This started to happen a few weeks ago.

I tried all the suggestions posted on the vwww without success.

The most promising one was to delete the iconcache_*.db files.

Most of them went but three refused to go.

I have administrator rights! But still no go.

A couple of times I booted into admin mode.
(Held down the shift key while booting). The icons showed up!

Boot into full mode.

The icons flash in colour before being overlaid by black rectangles.

Anyone had experience of this?

TIA

--
Mint 21.1, kernel 5.15.0-67-generic, Cinnamon 5.6.7
running on an AMD Phenom II X4 Black edition processor with 16GB of DRAM.

pinnerite <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote:

> I tried all the suggestions posted on the vwww without success. The
> most promising one was to delete the iconcache_*.db files. Most of
> them went but three refused to go. I have administrator rights! But
> still no go.
>
> A couple of times I booted into admin mode. (Held down the shift key
> while booting). The icons showed up!
>
> Boot into full mode. The icons flash in colour before being overlaid
> by black rectangles.

Change the Windows theme? Unless you used a policy setting to use a
default theme for all new Windows accounts, it's a per-user setting, so
the theme for your Windows account and the Administrator account do not
have to be the same.

pinnerite wrote:

> The icons flash in colour before being overlaid by black rectangles.

If you save a screenshot image, are the black rectangles absent?

On 5/10/2023 4:38 PM, pinnerite wrote:
> This started to happen a few weeks ago.
>
> I tried all the suggestions posted on the vwww without success.
>
> The most promising one was to delete the iconcache_*.db files.
>
> Most of them went but three refused to go.
>
> I have administrator rights! But still no go.
>
> A couple of times I booted into admin mode.
> (Held down the shift key while booting). The icons showed up!
>
> Boot into full mode.
>
> The icons flash in colour before being overlaid by black rectangles.
>
> Anyone had experience of this?
>
> TIA

Is this your VBox Guest containing Windows 10 ???

Or is it a physical installation on the hard drive
(as a multi-boot) ?

Paul

On Thu, 11 May 2023 04:50:12 -0400
Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:

> On 5/10/2023 4:38 PM, pinnerite wrote:
> > This started to happen a few weeks ago.
> >
> > I tried all the suggestions posted on the vwww without success.
> >
> > The most promising one was to delete the iconcache_*.db files.
> >
> > Most of them went but three refused to go.
> >
> > I have administrator rights! But still no go.
> >
> > A couple of times I booted into admin mode.
> > (Held down the shift key while booting). The icons showed up!
> >
> > Boot into full mode.
> >
> > The icons flash in colour before being overlaid by black rectangles.
> >
> > Anyone had experience of this?
> >
> > TIA
>
> Is this your VBox Guest containing Windows 10 ???
>
> Or is it a physical installation on the hard drive
> (as a multi-boot) ?
>
> Paul

Win-10 virtual guest of VirtualBox over Linux Mont 21.1

However! When I rebooted my system this morning and then brought up Win-10, all the icons were back.

Beats me.

Thank you to all respondents. Useful tips too.

Regards, Alan

--
Mint 21.1, kernel 5.15.0-67-generic, Cinnamon 5.6.7
running on an AMD Phenom II X4 Black edition processor with 16GB of DRAM.

On 5/10/2023 2:38 PM, pinnerite wrote:
> This started to happen a few weeks ago.
>
> I tried all the suggestions posted on the vwww without success.
>
> The most promising one was to delete the iconcache_*.db files.
>
> Most of them went but three refused to go.
>
> I have administrator rights! But still no go.
>
> A couple of times I booted into admin mode.
> (Held down the shift key while booting). The icons showed up!
>
> Boot into full mode.
>
> The icons flash in colour before being overlaid by black rectangles.
>
> Anyone had experience of this?
I've had a similar problem on two Windows 7 (SP1, 64 bit, PRO) machines.
The problem started several months ago. Squares around desktop icons
turn black as the mouse moves over them. Icons and start menu items are
not responsive to mouse clicks.

The simplest path to a working machine is too type ctr-shift-esc and log
off using the capability offered in the "Users" tab. The problem is
cleared when I log back in.

