Firefox shortcut favicon gone, need advice

If I want to save a webpage for future reference I have always pointed to the web document icon in the URL address bar, held down the left mouse and moved that icon to the desktop. Since my browser is Firefox that page shortcut then would appear as a Firefox favicon on the desktop. (Now to illustrate an example if I were browsing with IE I would expect any internet shortcut to be represented by the well known IE favicon).

Thereafter if I doubleclick on that favicon I can go to that internet page, until now. For some reason the Firefox favicon no longer shows, replaced with a windows document favicon I think. I don't know if this is in any way harmful, but it seems troubling since anything like that might be related to male-ware or software corruption.

This thing has happened before and I thought it was related to malware filters or cleaners I used so I did a restore and for a few days it seemed fixed. But since I have not "cleaned" since that last restore the problem must be related to something else because the Firefox logo is replaced again.

I would like to find out what's causing this, and preferably restore the normal Firefox icon internet shortcut icon. I use XP PRO

Anyone? Thanks

 

Hi provobis.

I'm not sure, but judging from your description it sounds to me like Firefox is no longer the default browser.

It's easy to fix that and not necessarily caused by malware.

How to make web links open in Firefox by default

 

Sorry, think I was wrong in my first post. :-o
That could be a changed or corrupted file type association rather than a default browser change.

Here is the Microsoft support page with instructions on how to change that.
How to change or select which program starts when you double-click a file in Windows XP

An alternative fix is to use a .REG file to restore the original setting, however that will probably set Internet Explorer
as the HTML association which could then be changed to Firefox using the above method.

Windows® XP File Association Fixes
Read the instructions and select HTM/HTML Associations.

 

Thanks mjmc, Firefox is my default browser. I have never used any other. What may be an issue though, based on your guess, is that my search engine is Google by proxy. That is a search engine service I have installed called Start Page uses Google for me but does not transmit any of my personal data to Google because it records none from me. Yet I still get the best search possible (with Google) but with a private "Start Page" search.

But I doubt that's the problem. Anyway when I do any searches the FF browser is clearly evident both with its icon and name up above. Or could I be wrong about that?

 

It is not a matter of which browser is Your default browser of choice, but rather the browser that is set as the Operating System's default.

"Start Page" is not actually "installed" on your computer.
It's just a search engine with a special configuration.
Your choice of internet search engine(s) would not have any effect on default browser setting Or file type associations.

What is a default browser?

 

I think you may be right about file type associations. When this happened for the first time before I searched for answers on the internet then and found file associations which came the closest to making sense. But when I started to take steps for that solution it seemed like it was going nowhere and I ended up doing a restore which evidently corrected the problem, at least temporarily until now. . However this time I think I will go the full course with file associations route you suggest and see if that solves it. Back to you later, and Merry Christmas to you for now.

 

Hi,

I think the file association you would want to try is the URL one from this page. When I drag a favicon to the desktop it creates an icon that when right-clicked and selecting Properties it says it is a shortcut to a URL.

Is it the case that dragging the favicon to the desktop creates an icon (blank document looking) on the desktop but double-clicking it does nothing or gives an error asking which program to use to open it?
Or does it work but the icon is missing (blank document looking rather than FF logo)?

 

Thanks sach2, I have not yet tried any file association fix yet...busy with Christmas stuff. But to answer your question, the icon I drag to the desktop displays wrong (blank document looking rather than FF)) but it does work to go to that page. That's why I was initially wondering if this logo switch might be someway harmful as in virus.

 

Just for a little more information. This is what I get on Win7 when dragging a favicon to the desktop in Win7. The last time I did it several years ago, I just got a generic FF icon for all this type of internet shortcut. I'm guessing the code in FF has changed to include the favicon as part of the icon picture now. Is it the icon that is wrong or does the shortcut not work?

Edit: Then you don't need the file association fix. I'm not sure how to fix the logo. I'll see if I can find anything useful. Christmas stuff may get in the way so if mjnc or I don't get back please bump this to remind us.

 

The icon is wrong but the shortcut works. As I have XP the favicon you get in win 7 (you attached thumbnail) is not the same wrong one I get. I get the original generic Windows document icon on a white rectangular background.

 

When it is working does it look like a FF logo with the fox, or does it show the favicon of the website you are going to (like mine)? I just want to be clear on the goal.

 

To be clear, the shortcut that works and always did work even though it was the wrong Windows favicon (should be the FF logo with the fox). My goal for principle sake (assuming this glitch is not in any way harmful), is to get my FF logo back for every shortcut every time I drag the shortcut to the desktop when using Mozilla Firefox browser (again... assuming that I am in fact using FF and not something else unbeknownst to me as mjmc questioned).

