registry entry HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\DefaultIcon changes, the displayed icon doesn't. Looking a bit further down the htmlfile entry, I see an entry ShellEx\IconHandler (HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\ShellEx\IconHandler}. The IconHandler contains a CLSID value. Searching on this CLSID from the top of the registry gets to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{42042206-2D85-11D3-8CFF-005004838597} and lo and behold, within this is entry: \Old Icon\htmlfile\DefaultIcon. When I change the DefaultIcon value, the icon for HTML files changes. Your CLSID, if you have one, more than likely will be different…
I continued searching on the CLSID, eventually turning up: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell Extensions\Approved
which describes it as Microsoft Office HTML Icon Handler
My take on all this is that if there is a ShellEx\IconHandler entry, it is this entry (CLSID) that is responsible for handling the icon.
- Thread starter
- #13
Freestone, thank you for your detailed reply. I've gone through my registry and compared it to what you have said...everything seems to be exactly as you have described. All of my registry keys are the same as yours. If I am correct in understanding what you have said, my HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{42042206-2D85-11D3-8CFF-005004838597\OldIcon\htmlfile\DefaultIcon} is the key that is supposed to change the icon for HTM and HTML files. However, the current (Default) value within DefaultIcon is already C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe,1...which is what it is supposed to be right? I tried to change the value of HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{42042206-2D85-11D3-8CFF-005004838597\OldIcon\htmlfile\DefaultIcon (Default)} to something other than "1" (C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe, x) at the end, but nothing was taken into immediate effect.
In addition, my HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\ShellEx\IconHandler's (Default) value is same as HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID's {42042206-2D85-11D3-8CFF-005004838597}. But HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\CLSID's value is not {42042206-2D85-11D3-8CFF-005004838597}, but rather is {25336920-03F9-11cf-8FD0-00AA00686F13}. I continued my search to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{25336920-03F9-11cf-8FD0-00AA00} and it also contained a DefaultIcon entry with C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore,1.
Did I change the value of the wrong key? Thanks!
In addition, my HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\ShellEx\IconHandler's (Default) value is same as HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID's {42042206-2D85-11D3-8CFF-005004838597}. But HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\CLSID's value is not {42042206-2D85-11D3-8CFF-005004838597}, but rather is {25336920-03F9-11cf-8FD0-00AA00686F13}. I continued my search to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{25336920-03F9-11cf-8FD0-00AA00} and it also contained a DefaultIcon entry with C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore,1.
Did I change the value of the wrong key? Thanks!
denbigh97, from my empirical testing you are changing the correct key value (HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{42042206-2D85-11D3-8CFF-005004838597}\Old Icon\htmlfile\DefaultIcon)
Right now I have C:\windows\system32\moricons.dll,21 here and when I do a search for .htm or .html files, the icons in the results pane show as NOW! in green. I've changed this to other files, and icons displayed in search results or Windows Explorer change. If I have an invalid path or program name here, I get the default icon like you are experiencing.
The other registry entries you've mentioned are the same on my PC.
How are you viewing the icons when you make the change?
Right now I have C:\windows\system32\moricons.dll,21 here and when I do a search for .htm or .html files, the icons in the results pane show as NOW! in green. I've changed this to other files, and icons displayed in search results or Windows Explorer change. If I have an invalid path or program name here, I get the default icon like you are experiencing.
The other registry entries you've mentioned are the same on my PC.
How are you viewing the icons when you make the change?
- Thread starter
- #15
Freestone, I just tried changing HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{42042206-2D85-11D3-8CFF-005004838597}\Old Icon\htmlfile\DefaultIcon to C:\windows\system32\moricons.dll,21 and then did a search for HTML. The search results still showed HTML files with the Windows generic icon. Then I changed the key value back to C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe, 1 and performed the search again, and same results...still no IE icon. Did you reboot after you made those changes? Because I did not reboot after I made the changes.
A weird thing I noticed is that when I right click on the desktop->New->Shortcut and then browse for the .EXE to link to, it shows all the correct HTM/HTML icons!
I installed Office97 and Visual Studio.NET before I experienced this problem. Could one of them have somehow changed a hidden registry setting?
A weird thing I noticed is that when I right click on the desktop->New->Shortcut and then browse for the .EXE to link to, it shows all the correct HTM/HTML icons!
I installed Office97 and Visual Studio.NET before I experienced this problem. Could one of them have somehow changed a hidden registry setting?
No, I didn't reboot for the change to take effect. Back to the think tank for more ideas 
In the meantime, just so you don't feel alone, peruse:
This deals with the issues we are talking about...
As Linney suggested earlier, "See if System Restore will get you back to a restore point before your problem with Explorer.", can you save your current config and restore prior to .NET and/or Office 97 install? My
In the meantime, just so you don't feel alone, peruse:
This deals with the issues we are talking about...
As Linney suggested earlier, "See if System Restore will get you back to a restore point before your problem with Explorer.", can you save your current config and restore prior to .NET and/or Office 97 install? My
The Google reference above talks about mhtlfile registry entry, but it applies to the htmlfile entry...
So after creating a restore point and exporting the registry branch, I deleted branch HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\ShellEx and now the Folder Options->File Types way of changing the icon works, as the icon is coming from: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\DefaultIcon
So after creating a restore point and exporting the registry branch, I deleted branch HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\ShellEx and now the Folder Options->File Types way of changing the icon works, as the icon is coming from: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\DefaultIcon
- Thread starter
- #18
Freestone, I followed the methods posted on the Google page and it worked! You are a Godsend! Thank you so much! All I had to do was to delete HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile\ShellEx\IconHandler key.
Just out of curiosity, was there ever supposed to be an IconHandler key there before I installed Visual Studio.NET and Office97?
Anyways, thanks alot!
Just out of curiosity, was there ever supposed to be an IconHandler key there before I installed Visual Studio.NET and Office97?
Anyways, thanks alot!
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