I looked for the icon cache reported in the original post above (posted
in alt.comp.os.windows-10) but could find no files in Windows 7 using
the explorer search function on the Windows folder on my C disk.

Any help would be most appreciated.
--
Jeff Barnett

On 5/11/23 13:13, this is what Jeff Barnett wrote:
> On 5/10/2023 2:38 PM, pinnerite wrote:
>> This started to happen a few weeks ago.
>>
>> I tried all the suggestions posted on the vwww without success.
>>
>> The most promising one was to delete the iconcache_*.db files.
>>
>> Most of them went but three refused to go.
>>
>> I have administrator rights!  But still no go.
>>
>> A couple of times I booted into admin mode.
>> (Held down the shift key while booting). The icons showed up!
>>
>> Boot into full mode.
>>
>> The icons flash in colour before being overlaid by black rectangles.
>>
>> Anyone had experience of this?
> I've had a similar problem on two Windows 7 (SP1, 64 bit, PRO) machines. The problem started several months ago. Squares
> around desktop icons turn black as the mouse moves over them. Icons and start menu items are not responsive to mouse
> clicks.
>
> The simplest path to a working machine is too type ctr-shift-esc and log off using the capability offered in the "Users"
> tab. The problem is cleared when I log back in.
>
> I looked for the icon cache reported in the original post above (posted in alt.comp.os.windows-10) but could find no
> files in Windows 7 using the explorer search function on the Windows folder on my C disk.
>
> Any help would be most appreciated.
I think this may help?
https://neosmart.net/wiki/clear-icons-cache/
--
Al

On 5/11/2023 1:13 PM, Jeff Barnett wrote:
> On 5/10/2023 2:38 PM, pinnerite wrote:
>> This started to happen a few weeks ago.
>>
>> I tried all the suggestions posted on the vwww without success.
>>
>> The most promising one was to delete the iconcache_*.db files.
>>
>> Most of them went but three refused to go.
>>
>> I have administrator rights!  But still no go.
>>
>> A couple of times I booted into admin mode.
>> (Held down the shift key while booting). The icons showed up!
>>
>> Boot into full mode.
>>
>> The icons flash in colour before being overlaid by black rectangles.
>>
>> Anyone had experience of this?
> I've had a similar problem on two Windows 7 (SP1, 64 bit, PRO) machines. The problem started several months ago. Squares around desktop icons turn black as the mouse moves over them. Icons and start menu items are not responsive to mouse clicks.
>
> The simplest path to a working machine is too type ctr-shift-esc and log off using the capability offered in the "Users" tab. The problem is cleared when I log back in.
>
> I looked for the icon cache reported in the original post above (posted in alt.comp.os.windows-10) but could find no files in Windows 7 using the explorer search function on the Windows folder on my C disk.
>
> Any help would be most appreciated.

https://www.thewindowsclub.com/rebuild-the-icon-cache-windows

C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\IconCache.db

The problem with AppData, is it is hidden. In a user command prompt (cmd.exe)
you can do this, to travel past the offender and carry on with your
work.

cd /d C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local

explorer .

This dives one level below AppData, then asks Explorer
to display the contents of Local.

Similarly, if you did

cd /d C:\Users\Username\

dir /ah

then it would list AppData, as a hidden directory.
So you know it is there and it exists.

Explorer has an Options control panel, where you
can turn on the display of Hidden items, Apply it, then
Apply To All Folders, and this will cause the hidden
items on the system to be visible. This would include
stuff in the root of C: such as "ntldr" or "pagefile.sys"
and so on, to be visible. The root of C: might only
have five items, if Hidden things remain hidden. Once
visibility is adjusted, there might be nine or more
things in the root of C: .

When you install a silly Windows OS, these are some of the
first arcane aspects you fix first. for example, you turn on
the display of File Extensions, and you can see the improvement...

dangerous # item before change, no idea what it is
# COuld be a text file. Could be anything.

dangerous.exe # with Extensions displayed, the user is in a better
# position to practice Safe Hex, by not blindly executing
# every EXE you run into.