 

Cool, we just have to figure out how to fix the icon for internet shortcuts. I don't know how to do it but that should remedy the problem. I don't think it is malware just something broken.

What you could try is making IE your default browser to get the (blank) webpage shortcut icons to change to IE's icon. Then go back to FF and make it the default. That might fix things. You could create a restore point beforehand just to be safe.

To change to IE would be open IE go to Tools>Internet Options>Programs and hit the button to make it the default. That should change the generic icon to IE icon.
Then open FF go to Options>Advanced and tick the box for Always Check if FF is the Default Browser. Restart FF and tell it you want it to be the default browser again and see if it gives you your FF icon back or if it changes from IE icon to the blank icon. (That should tell us if it is FF related or Windows XP related).

 

OK, did that. After making IE default browser and dragging a page shortcut to the desktop, the favicon displayed is IE (IE8 installed). Then going back to FF default browser and dragging again, favicon is still old Windows document icon. If you want to see which icon that is how do I attach a thumbnail as you did? (I used to know how but getting old and forgot more than I ever learned).

 

No need for a screenshot. (I just hit printscreen on keyboard and then open Paint and right-click to paste it. Then crop and save the pic to upload.)

That seems to indicate a problem with FF not giving the appropriate icon. The first thing I can think of is just letting FF reinstall itself over your existing installation. But I will look around for a more precise way sometime today or tomorrow. If anyone else has a suggestion, I'd be happy to hear it.

 

OK thanks, I'll wait before I do anything more. Getting hectic around here and have to do some chores. However I should say at this time that I tried uninstalling FF and reinstalling an older version before just in case 17.0.1 was bananas and causing the problem. Didn't fix anything.

Later

 

Not interrupting but, could the reason be that Firefox took away the favicons in the address bar some time ago and replaced them with that funny looking round thingy?

 

Here's a pic of the favicon that I dragged to the desktop.

 

Good afternoon...

As well as oma's 'pardon the interruption', I ask forgiveness for the same...

To clarify: an icon used as a desktop shortcut is not the same as a favicon. A favicon is a 16x16 pixel image, is always named "favicon.ico", and is uploaded to a website's root folder on its server. Browsers that provide favicon support then access that file and associate it with the website in question in the browsers' address bars, tabs, etc.

 

Hi oma,

Which version of FF are you running? (Just curious as your shortcut looks like mine. Somewhere along the line I installed FF Nightly so I never know what features have changed from the standard release.) The little circle thing still works to put an actual favicon on the desktop but MG has a pretty generic favicon.

Provobis, you tried what I would have tried by reinstalling. I'll take a look around to see if I can figure out how to get the icon back.

Caliban any help/advice is always appreciated.

 

That's a thought oma, so I went to another computer (2, also uses XP and FF17.0.1) that's networked to this computer (1) and tried searching for something that has that funny round thingy, dragged it to the desktop and it also displays the windows doc logo instead of the FF fox. I never had that happen on computer 2 which also always used the FF shortcut logo on the desktop. Don't know if computer 2 is thereby associated with what my browser does on 1.

Responding to Caliban, maybe that's what's happening? FF is accessing the wrong file?

 

Responding to Caliban, maybe that's what's happening? FF is accessing the wrong file? Or windows is doing that? See my response to oma.

 

32 bit XP Home SP3


The icon is a wb document and even though the following page is for Win 7, what you need to do is change the icon associated with a web document.
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_set_a_custom_icon_for_a_desktop_url_shortcut.html
scroll down to the section Changing a shortcut's icon. That should do it.

 

Hi sach2: version 17.0.1

 

Thanks plodr!

I was just experimenting with using the icons from Program Files\Firefox.exe and it does have the icon like your screenshot. Provobis, that guide doesn't explicitly say to browse to firefox.exe but if you look at the screenshot that is where it is getting that icon from.

 

plodr, I'm not sure but I think I tried that the first time and it did not work. But I'll try again and see. But have to run now, I'm starting to get complaints from the boss about my Christmas chores. Thanks

 

Hello sach2 again and ALL, Hope you ALL had a happy Christmas. I'm just starting again on this problem and for what it's worth I tried an experiment by saving the page not by dragging the little round thingy to the desktop, but by right clicking inside the page and getting a menu where I select "save page as". As you know that gives you a choice of where to save the page URL and choosing the desktop the page gets its FF logo back. Further, if you then right click on that saved FF logo, properties, you get a general "type of file" Firefox HTML document, "opens with" and there's the familiar FF logo. I don;t know if this is a clue to what's broken. What do you think?

