folder icon/picture icons not working

About a month and a half ago, I performed a typical Windows Update, and the folder icons changed to some weird icon. I restarted my laptop hoping that would fix it, but I was wrong. The folder still works fine, but the icon is kind of ugly to look at every time I access my libraries. I tried changing my Theme, and no luck. I downloaded some themes from online, still no luck. I deleted any theme I downloaded. I've been looking everywhere for a solution, and nothing has helped. I purchased a Registry Fixer and ran it, but still nothing. I tried going to each individual folder and going to the customize tab under properties, and still, nothing. I've read in different posts that reinstalling Windows might help (Windows 7 was already installed in my laptop). I'm hoping that I wont have to do something as drastic as reinstalling Windows. If there's anything I could do to fix this, without having to go through the trouble of backing files up, please let me know. Thank you.

Thanks! where exactly is Post#2? Are you talking about the link you posted "custom folder icons" ?

thank you so much! Happy New Years to you also!