When my desktop icons come in when Windows is loading, they just don't just appear as a solid bank.

Some of them burst on the desktop and then leave, then all of them come in -- and then leave, then another partial bank comes and goes, followed by one more burst before finally settling down.

I've tried Defrag and it doesn't do a thing to help the problem. Other than this issue, the system works fine.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Bob

How much ram do you have installed?

What MB video card?

This is an old chestnut that I did some work on way back.

Go to the Howtos section to the left of this page then follow the procedure I give under:

"How To Quickly Rebuild Icons in Windows 95/98"

The first part should fix it for now but if you want avoid it keep happening then construct and enter the .reg file, as given there.

It's all pretty straightforward but shout back if you need a hand. I doubt very much that this is a RAM issue.

DerekW

Ooops, I now realise that I suggested the reg file first (rather than binning the desktop shortcuts and restoring them after boot, which is the "immediate" temporary fix). Never mind - just follow the howto as given and it will also minimise the likelyhood of recurrence.

DerekW

It's gone mighty quiet. Any luck?

DerekW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH4w...

I'm working on it, Derek!

Be patient...Yowsa

Bob

Okay - You're not one of our many vanishing posters after all then.....

Happy Christmas.

DerekW

Derek - Street1

What in the world??

Start - Settings - Active Desktop - X View as web page

What's that all about?

Bob

You've lost me. Is that a new question?

DerekW

Derek

I'm a little confused. I did that registry thing before I saw your second post. Then I tried deleting my personal icons, and restoring them as you suggested.

Immediately after that, I started having trouble. My computer wouldn't boot, and then when it did boot, it had the boot options with Safe Mode highlighted.

I did a complete partition restore using the old tried and true mybackup.qic (I copied the mybackup.qic file to a DVD), which wasn't any trouble at all.

Then, I thought about my external Maxtor USB HD that I put Windows98 SE on so that I could refer to it in case of trouble. Thinking that maybe my desktop was going to that file as well, causing the icon bursting, I deleted that.

After thinking about this for a couple of days, I think that maybe I'm better off leaving well enough alone and just accept those icons on the desktop bursting as the're coming in.

What do you think, DAVEINCAPS?

In answer to your last question, Derek: When I took out the check "View as web page" my desktop icons blinked.

Forgive the long post, people.

Thanks for your help, Derek.
Thanks for your input, Street1.

Bob

It seems hard to imagine any reason why binning your desktop shortcut icons, rebooting, then restoring them from the bin again should affect your ability to boot normally. It's hardly any big deal.

The only reason for doing this is to jolt Windows into noticing a significant enough change for it to rebuild the hidden file shelliconcache and cure the icon problem immediately. The registry fix simply increases the size of your icon cache to reduce the likelyhood of this problem recurring once it has been fixed.

In my #3 I was just explaining my inconsistency - it doesn't really matter a fig whether you do the registry fix first or the icon binning.

As (for some reason) it went to Safe Mode then the first step should have been to try rebooting again as it is quite possible that it was just some glitch and the complete restoration was unnecessary.

If this is (as it sounds) the usual icon problem then I don't think your other ideas have any bearing on it.

Sometimes if you wait long enough (maybe some days) the system will suddenly decide to rebuild the shelliconcache file without you doing anything at all, and cure the problem. If this happens then fine, the registry fix you have now applied should keep things right.

DerekW