Vista Desktop Icons Randomly Change

[AlanHo]

I have added a number of document or website link shortcut icons to my Vista computer desktop - some are in folders containing a group of shortcuts.

I have changed the folder and shortcut icons from the standard explorer icon to more meaningful ones which are stored on my hard drive as ico files.

However - for no apparent reason - after being stable for a few days, certain icons randomly revert to the explorer icon. Right clicking on the desktop and selecting "Refresh" has no effect. After a reboot - the icons may - or may not - correct themselves. It is worth noting that it is only the icons I have allocated that randomly change and it is not always the same ones. Icons associated with programmes seem to be OK. (Word, Excel, Acronis, Nero etc)

If I right click on the faulty ones and select "properties" the heading of the web document tab still shows the correct icon even though the actual one on the desktop has changed - I have to go through the procedure of changing the icon all over again to get the specific icon back on the desktop.

A couple of weeks ago (for other reasons) I had to do a refomat of my C: drive and do a clean installation of Vista Ultimate. I hoped that this would result in the icon problem being resolved - but it is back again.

I have searched the Microsoft knowledge base in vain.

 

[AlanHo]

After trying a number of remedies suggested on various forums I have stumbled on a solution.

I eventually realised that the problem was with desktop shortcuts which opened a website URL. Shortcuts to files, folders and programmes on the computer hard drive were stable.

I therefore theorised that if I could access the URL via a batch file and open the batch file from a desktop shortcut - it might solve the problem. I am no techie and needed help from someone on another forum to create suitable batch files.

It seems to have worked - after creating batch files for each URL I wish to open from a desktop shortcut - and assigning my chosen icons to these desktop shortcuts - all my icons have remained stable for several days.

I am thus convinced that there is a bug in Vista that I have found a clunky way around - but it works.