Desktop Icons have gone crazy, help!?

My friend writes, "My desktop icons keep changing every time I look at a program in my Control Panel, right now there are little TV's displayed as every single Icon ?? before they were Real Player Audio symbols .. I scanned
the ##### out of this system but no virus detected .. any idea what's up ..??"
Thoughts?

1. RE: Desktop Icons have gone crazy, help!?
lbyard Feb-19-01 02:20 PM
In response to message 0

I don't know what version of Windows your friend is running, but I would suggest installing all patches and updates for it. If it's Windows 98, click Help, Internet Help, or something like that. There is at least one IE/Windows fix that affects how Windows displays desktop icons. Larry

2. RE: Desktop Icons have gone crazy, help!?
Davo Feb-21-01 04:35 AM
In response to message 1

The system is Windows ME. After a visit to MS.com, there were no updates that were applicable ...

3. RE: Desktop Icons have gone crazy, help!?
lbyard Feb-21-01 06:49 PM
In response to message 2

LAST EDITED ON Feb-21-01 AT 06:51 PM (GMT)
I see now you were referring to the Control Panel, not the Desktop—bad day with a bad cold. The ShellIconCache file is probably corrupted.
1. Bring Windows up in the Safe Mode by holding the Ctrl key as the computer boots up and selecting it from the resulting menu.
2. Check to be sure that the Windows Explorer is set to view hidden folders (Tools, Folder Options, View…).
3. Right-click C:\windows\ShellIconCache and delete.
4. Restart Windows. It should rebuild the file.
I would do a surface scan of the hard disk with scandisk, with save changes. Now you can send me one of those icons with a smiley face, right? Larry