Desktop icons with an "X" on them.

Maybe you didn't notice but this thread is from March 2011. Its effectively a dead thread.

Yes, I did notice, but I did not see the harm in posting my answer anyways. Since when I searched for the issue on Google this page was third in the results. I was just hoping to help others out that were not able to find any other answers on any other site. PS, now it seems to active again.

I know this is old, but as there was never a solution found let me add a bit of information here.

1. The issue is NOT an issue with the icon file. The icons turn to semi-transparent 'X's randomly, in reaction to something. On my computer they are sometimes on after boot, sometimes come on after an hour, sometimes don't ever come on after the computer has been on for 48 hours.
2. Some of my icons still have the arrows on them, the ones in the "C:\Users\Public\Desktop" directory. While the ones in "C:\Users\{USER}\Desktop" have 'X's. The shortcuts I create from the user account NOT on the desktop have arrows.
3. I have never done anything to remove them or changed the theme, in fact I often disable themes & the X is still there.
4. The shortcuts when seen from the "C:\Users\{USER}\Desktop" folder via Explorer show no icon whether there is an 'X' on the desktop or not.