Windows 7: Icons appear as Paint files?

Hello all,

After messing with my default programs and setting Paint as the default for everything it's able to open, I noticed that the icons for some of my programs are now the generic paint icon. I tried removing .ico as a Paint default, but I can't seem to deselect it. Ideas? Any help will be greatly appreciated (slightly OCD about this sort of thing ).

Here's a screen capture of my issue (TinyPic). Edit: Thanks for embedding my image. I'll do that next time.

Hello JG,

Downloading and merging the ico option in the tutorial below will restore it's default associations.

Default File Type Associations - Restore

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Subsequently, don't change it in the location where you're at in your screenshot, instead go to "Associate a file type or protocol with a program" instead of in "Set you default programs". And set .ico back to default to open with Windows Photo Viewer, with the Change program button on the right.

Thank you both for the help and tip! Much appreciated. Repped.

You're most welcome. I'm glad that we could help.

You're welcome, and thanks.

I read the post in this thread but does anyone know why this happens. I noticed that an icon for Tight VNC Viewer that I pinned to the start menu looked fine for months and one day it turned into the MS Paint icon which threw me off at first until I realized it was the viewer. Nothing is amiss in either "Associate a file type or protocol with a program" or "Set you default programs" area and if I go to the 'Program Files' directory where Tight VNC Viewer is it has the correct icon in that location. I will try the merging of the icon file or 'rebuilding the icon cache later when I am ready to reboot but was just curious of why this happens.

Hello Richman,

The most common reason is an association issue caused by using "Open with" and selecting to always use the wrong program or protocol by mistake.

Some others include, issue after using a registry cleaner, corruption of icon cache, corruption of thumbnail cache, etc....

Hope this helps some.