Fix Windows desktop icons or program shortcuts turn to same icon: Hello, I just stumbled on this issue on a Windows Computer and though it will be wise sharing it with you guys. Have you ever experience a scenario where all the desktop shortcuts of your program files turn to display the same icon as if they were all files of the same type say like a text file or Word document? If yes, then stick to this post to find out how to solve the problem.
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Why does this happen??
Normally, all desktop shortcuts are .link files which simply allows you to launch the software or program from its installation directory.
All the icons on your Computer Start Menu or on your Desktop may go blank, or change to a single, same icon, such as Internet Explorer, Notepad text file, Video file, or Microsoft Word when you’ve installed software or an application which has caused a conflict with the IconCache.db file, as well as the .lnk extension, which is the extension for shortcuts in Windows.
For a person who is not yet versed with this problem, he or she may think of a virus attack on the Computer which is not the case.
When you are confronted with the above-mentioned problem, you can quickly fix it by deleting the custom .lnk key in the registry.
Quick fix
When this happens, clicking on any shortcut will open either MS Word, Notepad, or any other program to which the programs .lnk has been customised to open with. If you have all yours transformed to Word icons, then it will open MS word.
To fix this problem, proceed to delete the custom .lnk in your Windows Computer registry, follow these simple steps.
- Start by pressing the Win Key + R then type regedit and click Enter.
- Accept to open the registry editor and while in the registry editor, open the location
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.lnk
- Now open all the subfolders in the .lnk folder and locate the Userchoice folder then delete it.
- After doing that, reboot your Computer and the problem will be fixed.
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