Windows 2000 OS.

Something in my folder associations has suddenly become ... funky. When I open MS Explorer and go to a specially created folder where I keep all my icons, all my *.ico files have the IE symbol (e) insteading of being reprented by the ".jpg" file symbol. In addition, all my bitmap files that used to represented by something similar is now showing up as a super condensed size of the original bitmap file so that it shows as a tiny picture. (I'm not talking about a thumbnail view here). I've attached below an example of what I'm talking about. The one on the far left is an example of an icon I have saved in my icon folder - you have to double click it to actually see what it looks like (represented by the brown box next to it). On the far right (zip disk bitmap) is an example of how all the *bmp's look like in every single folder regardless of settings i use. It wasn't like this before.

More info. This problem started ever since I received two files from someone on the internet. Two files in question are extracticon.exe and the 2nd I can't remember exactly. It's not important as they were not installed on my system anyway. I'm actually very careful of viruses and update my NAV on a frequent basis. They were sent to my Yahoo box and I had Yahoo scan it before downloading it. And to be extra-careful, i didn't download it to my HDD - I saved it to a floppy disk and immediately scanned it with NAV again.

I used Norton Ghost to back up my OS partition, and could use that option. But that's over 3 months of changes and then i'd have to re-install a bunch of software again. I was also smart enough to create an ERD couple of days ago just before problems starting occuring. So what's the problem you say? Well i'm wondering if it's just a matter of changing somethin in the Windoze registry setting to fix this. I could use the ERD, but don't know which option to choose in the recovery console menu. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

nothing more than rebuilding your icon cache.

Download and run this small free program and see if it does the trick:

http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2094-9414678.html?tag=lst-0-1

If you have Tweak UI, I believe that the Repair tab has the Rebuild Cache capability, as well. Available here:
http://www.microsoft.com/ntworkstation/downloads/PowerToys/Networking/NTTweakUI.asp

Hope that this helps.

Thank you for those links Puffy. First i'll see what Steve Y has to say on this regarding the registry question and if he doesn't post, i'll try those proggies out.

I actually like my bitmaps showing up that way -- that is how I always set up my computers. I prefer the icons to look like, well, icons.

These are controlled in the registry. Both of these depend on whether or not you have ever "reassociated" the file extensions with different programs. I will give you the default assocaitions. You can verify the basic associations by checking to make sure the (Default) values are as follows:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.bmp
(Default)=Paint.Picture

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ico
(Default)=icofile

One those are verified to be correct, you can then adjust the icon settings:

Bitmaps:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Paint.Picture\DefaultIcon
(Default)=

The (Default) value here determines the icon. "1%" means the bitmap is displayed as a small image. There maybe a second entry under (Default) named "BackUpDefaultIcon". On my box, this points to: "C:\Progra~1\Access~1\MSPAINT.EXE,1".

So, if you want to original "paint" icon back, change the (Default) value to point to "Path to your Paint Program's executable,1".

Icon Files:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\icofile\DefaultIcon
(Default)=

To have the icon itself displayed, again set this to "%1". For any other icon, set the path to the executable and add the icon number afterwards. I really don't know what the default ".jpg file symbol" is -- my computers are rarely kept at the defaults on anything!;)

Half way there. I fixed the .bmp situation. That's fine...but the .ico file problem still exists.

R2, here is a snap shot of the default value. When i opened reg edit, it was already set at "%1" - so you would think the .ico file show properly as you describe but I still get that IE "e" symbol as i posted in my original question. Any further suggestions on how to proceed?