Icons .ico files are no longer previewed my Windows

Hello,

I have a large collection of icon files in my computer but they are no longer recognized my Windows. If I set my folder view to either Tiles, Icons, List or Details my Icons no longer show up. Rather I just get the generic icon Windows uses for files of an unknown extension.

This problem occurred after I installed Nero 7. The .ico extension got associated with Nero. After uninstalling Nero the system did not go back. How do I get Windows to associate with .ico files properly again. I tried TweakUI but it did not work.

I do not want to use any Icon organizing program, I just want to reset .ico file associations.

Note: If I customize a folder with one of the icons it is displayed properly and the icon previews are available in Thumbnail view setting. I am running Windows XP Home SP2 with all updates.

Yes when I double click it asks for an application to open it and I have tried that. I have also tried setting several different image programs as the default, but none will work, I included every image program from Microsoft to no avail.

None will allow the preview that normally occurs with .ico files. These should be controlled through the operating system. So I am hoping someone knows of a registry entry to change telling Windows to preview .ico files in all file type views.

As I said only the thumbnail view works, and this works poorly. Most icons display at 16x16 and a few at 32x32, rarely do they scale appropriately to 92x92.

Thanks for the software tip.

But I am avoiding the use of an icon management program. I am trying to repair the system registry to display icons appropriately once again. No 3rd party software should be required.

My icons are not kept in bundles rather separately in file folders. Some guy at Nero needs to be flogged for making their software associate itself with the .ico extension . Thus ruining Windows Automatic preview settings for this file type.

There is a very simple solution: Copy and paste the next text in notepad:



Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ico]
@="icofile"
"PerceivedType"="image"
"Content Type"="image/x-icon"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.ico\PersistentHandler]
@="{098f2470-bae0-11cd-b579-08002b30bfeb}"



Save with .reg extension. Execute and restart your PC.