Paul

On 5/11/2023 12:21 PM, Big Al wrote:
> On 5/11/23 13:13, this is what Jeff Barnett wrote:
>> On 5/10/2023 2:38 PM, pinnerite wrote:
>>> This started to happen a few weeks ago.
>>>
>>> I tried all the suggestions posted on the vwww without success.
>>>
>>> The most promising one was to delete the iconcache_*.db files.
>>>
>>> Most of them went but three refused to go.
>>>
>>> I have administrator rights!  But still no go.
>>>
>>> A couple of times I booted into admin mode.
>>> (Held down the shift key while booting). The icons showed up!
>>>
>>> Boot into full mode.
>>>
>>> The icons flash in colour before being overlaid by black rectangles.
>>>
>>> Anyone had experience of this?
>> I've had a similar problem on two Windows 7 (SP1, 64 bit, PRO)
>> machines. The problem started several months ago. Squares around
>> desktop icons turn black as the mouse moves over them. Icons and start
>> menu items are not responsive to mouse clicks.
>>
>> The simplest path to a working machine is too type ctr-shift-esc and
>> log off using the capability offered in the "Users" tab. The problem
>> is cleared when I log back in.
>>
>> I looked for the icon cache reported in the original post above
>> (posted in alt.comp.os.windows-10) but could find no files in Windows
>> 7 using the explorer search function on the Windows folder on my C disk.
>>
>> Any help would be most appreciated.
> I think this may help?
> https://neosmart.net/wiki/clear-icons-cache/
Thank you. Now I'll wait a few days and hope I don't see the error again.
--
Jeff Barnett

On 5/11/2023 1:54 PM, Paul wrote:
> On 5/11/2023 1:13 PM, Jeff Barnett wrote:
>> On 5/10/2023 2:38 PM, pinnerite wrote:
>>> This started to happen a few weeks ago.
>>>
>>> I tried all the suggestions posted on the vwww without success.
>>>
>>> The most promising one was to delete the iconcache_*.db files.
>>>
>>> Most of them went but three refused to go.
>>>
>>> I have administrator rights!  But still no go.
>>>
>>> A couple of times I booted into admin mode.
>>> (Held down the shift key while booting). The icons showed up!
>>>
>>> Boot into full mode.
>>>
>>> The icons flash in colour before being overlaid by black rectangles.
>>>
>>> Anyone had experience of this?
>> I've had a similar problem on two Windows 7 (SP1, 64 bit, PRO)
>> machines. The problem started several months ago. Squares around
>> desktop icons turn black as the mouse moves over them. Icons and start
>> menu items are not responsive to mouse clicks.
>>
>> The simplest path to a working machine is too type ctr-shift-esc and
>> log off using the capability offered in the "Users" tab. The problem
>> is cleared when I log back in.
>>
>> I looked for the icon cache reported in the original post above
>> (posted in alt.comp.os.windows-10) but could find no files in Windows
>> 7 using the explorer search function on the Windows folder on my C disk.
>>
>> Any help would be most appreciated.
>
> https://www.thewindowsclub.com/rebuild-the-icon-cache-windows
>
>    C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\IconCache.db
>
> The problem with AppData, is it is hidden. In a user command prompt
> (cmd.exe)
> you can do this, to travel past the offender and carry on with your
> work.
>
>    cd /d C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local
>
>    explorer .
>
> This dives one level below AppData, then asks Explorer
> to display the contents of Local.
>
> Similarly, if you did
>
>    cd /d C:\Users\Username\
>
>    dir /ah
>
> then it would list AppData, as a hidden directory.
> So you know it is there and it exists.
>
> Explorer has an Options control panel, where you
> can turn on the display of Hidden items, Apply it, then
> Apply To All Folders, and this will cause the hidden
> items on the system to be visible. This would include
> stuff in the root of C: such as "ntldr" or "pagefile.sys"
> and so on, to be visible. The root of C: might only
> have five items, if Hidden things remain hidden. Once
> visibility is adjusted, there might be nine or more
> things in the root of C: .
>
> When you install a silly Windows OS, these are some of the
> first arcane aspects you fix first. for example, you turn on
> the display of File Extensions, and you can see the improvement...
>
>    dangerous       # item before change, no idea what it is
>                    # COuld be a text file. Could be anything.
>
>    dangerous.exe   # with Extensions displayed, the user is in a better
>                    # position to practice Safe Hex, by not blindly
> executing
>                    # every EXE you run into.
>
>    Paul
>
Thank you. Now I'll wait a few days and hope I don't see the error again.
--
Jeff Barnett

On 5/11/2023 5:34 PM, Jeff Barnett wrote:

>>
> Thank you. Now I'll wait a few days and hope I don't see the error again.

