Shortcut arrow changes by itself

Hello,

Weird stuff...the shortcut arrow on icons is changing to images resembling application icons. Notice in the pic that shortcuts to a Chrome web address, a PDF file, a Folder, and a Word document have an Excel icon where the white shortcut arrow should be.



I reboot and the shortcut arrow reappears, only to have the Excel (or some other icon) replace it. Sometimes the change happens within a few minutes, sometimes a couple of hours later.

The other day, the arrows were fine, then I opened/used/closed Camtasia Studio. The shortcut arrow was then replaced with the Camtasia icon. A few minutes later, the Camtasia icon was replaced with the Excel icon. By the way, I hadn't used Excel.

Lastly, I restored my pc with an Acronis image to a date prior to the first appearance of the changing shortcut icons, which cleared the problem for a couple of weeks. Then it came back. The only system changes following the image restore were Windows Updates and a Filezilla update.

Any suggestions as to the cause of the change?

Thanks for your help.
GeoPro

Thanks for the response MilesAhead. I ran both scans and only came up with one downloaded, but unused file from 3 years ago and a bunch of Adware tracking cookies. I cleaned them up.

I then did some additional research and rebuilt the icon cache, ran an MS System File Checker tool...no problems found. Ran a MS Fixit program for some maintenance checks, which included icon fixes...no problems found. Seems I have a really clean system.

Some more testing/re-booting/testing/etc. and came up with this...so far:

After reboot, all icons are normal, started applications like Word, Excel, Windows Explorer...icons remained fine. Started Google Chrome, desktop appeared to refresh and the icons changed...again with the Excel application icon taking the place of the shortcut arrow. It also gets placed on actual folder and document icons as if they were shortcuts...but they're not.

I tested the Google Chrome theory following 3 more reboots, and it happened every time. After one reboot, I tried IE instead of Chrome, wondering if accessing the Internet was somehow involved with the changes...icons remained fine. Then tried Chrome...icons changed.

Uninstalled Chrome, reboot, tried various applications including IE...no problem.

Thought I had traced the problem to Chrome. Then I opened Windows Explorer > Organize > Folder and Search Options. Then on the View tab, I checked the options to hide protected OS files and other hidden files, folders or drives...since I had made them visible for my earlier icon cache rebuilding effort. When I clicked Apply, the desktop refreshed and the icons changed!

So it appears that a reboot returns the desktop icons to normal...and any activity that refreshes the desktop, causes the change in the icons.

I've run out of ideas for tonight, so if you have any, I'd appreciate hearing them. I'm stumped.

Thanks again for the help.

Thanks for the tips.

I cleaned the registry...problem still exists. It is weird, but I can reboot, which clears the problem, then work for hours without the icons changing. But the first time I do something that refreshes the desktop, the icons change.

Now I say "refreshes the desktop", but I'm not sure if that's technically what's occurring. The screen does a quick flash, like it's being updated or refreshed...but someone more geeky than me may refer to what's happening differently.

Is there any kind of log that can be run to capture the steps taking place when the change occurs? I can get the change to occur, for instance, by opening Chrome...but I don't know exactly what's happening behind the scenes at that moment. Some form of logging might capture it. Just a thought.

I'll keep looking into it and post a resolution if/when I come up with it.

Thanks again.