dear ionel, many thanks for your perfect description!! ok, this morning i started my comp aaaand what i saw were a lot of nice icons on my files that i was fighting for so long! but this is sth i will not be able to reproduce a second time, that's for sure!! i've only big question marks on my forehead. so, with your hint (and i love hard coded solutions) i'll not have problems in future anymore.
cheers
hilmar