Assuming your "wait and see" trick does not work,
look at this panel. Performance : Visual Effects.
This used to be the Aero control panel, in a sense.

https://computerinfobits.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Adjust-for-Best-Performance.jpg

Using Custom, turn them all off, then go back and
see if the black-flashing is gone.

Paul

Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:
[...]

> Explorer has an Options control panel, where you
> can turn on the display of Hidden items, Apply it, then
> Apply To All Folders, and this will cause the hidden
> items on the system to be visible. This would include
> stuff in the root of C: such as "ntldr" or "pagefile.sys"
> and so on, to be visible. The root of C: might only
> have five items, if Hidden things remain hidden. Once
> visibility is adjusted, there might be nine or more
> things in the root of C: .
>
> When you install a silly Windows OS, these are some of the
> first arcane aspects you fix first. for example, you turn on
> the display of File Extensions, and you can see the improvement...
>
> dangerous # item before change, no idea what it is
> # COuld be a text file. Could be anything.
>
> dangerous.exe # with Extensions displayed, the user is in a better
> # position to practice Safe Hex, by not blindly executing
> # every EXE you run into.
>
> Paul

Using the Options control panel (with its 'View' tab) is - also IMO -
the preferred way to show hidden files, folders or drives (and to show
(not hide) file extensions).

But - at least in Windows 10 (note the crosspost), don't know about
Windows 7 - the 'View' tab of File Explorer also has tick-boxes to
view/hide these, so you have the choice of always show/hide (Options ->
View) and only show/hide when told to do so (View).

On 5/11/2023 10:13 AM, Jeff Barnett wrote:
> On 5/10/2023 2:38 PM, pinnerite wrote:
>> This started to happen a few weeks ago.
>>
>> I tried all the suggestions posted on the vwww without success.
>>
>> The most promising one was to delete the iconcache_*.db files.
>>
>> Most of them went but three refused to go.
>>
>> I have administrator rights! But still no go.
>>
>> A couple of times I booted into admin mode.
>> (Held down the shift key while booting). The icons showed up!
>>
>> Boot into full mode.
>>
>> The icons flash in colour before being overlaid by black rectangles.
>>
>> Anyone had experience of this?
> I've had a similar problem on two Windows 7 (SP1, 64 bit, PRO) machines.
> The problem started several months ago. Squares around desktop icons
> turn black as the mouse moves over them. Icons and start menu items are
> not responsive to mouse clicks.
>
> The simplest path to a working machine is too type ctr-shift-esc and log
> off using the capability offered in the "Users" tab. The problem is
> cleared when I log back in.
>
> I looked for the icon cache reported in the original post above (posted
> in alt.comp.os.windows-10) but could find no files in Windows 7 using
> the explorer search function on the Windows folder on my C disk.
>
> Any help would be most appreciated.
>

In Settings, select Mouse. In the Mouse window, select the Buttons tab.
On the Buttons tab, make sure the checkbox for "Turn on ClickLock" is
NOT checked. Select the OK button.

--
David E. Ross
<http://www.rossde.com/>

Beyond Meat, Impossible Meat, and other such meat substitutes
represent the ultimate in ultra-processed foods, which my doctor
told me to avoid. Real meat is natural. Beyond Meat and
Impossible Meat are definitely not natural.

On Wed, 10 May 2023 15:58:53 -0500
VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:

> pinnerite <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I tried all the suggestions posted on the vwww without success. The
> > most promising one was to delete the iconcache_*.db files. Most of
> > them went but three refused to go. I have administrator rights! But
> > still no go.
> >
> > A couple of times I booted into admin mode. (Held down the shift key
> > while booting). The icons showed up!
> >
> > Boot into full mode. The icons flash in colour before being overlaid
> > by black rectangles.
>
> Change the Windows theme? Unless you used a policy setting to use a
> default theme for all new Windows accounts, it's a per-user setting, so
> the theme for your Windows account and the Administrator account do not
> have to be the same.

