HTML icons (IE8,Firefox) display as blanks

My system is Windows 7, 64bit edition. When I save a page from the Internet, HTML icons appear on my system (in Documents or Downloads) as blank Notepad icons, whether I use Firefox or IE8 as the browser. I have rebuilt the icon cache (IconCache.db) twice, but the problem remains. I notice others have had this problem. Recently I installed Word 2003 with appropriate Office 2007 security updates, requiring further security updates to Microsoft Visual Studio. I believe this problem appeared after these installations.

Any suggestions on a fix would be much appreciated.--Combray, 12/10/10

Thanks for your reply, Lemur.
The icons, or rather blank Notepad "icons," are marked .html, not .txt.

I just found out that this same problem does not occur if I associate Chrome (also on my system) with .html. Most of the time I use Firefox.

I also ran sfc/scannow, which apparently corrected some files, but not this issue.

This is fairly annoying with a system that is just one month old. Any other ideas still appreciated.

Regards,
Combray

12/11/10

From [Control Panel, associate a file type with a specific protocol], I was able to assign HTML to Internet Explorer 8 successfully (this was not the case before), so that a blue Explorer icon now appears superimposed on the blank Notepad page. I can successfully do this with Chrome, and its icon appears independently, not superimposed on Notepad.

I noticed that when selecting a .htm (not .htm)l program/protocol Notepad is included among "recommended programs."

So it would seem Firefox is the lone culprit here--the Firefox icon remains as blank notepad icon only.

Any help would be welcome.--Combray

I had the problem myself and here's the fix:
Using Regedit, go to:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxHTML\ShellEx\IconHandler

Right click on IconHandler key and delete it.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\FirefoxHTML\DefaultIcon was set to %1
Set it to: C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe,1

Now assign .html icon to iexplorer then re-assign it to firefox, this should fix it.


*** Another option is just download and re-install Firefox, it does not hurt anything with your settings