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    Changed IE icon

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by wettek, Jul 21, 2009.

  1. wettek

    wettek Notebook Consultant

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    Gidday guys.

    My 5 year old girls decided they would play with my desktop and somehow changed my Internet Explorer to this. I could not change the Icon, had to delete it and create another shortcut. Can anyone tell me what they managed to do?

    Regards to all
     

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    wettek, Jul 21, 2009
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  2. Relativity17

    Relativity17 Notebook Evangelist

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    Did the corrupted shortcut still work after the icon was removed? What steps did you take to try and change it back?

    If they were playing around with the shortcut properties, they could have easily deleted the icon path, making the shortcut default to shell32.dll/icon 1, which is the one in your screenshot. You can set it back by pointing it to the correct icon in %programfiles%\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
     
    Relativity17, Jul 21, 2009
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  3. LLS

    LLS Notebook Consultant

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    Have you checked the icon path? Right click > Properties > Change Icon
     
    LLS, Jul 21, 2009
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  4. wettek

    wettek Notebook Consultant

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    Yeah, it still worked, and the icon path was still "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe", so I am buggered if I know how they managed it. I deleted the shortcut, and made another, I would just be interested to work out what they did.
     
    wettek, Jul 21, 2009
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  5. Relativity17

    Relativity17 Notebook Evangelist

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    There are instances in which cached copies of icons will not update for a while. For example, if you were to associate .exe files with a program like Windows Media Center, all exe icons would change, and some would remain changed even if you reset your file associations. You can flush out your iconcache.db file and restart Explorer to reset your icons.
     
    Relativity17, Jul 21, 2009
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  6. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Since you've deleted the old shortcut, it's not likely that we can reconstruct what happened. However, if you go into the event logs and look for any logged items in the applications or system log categories around the time that the girls were playing with the desktop, you might find a log entry that relates to the shortcut and whatever modifications were made to it.
     
    Shyster1, Jul 21, 2009
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  7. wettek

    wettek Notebook Consultant

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    No, I've still got the old shortcut, what info would you like to know?
     
    wettek, Jul 21, 2009
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  8. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Right-click on the icon itself, and then left-click on the "Properties" item in the context menu that pops up. When the dialogue box opens up, it should be open to the "Shortcut" tab at the top of the box (if not, click on that tab). Then left-click on the "Change icon..." button and see what file is listed in the text box at the top of the new dialogue box that pops up.
     
    Shyster1, Jul 22, 2009
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  9. Pirx

    Pirx Notebook Virtuoso

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    Most likely this is simply the result of a corrupted icon cache, which can be caused by all sorts of things. Delete the cache, as explained here. That should solve the problem.

    As a simpler alternative, sometimes it's enough to switch your desktop resolutions back and forth, forcing Windows to pick different resolution icons.
     
    Pirx, Jul 22, 2009
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  10. Pirx

    Pirx Notebook Virtuoso

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    Pirx, Jul 22, 2009
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  11. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    The functionality issue's been solved (I believe the OP simply created a new shortcut), so the point now is academic forensics - undoubtedly no firm answer will float to the top, but then, the point of an academic exploration isn't, primarily, about fixing things.
     
    Shyster1, Jul 22, 2009
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  12. wettek

    wettek Notebook Consultant

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    In the shortcut: "%ProgramFiles%\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"

    Like I said before, buggered if I know what they did. Anyway, doesn't matter, it still worked, and I did just create another shortcut. Thanks for all your input, and regards to all.
     
    wettek, Jul 23, 2009
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  13. Shyster1

    Shyster1 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    If you still feel like keeping up the academic pursuit of knowledge, was anything in the event logs? If you don't, no worries!
     
    Shyster1, Jul 23, 2009
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