Well, it didn't work BUT I found a batch file on the web but did not make note of the page. :(

Run from the comand prompt and on a reboot, the desktop icons are back but on the next bot they re gone again.

I named it: rebuild_icon_cache.bat Here is the code:

:: Created by: Shawn Brink
:: Created on: April 27th 2015
:: Updated on: October 11th 2018
:: Tutorial: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/5645-rebuild-icon-cache-windows-10-a.html

@echo off
set iconcache=%localappdata%\IconCache.db
set iconcache_x=%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache*

echo.
echo The explorer process must be temporarily killed before deleting the IconCache.db file.
echo.
echo Please SAVE ALL OPEN WORK before continuing.
echo.
pause
echo.
If exist "%iconcache%" goto delete
echo.
echo The %localappdata%\IconCache.db file has already been deleted.
echo.
If exist "%iconcache_x%" goto delete
echo.
echo The %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\IconCache_*.db files have already been deleted.
echo.
exit /B

:delete
echo.
echo Attempting to delete IconCache.db files...
echo.
ie4uinit.exe -show
taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
If exist del /A /F /Q "%iconcache%"
If exist del /A /F /Q "%iconcache_x%"
start explorer.exe
echo.
echo IconCache database files have been successfully deleted.
goto restart

:restart
echo.
echo.
echo You will need to restart the PC to finish rebuilding your icon cache.
echo.
CHOICE /C:YN /M "Do you want to restart the PC now?"
IF ERRORLEVEL 2 goto no
IF ERRORLEVEL 1 goto yes

:yes
shutdown /r /f /t 00

:no
exit /B

All the best, Alan

--
Mint 21.1, kernel 5.15.0-67-generic, Cinnamon 5.6.7
running on an AMD Phenom II X4 Black edition processor with 16GB of DRAM.

On Sat, 13 May 2023 22:10:44 +0100
pinnerite <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, 10 May 2023 15:58:53 -0500
> VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:
>
> > pinnerite <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > I tried all the suggestions posted on the vwww without success. The
> > > most promising one was to delete the iconcache_*.db files. Most of
> > > them went but three refused to go. I have administrator rights! But
> > > still no go.
> > >
> > > A couple of times I booted into admin mode. (Held down the shift key
> > > while booting). The icons showed up!
> > >
> > > Boot into full mode. The icons flash in colour before being overlaid
> > > by black rectangles.
> >
> > Change the Windows theme? Unless you used a policy setting to use a
> > default theme for all new Windows accounts, it's a per-user setting, so
> > the theme for your Windows account and the Administrator account do not
> > have to be the same.
>
> Well, it didn't work BUT I found a batch file on the web but did not make note of the page. :(
>
> Run from the comand prompt and on a reboot, the desktop icons are back but on the next bot they re gone again.
>
> I named it: rebuild_icon_cache.bat Here is the code:
>
> :: Created by: Shawn Brink
> :: Created on: April 27th 2015
> :: Updated on: October 11th 2018
> :: Tutorial: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/5645-rebuild-icon-cache-windows-10-a.html
>
> @echo off
> set iconcache=%localappdata%\IconCache.db
> set iconcache_x=%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache*
>
> echo.
> echo The explorer process must be temporarily killed before deleting the IconCache.db file.
> echo.
> echo Please SAVE ALL OPEN WORK before continuing.
> echo.
> pause
> echo.
> If exist "%iconcache%" goto delete
> echo.
> echo The %localappdata%\IconCache.db file has already been deleted.
> echo.
> If exist "%iconcache_x%" goto delete
> echo.
> echo The %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\IconCache_*.db files have already been deleted.
> echo.
> exit /B
>
>
> :delete
> echo.
> echo Attempting to delete IconCache.db files...
> echo.
> ie4uinit.exe -show
> taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
> If exist del /A /F /Q "%iconcache%"
> If exist del /A /F /Q "%iconcache_x%"
> start explorer.exe
> echo.
> echo IconCache database files have been successfully deleted.
> goto restart
>
>
> :restart
> echo.
> echo.
> echo You will need to restart the PC to finish rebuilding your icon cache.
> echo.
> CHOICE /C:YN /M "Do you want to restart the PC now?"
> IF ERRORLEVEL 2 goto no
> IF ERRORLEVEL 1 goto yes
>
> :yes
> shutdown /r /f /t 00
>
> :no
> exit /B
>
> All the best, Alan
>

I commented out the lines from :restart to :no

and made the batch file execute as part of the shutdown process.

