Restore shell folder icons

[ramian]

Hi,

I was trying to move the location of the shell folders (Documents, Pictures, Music and Videos) to a different drive, but I somehow borked it up. I fixed that by going to the following registry key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

and changing the paths to the respective folders.

I now can access them again, but their original icons (green folder with unique identifying overlay) aren't there anymore. See below screenshot...

How do I get back the original icons? If this were in XP, I could rebuild the icon cache. Is this still possible in Vista? How else can I get back the original icons?

Thanks!

[ramian]

Nevermind, found the solution to my problem. Took a good 1hr of searching though.

[source]

Symptom

When you open Windows Explorer, the shell folders such as Documents and Pictures may be displayed with a standard folder icon rather than the special folder icons.

Resolution

This behavior can occur when the desktop.ini file in the shell folder is missing or incorrect, or it has no attributes set. The default contents of the desktop.ini file for various shell folders in Windows Vista are given below. In each shell folder that's missing the special icon, create a file named desktop.ini and paste the content corresponding to the shell folder.

Then right-click the file desktop.ini and choose Properties. Place a checkmark near Hidden attribute, and click OK. Logoff and login again for the changes to take effect.

Desktop.ini contents for various shell folders in Windows Vista

Documents

[.ShellClassInfo]

LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21770

IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-112

IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll

IconIndex=-235

Pictures

[.ShellClassInfo]

LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21779

InfoTip=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-12688

IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-113

IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll

IconIndex=-236

[LocalizedFileNames]

Sample Pictures.lnk=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21805

Music

[.ShellClassInfo]

LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21790

InfoTip=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-12689

IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-108

IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll

IconIndex=-237

[LocalizedFileNames]

Sample Music.lnk=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21806

Videos

[.ShellClassInfo]

LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21791

InfoTip=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-12690

IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-189

IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll

IconIndex=-238

[LocalizedFileNames]

Sample Videos.lnk=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21807

Searches

[.ShellClassInfo]

LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-9031

IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-18

[LocalizedFileNames]

Indexed Locations.search-ms=@shell32.dll,-32811

Everywhere.search-ms=@shell32.dll,-32814

Shared By Me.search-ms=@shell32.dll,-32802

Recent Music.search-ms=@shell32.dll,-32803

Recent Documents.search-ms=@shell32.dll,-32804

Recent Pictures and Videos.search-ms=@shell32.dll,-32806

Recent E-mail.search-ms=@shell32.dll,-32807

Recently Changed.search-ms=@shell32.dll,-32813

Downloads

[.ShellClassInfo]

LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21798

IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-184

Favorites

[.ShellClassInfo]

LocalizedResourceName=@%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll,-21796

IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-115

IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll

IconIndex=-173

Contacts

[.ShellClassInfo]

LocalizedResourceName=@%CommonProgramFiles%\system\wab32res.dll,-10100

InfoTip=@%CommonProgramFiles%\system\wab32res.dll,-10200

IconResource=%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-181

I definitely need to be more careful when I'm fooling around with Vista given how new it is and not everyone knows how to fix things...

cheers!

[jbarcus81]

What about folders "Desktop" "Links" and "Saved Games"? Thanks for the info !!!

[darkpuma]

thank you so much, great post! :)

[staticroot]

Hi Guys,

thanks for the great info.

I have a problem regarding my standard folder icon, no matter where I am in windows.

If I try to use list view or detail view I get an icon like you'd get if you didn't have a program associated with a file (see attached jpg).

This happened because I had attempted hacking imageres.dll. My computer is working fine all the way around with the exception of this folder icon issue. I did revert back to the original imageres.dll and I have not disabled UAC.

If I'm posting in the wrong place, please move the post - and if I sound like an idiot - oops :)

Can anyone help?

[andie]

I accidentally deleted my "downloads" shell folder. I tried recreating a new folder and created a desktop.ini file but so the plain yellow folder hasn't turned back to the nice blue folder w/ icon. Does anyone know how to restore a shell folder?

[Panda X]

I made an EXE Quick Fix

Download here.

http://files.filefront.com/Icon+Restoreexe...;/fileinfo.html

[staticroot]

Thanks Panda X, but it didn't work for my issue... maybe it was intended for the post just ahead of yours.

Your program ran through and replaced all my existing folders, so maybe my issue is a registry issue?

[Pikey]

Perhaps the best way would be to download Iconpackager from Stardock!

I think you can use it to load system default icons , then un-install it afterwards ...

[staticroot]

I'll give it a try. Thanks, Pikey :)

[staticroot]

Pikey - you are DA MAN! (unless you are a woman, in which case you are DA WOMAN).

That worked like a charm.

Thanks again !