When I left for work this afternoon, the desktop on my Dell computer,
running Windows XP Media Center, everything updated as far as security
stuff from Microsoft, was as it usually is, with all the icons for my
various programs showing little art elements representing said
programs.

When I got in from work tonight, the icons are still there and they
still work, but all of the little art elements are gone. In their place
are a bunch of little blue and white windows, like dialog boxes, with
arrows down in the left-hand corner.

Can anyone tell me what might have gone wrong or defaulted here ... my
wife and kids probably used the computer in my absence, the Lord only
knows what somebody might have done to it, especially the kids ... and
how I can get things back to the way they were on my desktop? FYI, I
tried doing a System Restore to a point earlier in the day, and it did
not fix the problem.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Following up, the icons in my start menu have also been replaced by the
same blue and white boxes.

"PRW" <grghelb@gmail.com> wrote:

Right click on a changed desktop icon, Properties, Change Icon
See what program is listed at the top (path to the icon).
Google the results.

Most default windows icons come from
WINDOWS\system32\SHELL32.dll
Other icons should link to the program the icon is associated with.

--
http://necromanthus.com/Games/ShockWave/

OK, I tried this and it fixed things. It didn't fix my desktop shortcut
to IE, so I deleted that one and created another one. There was another
program, Word Perfect 12, where for some reason "change icon" was
grayed out so I deleted that shortcut and created another one.

After I posted, I noticed that my start menu had also done the same
thing as far as the icons. I was able to go in and manually fix those,
all except for the standard "Internet: Internet Explorer" and "E-Mail:
Outlook Express" icons. I figure I can delete those and manually create
new ones, or will that cause a problem with XP?

It appears this happened while No. 1 son, 12, was on the computer. He
swears he did nothing but "get on the Internet," although that's highly
unlikely given what happened.

Do you or anyone else have any idea what might have happened here?
Because while I was able to fix this problem, every time anything
happens with my computer, I like to try to find out exactly what caused
the issue so that I can prevent any repeats in the future.


Pennywise@DerryMaine.Gov wrote:

PRW wrote:

Set up each member of your family with their own separate logins. Do not
allow them to be Administrators.

Then, when you leave the computer, log out.

I'm assuming you have router, firewall ,anti-virus/anti-spyware
applications?
http://k75s.home.att.net/tips.html

--
-bts
-Motorcycles defy gravity; cars just suck

Absolutely, am using NOD32 antivirus, Spybot and Ad-Aware, and Windows
firewall.


Beauregard T. Shagnasty wrote:

"PRW" <grghelb@gmail.com> wrote in
news:1166772893.727995.155140@f1g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com:


TweakUI has this dandy little tab called "Repair" that will fix
broken system files and desktop icons.

I like to use the v1.33, it has an older Win9x type interface.

Here is some screenshots of it:

http://www.snapfiles.com/screenshots/tweakui.htm


Some peoples just have to have the newer v2.1, but it don't do
certain things like the older one do. Here's a screenshot of
the newer one:

http://www.filehippo.com/screenshot/tweakui/6_3/


Best wishes to all for a safe and joyous holiday season.

--

I think a good movie would be about this guy
who is a brain scientist, but he gets hit on the head
and it damages exactly that part of the brain
that makes you want to study the brain.
So, everyday he wakes up to try to figure out
what his life was all about before getting hit on the head.
It could be a romantic comedy because when he wakes up
with an ugly girl, he'd think he's being Punk'd by Ashton Kutcher.