So why doesn't work?

To have to reboot every time I start up is annoying.

--
Mint 21.1, kernel 5.15.0-67-generic, Cinnamon 5.6.7
running on an AMD Phenom II X4 Black edition processor with 16GB of DRAM.

pinnerite wrote:

[snip]

> I commented out the lines from :restart to :no
>
> and made the batch file execute as part of the shutdown process.
>
> So why doesn't work?

Don't execute a script as part of the shutdown process.

Run it explicitly, and monitor its progress. Insert "pause" statements
after every line so you can see the effect, and read any error messages
that appear. That way you can identify where the script fails.

More generally - if a command generates any output, pipe that to a log
file so that after the event you can review the log file.

--
Graham J

pinnerite <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote:

> To have to reboot every time I start up is annoying.

I'd try to find out what causes the corruption rather than repeatedly
have to repair the damage. You have something touching the icons that
causes the problems, and it will continue to do so until fixed.

Some programs add overlays to icons. For example, I use HDD Sentinel
which can add an overlay indicating health of a drive. I've used other
programs that add overlays, like OneDrive and Google Drive. Programs
can compete with each other in adding overlays. They don't check if an
icon overlay handler has been defined, and instead just attempt to smash
their icon overlay handler into the registry. I remember a couple
wanted to use the same position on an icon to show their overlay, so one
of them lost and you didn't see its overlay. Some boobs think their
product is so fucking critical that they obliterate the original icon.

Supposedly there are 16 locations on an icon where an overlay can be
positioned, but I suspect only 4 are usable (the corners). I'd review
all the programs that get loaded on startup to see which might use icon
overlays, and then check if they can be turned off.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/shell/icons-and-icon-overlays-bumper

That article mentions where in the registry the icon overlay handlers
are defined. I suppose you could save that key to a .reg file, and then
delete the sub-entries to remove the overlay definitions to see if the
problem went away. If not, you can double-click the .reg file to
replace the definitions under there. I have that key saved as a
Favority in regedit.exe, and took a look. I have overlay handlers for:

- OneDrive (qty 7)
- GoogleDrive (qty 4)
- Dropbox (qty 10)
- GoogleDrive (qty 4 duplicates)
- Dropbox (qty 10 duplicates)
- 00asw (qty 1) [1]
- EnhancedStorageShell (qty 1) [2]

[1] Points to a non-existent CID, so it's an orphan.
[2] Points to {D9144DCD-E998-4ECA-AB6A-DCD83CCBA16D}: Enhanced Storage
Icon Overlay Handler Class.

Unlike files and folders, you can have duplicate registry entries with
the exact same name. Both GoogleDrive and Dropbox have duplicate
handlers registered. Sloppy.

This is akin to programs that add shell extensions, neglect to remove
them when uninstalled, resulting in a remnant registry definition that
can cause the context menu to crash. That's one of the few times a
registry cleaner can help.

As I recall, to get overlays to show for OneDrive, I had to position
them farther up in the subkeys under ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers. If
overlays overlap the same icon position, the first one(s) win.

Icon overlay handlers is just one way the icons get modified. There are
probably other methods. I know one of my programs actually replaces the
icon with its own icon (HDD Sentinel) for drive object type icons. I
turned off its "Modify default hard disk icons in Windows Explorer"
option since their icon with a small health bar atop the drive image
really wasn't of much help, and there was some problem with the display
of the icon overlays.

Are you using a replacement desktop shell, like using ClassicShell,
OpenShell, Start10, or other desktop GUI alternate?

