All desktop icons changed to Notepad style

I'm connected to a friend's laptop whose son's account shows almost all of the desktop icons for programs (TeamVIewer, Chrome, MBAM, etc) and other with a Notepad icon.

The son says he remembers being asked a question to which he answered Notepad resulting in all the icons changing. This was several months ago so System Restore is out of reach as a solution.

Does anyone recognize this or see a way to change them back to their defaults?

I tried one for Chrome and it actually showed a Chrome icon logo to choose in Change Icon, but wouldn't take it when I tried to apply it.

Thanks!

When I reconnect tomorrow I'll try Rebuilding Icon Cache. Google found me Shawn's tutorial: Icon Cache - Rebuild - Windows 7 Help Forums

Since he admitted he clicked something associating them with Notepad my first thought is he re-associated the .exe but these are only shortcuts and not the actual .exe - and some are internet shortcuts.

There was a lot of spyware on the Admin account which I cleaned up with no obvious remaining issues. Only the kid's account had the desktop shortcuts' icon format changed.

I'll ask him again to pinpoint when it happened to double-check System Restore points.

Shortcuts are .lnk, maybe restoring that from here will change them back,

Default File Type Associations - Restore

Thanks, Derek.

I wonder if it makes a difference how it's sequenced: Rebuilding Icon Cache or Restoring .lnk File Associations first?

I would try restoring the .lnk first, you may not need to rebuild the icon cache after the log off or restart.