Solved firefox shortcut icons on my desktop all went blank

[Drift]

my problem happened when I deleted firefox. right as the program delete was occuring, I watched as the firefox shortcut icons on my desktop all went blank.
well I was only uninstalling to start a fresh firefox install, which I did.
but the icons didn't rebuild.
even the new ones I drag to my desktop, are blank.

i've tried deleting the iconcache.db, and that didn't work.

I tried the popular windows repair tool for this, and that didn't help.

and i've rebooted multiple times along the way.

is there something I could try to fix this?

 

[Brink]

Hello Drift, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Are these website shortcuts that are suppose to open with Firefox?

If so, check in Default Programs to make sure that Firefox is set as the default program with all of it's associations.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2630-default-programs-set-program-s-default-associations.html

If these are shortcuts to open Firefox instead, then see if creating a new shortcut directly from the .exe file of Firefox may help.

32-bit Windows = "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"

64-bit Windows = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"

 

[Drift]

Hi, and thanks, Brink.

I selected Firefox as the default browser during the reinstall that I mentioned, and it shows up as default for all the extensions in the corresponding list of "choose defaults for this program".

I'm not sure what you mean by creating a new shortcut directly from the .exe file of Firefox.
Would that be the same as dragging a link from the browser to my desktop? I've done that, and it was still blank.

 

[Brink]

The main thing is if these are website shortcuts or a Firefox shortcut?

Directly from the .exe file is to go to the .exe file's location, right click on it, and click on Send to -> Desktop (create shortcut).

Please go ahead and post a screenshot showing this to see if it may reveal a cause.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

 

[Drift]

I'm not sure what you call that.

I have a web page open and drag the url to the desktop, and it creates an internet shortcut. And since firefox is my default browser, every time I click on that icon from then out, it will open up with firefox.
Those icons are currently white.
They used to have the firefox image.

 

[Drift]

I just found a help file that is related to this.


"If you right-click one of those desktop icons, then
Properties > Web Document tab > "Change Icons" button
Does the dialog show that it is using icons from the firefox.exe file:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"

I did that, and it worked. But only on that one icon.
And when I dragged another shortcut to the desktop, it was still whited out.

 

[Brink]

Ok. Thank you.

The firefox.exe is just a shortcut to open Firefox itself.

The others are website/internet shortcuts that open a website with Firefox. When you click on these shortcuts, do they work and open the website in Firefox?

 

[Drift]

yes, the only thing that has changed at all is the icons.

this happened during the uninstall of firefox.

and it wasn't fixed by a reinstall.

I have probably 50 firefox internet shortcuts that have all been dragged to the desktop from web pages that I visited.

every single one still works.

the issue is that they no longer have the firefox icon, now they are a generic white icon.

that is the screen cap of the web page shortcut on my desktop for this thread we are posting in.

 

[Brink]

You might see if setting IE as the default program and setting Firefox back as the default may toggle them back.

 

[Drift]

and now I just went into properties on that same web page shortcut, and using that walkthrough I found, i've changed it to the original firefox icon.

and again, it only changed that one icon. and when I drag another web page shortcut to my desktop, it will have that white icon that I just posted above.

 

[Drift]

and now I just went into properties on that same web page shortcut, and using that walkthrough I found, i've changed it to the original firefox icon.

and again, it only changed that one icon. and when I drag another web page shortcut to my desktop, it will have that white icon that I just posted above.

You might see if setting IE as the default program and setting Firefox back as the default may toggle them back.

I tried that, and it didn't work.

I even rebooted in between each step.

 

[Drift]

ok this is interesting.

I just realized that the notepad icons have changed to a similarly blank white icon...

and by notepad icon, I mean documents that I have created with various text, and saved as a notepad file. all those icons are whited out too.

 

[Drift]

got it. that was an easy fix.

right click notepad in programs, change icon. fixed it for all of them.

right clicked firefox in programs, did the same thing, and now all the new icons are correct. didn't change the old ones, but I can live with that.

 

[Brink]

Great news.

 

[Ocman76]

I am having the exact same problem, which started after I refreshed firefox's settings. I have tried all the solutions in this thread (delete iconcache.db, change firefox icon) except changing the default browser because I only have one browser.

Are there any other possible solutions I can try? No matter what I do a .url file on the desktop created from firefox always has a blank icon.

Edit: I fixed it WOOHOO!!

I went to control panel: Control Panel\Programs\Default Programs\Set Associations

and from there changed the .url file default from "Web browser" to "Firefox". All the icons on my desktop changed as well as any new I create.

 

[y2ken]

Thanks Ocman76! Worked for me on Windows 10.

 

[Andyrids]

I know you have it fixed now but this maybe of some use to somebody else...

Shark codecs likes to do that to your Internet shortcuts if Firefox is set to be the default browser, if you copy and paste the code below into notepad and save it with a .reg extension and then run it that will fix all the Firefox related icons... it is just not Shark that does this a few other programs do also so this fix is not specific to that one program.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxHTML\ShellEx\IconHandler]


[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FirefoxHTML\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Mozilla Firefox\\firefox.exe,1"


[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\FirefoxHTML\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Mozilla Firefox\\firefox.exe,1"

At times they can be really stubborn so like Brink said change IE to default and then change back to Firefox and run this little script above, that has fixed the problem every time for me on every system I have encountered...