On Tue, 16 May 2023 00:13:43 -0500
VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:

> pinnerite <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > To have to reboot every time I start up is annoying.
>
> I'd try to find out what causes the corruption rather than repeatedly
> have to repair the damage. You have something touching the icons that
> causes the problems, and it will continue to do so until fixed.
>
> Some programs add overlays to icons. For example, I use HDD Sentinel
> which can add an overlay indicating health of a drive. I've used other
> programs that add overlays, like OneDrive and Google Drive. Programs
> can compete with each other in adding overlays. They don't check if an
> icon overlay handler has been defined, and instead just attempt to smash
> their icon overlay handler into the registry. I remember a couple
> wanted to use the same position on an icon to show their overlay, so one
> of them lost and you didn't see its overlay. Some boobs think their
> product is so fucking critical that they obliterate the original icon.
>
> Supposedly there are 16 locations on an icon where an overlay can be
> positioned, but I suspect only 4 are usable (the corners). I'd review
> all the programs that get loaded on startup to see which might use icon
> overlays, and then check if they can be turned off.
>
> https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/shell/icons-and-icon-overlays-bumper
>
> That article mentions where in the registry the icon overlay handlers
> are defined. I suppose you could save that key to a .reg file, and then
> delete the sub-entries to remove the overlay definitions to see if the
> problem went away. If not, you can double-click the .reg file to
> replace the definitions under there. I have that key saved as a
> Favority in regedit.exe, and took a look. I have overlay handlers for:
>
> - OneDrive (qty 7)
> - GoogleDrive (qty 4)
> - Dropbox (qty 10)
> - GoogleDrive (qty 4 duplicates)
> - Dropbox (qty 10 duplicates)
> - 00asw (qty 1) [1]
> - EnhancedStorageShell (qty 1) [2]
>
> [1] Points to a non-existent CID, so it's an orphan.
> [2] Points to {D9144DCD-E998-4ECA-AB6A-DCD83CCBA16D}: Enhanced Storage
> Icon Overlay Handler Class.
>
> Unlike files and folders, you can have duplicate registry entries with
> the exact same name. Both GoogleDrive and Dropbox have duplicate
> handlers registered. Sloppy.
>
> This is akin to programs that add shell extensions, neglect to remove
> them when uninstalled, resulting in a remnant registry definition that
> can cause the context menu to crash. That's one of the few times a
> registry cleaner can help.
>
> As I recall, to get overlays to show for OneDrive, I had to position
> them farther up in the subkeys under ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers. If
> overlays overlap the same icon position, the first one(s) win.
>
> Icon overlay handlers is just one way the icons get modified. There are
> probably other methods. I know one of my programs actually replaces the
> icon with its own icon (HDD Sentinel) for drive object type icons. I
> turned off its "Modify default hard disk icons in Windows Explorer"
> option since their icon with a small health bar atop the drive image
> really wasn't of much help, and there was some problem with the display
> of the icon overlays.
>
> Are you using a replacement desktop shell, like using ClassicShell,
> OpenShell, Start10, or other desktop GUI alternate?

What brilliant response! You've given me much to think about and try out.

Thank you very much.

Regards, Alan

On Mon, 15 May 2023 22:00:02 +0100
Graham J <nobody@nowhere.co.uk> wrote:

> pinnerite wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> > I commented out the lines from :restart to :no
> >
> > and made the batch file execute as part of the shutdown process.
> >
> > So why doesn't work?
>
> Don't execute a script as part of the shutdown process.
>
> Run it explicitly, and monitor its progress. Insert "pause" statements
> after every line so you can see the effect, and read any error messages
> that appear. That way you can identify where the script fails.
>
> More generally - if a command generates any output, pipe that to a log
> file so that after the event you can review the log file.
>
>
> --
> Graham J

I'm run off my feet right now but as soon as time permits.
Thank you. Alan

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Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote in
news:u3ia84$11vms$1@dont-email.me:

>> Anyone had experience of this?
>>
>> TIA
>
> Is this your VBox Guest containing Windows 10 ???
>
> Or is it a physical installation on the hard drive
> (as a multi-boot) ?
>
> Paul

For anything graphics(-driver?) issue, that is a pretty significant distinction. It should be
mentioned up front.

On 5/11/2023 3:34 PM, Jeff Barnett wrote:
> On 5/11/2023 1:54 PM, Paul wrote:
>> On 5/11/2023 1:13 PM, Jeff Barnett wrote:
>>> On 5/10/2023 2:38 PM, pinnerite wrote:
>>>> This started to happen a few weeks ago.
>>>>
>>>> I tried all the suggestions posted on the vwww without success.
>>>>
>>>> The most promising one was to delete the iconcache_*.db files.
>>>>
>>>> Most of them went but three refused to go.
>>>>
>>>> I have administrator rights!  But still no go.
>>>>
>>>> A couple of times I booted into admin mode.
>>>> (Held down the shift key while booting). The icons showed up!
>>>>
>>>> Boot into full mode.
>>>>
>>>> The icons flash in colour before being overlaid by black rectangles.
>>>>
>>>> Anyone had experience of this?
>>> I've had a similar problem on two Windows 7 (SP1, 64 bit, PRO)
>>> machines. The problem started several months ago. Squares around
>>> desktop icons turn black as the mouse moves over them. Icons and
>>> start menu items are not responsive to mouse clicks.
>>>
>>> The simplest path to a working machine is too type ctr-shift-esc and
>>> log off using the capability offered in the "Users" tab. The problem
>>> is cleared when I log back in.
>>>
>>> I looked for the icon cache reported in the original post above
>>> (posted in alt.comp.os.windows-10) but could find no files in Windows
>>> 7 using the explorer search function on the Windows folder on my C disk.
>>>
>>> Any help would be most appreciated.
>>
>> https://www.thewindowsclub.com/rebuild-the-icon-cache-windows
>>
>>     C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local\IconCache.db
>>
>> The problem with AppData, is it is hidden. In a user command prompt
>> (cmd.exe)
>> you can do this, to travel past the offender and carry on with your
>> work.
>>
>>     cd /d C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local
>>
>>     explorer .
>>
>> This dives one level below AppData, then asks Explorer
>> to display the contents of Local.
>>
>> Similarly, if you did
>>
>>     cd /d C:\Users\Username\
>>
>>     dir /ah
>>
>> then it would list AppData, as a hidden directory.
>> So you know it is there and it exists.
>>
>> Explorer has an Options control panel, where you
>> can turn on the display of Hidden items, Apply it, then
>> Apply To All Folders, and this will cause the hidden
>> items on the system to be visible. This would include
>> stuff in the root of C: such as "ntldr" or "pagefile.sys"
>> and so on, to be visible. The root of C: might only
>> have five items, if Hidden things remain hidden. Once
>> visibility is adjusted, there might be nine or more
>> things in the root of C: .
>>
>> When you install a silly Windows OS, these are some of the
>> first arcane aspects you fix first. for example, you turn on
>> the display of File Extensions, and you can see the improvement...
>>
>>     dangerous       # item before change, no idea what it is
>>                     # COuld be a text file. Could be anything.
>>
>>     dangerous.exe   # with Extensions displayed, the user is in a better
>>                     # position to practice Safe Hex, by not blindly
>> executing
>>                     # every EXE you run into.
>>
>>     Paul
>>
> Thank you. Now I'll wait a few days and hope I don't see the error again.
It's been over a week since I've had a problem. The original state was
intermittent so no guarantees. The key advice provided by Paul was the
article at https://www.thewindowsclub.com/rebuild-the-icon-cache-windows
and the elaboration of instructions following that pointer in the quoted
text above. Also thanks to Big Al who pointed me at the icon cache in
the first place.
--
Jeff Barnett

On Wed, 17 May 2023 12:01:35 +0100
pinnerite <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, 15 May 2023 22:00:02 +0100
> Graham J <nobody@nowhere.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > pinnerite wrote:
> >
> > [snip]
> >
> > > I commented out the lines from :restart to :no
> > >
> > > and made the batch file execute as part of the shutdown process.
> > >
> > > So why doesn't work?
> >
> > Don't execute a script as part of the shutdown process.
> >
> > Run it explicitly, and monitor its progress. Insert "pause" statements
> > after every line so you can see the effect, and read any error messages
> > that appear. That way you can identify where the script fails.
> >
> > More generally - if a command generates any output, pipe that to a log
> > file so that after the event you can review the log file.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Graham J
>
> I'm run off my feet right now but as soon as time permits.
> Thank you. Alan

I had to give up and restore from a month-old backup.
I've kept the advice though.

Thank you, Alan

--
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