 

Well when you drag the icon from the address bar, it saves as a "web document" not as an HTML file. So if you want to drag, you need to go to the broken (dragged file), select properties, look at the Web Document tab and change the icon to represent the FF icon.

 

Thanks plodr, but I tried that and (1) that will only change the dragged file to some other selected icon choice and (2) there is no FF icon in the choices and (3) that is not a permanent fix because it won't return the FF icon to all future dragged files.

 

Did you click the browse button and change it from

Code:

%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll

to the path sach2 showed you in post #25?

If FF is set as your default browser and you found the FF icon in
C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe

then the next step would be to rebuild the Windows icon cache.

 

Hi plodr, I think it would be C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe unless he is running XP 64bit.

Provobis, please create a restore point before rebuilding the icon cache as that can be troublesome from what I remember of TweakUI.

The other thing I found in this thread which is old but might be relevant to see if there is the option to change the icon in a more general way then for a single file:

 

Yes I browsed to FF exe and selected that FF logo (fox on white rectangle) which of course changes to the logo that I always had before. However as I said that only changes the desktop drag already there, not future drags. But I did not "rebuild the Windows icon cache". Would this be the way to do so?

http://www.trishtech.com/winxp/rebuild_icon_cache_in_windows_xp.php

If so I would nevertheless first like to ask about a reference I recently found with regard to updating FF whereby that "thingy" was in fact changed by Mozilla. And there were complaints by FF users that they did not like that. If that may be the case could it be that FF actually did knowingly and intentionally cause this icon glitch? And so rebuilding the icon cache would be of no consequence? oma did suggest that might be a possibility in post 17.

 

Rebuilt icon cache using both Tweak UI and Tweak Now power pack 2012. Also did the "correction" for htm and html files (tools>folder options>file types) old that you found and still not getting a FF icon dragged to desktop, still getting the IE internet document shortcut icon. The only change I noticed was 2 u tube video icons I had saved on the desktop changed to a red background with white play arrow icon (used to be a FF icon). For what it's worth I did not try this http://www.trishtech.com/winxp/rebui...windows_xp.php which I indicated in my post 32 (instead using both Tweak UI and Tweak Now power pack 2012 which are supposed to do the same thing).

This is driving me nuts, besides being worrisome in case it indicates software or browser problems that might get worse. Am i going to have to do another restore to fix the problem and if so how do i prevent the thing from reoccurring?

 

Hi,

I had edited my quoted text to do that fix for URL files. You want to try that to see if any change. Dragging the little circle thing produces a URL file not HTML.

 

OK I tried that URL File Association Fix, and I assume there was nothing more to do than download the zip, open it, double click and answer yes.

There is no icon change to the dragged to the desktop round thingy, still shows the IE doc icon, NOT FF. Did I do something wrong or is this "fix" just not the answer? Beginning to think that Mozilla just changed the way it associates saved URL files ????

 

No not an association fix, you are trying to set the icon for all URL files:

 

sach2, yes i did that also for URL files. No cigar. But I noticed now that where FF logos used to display the FF icon in the file types, there is now nothing for "opens with", even after I have changed the choice to something else and then changed it back to FF.

Something else I maybe I should mention. When I tried to use that "Rebuild icon cache in windows XP" by TrishTech (using command prompt), when entering the second line the there was a command error saying file not found. So I did not use that procedure anyway.

 

I don't think it makes any difference if you use the command prompt or tweakui. That command that didn't work was just unhiding the iconcache.db file so that it can be deleted. You could do that step in Explorer but I'd just go with tweakui.

I don't know what to tell you. I know icon problems can be frustrating. I don't think it is malware related because it seems limited to just FF's icon.

If I had a restore point from before the problem appeared that worked before, I would just use it and be done with it. If it happens again you could revisit the situation.

 

Speaking of FF, I just checked FF updating and it tells me FF is up to date (with 17.0.1 installed) which is the latest except for 18.0 beta 5, not yet ready for download. But checking in Windows Add/Remove it shows version 16.0, NOT 17.0.1. Wondering if that has anything to do with the icon file association. And even if it does not, what to do about FF version install dicrepancy??

 

If you really want to troubleshoot FF you could do a complete uninstall and then reinstall.

I would get Mozbackup and backup my profile. It will save your bookmarks and extensions.

Then go to Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs and uninstall FF. Tell it to delete personal data if it asks (you have already backed it up with Mozbackup).

Then go to Start>Run and type in %appdata% and Rename the Mozilla folder (if it exists but often it still does).

Then install the newest ver. 17 FF. Let it set to default browser.

See if the symptoms are still present or remedied.

If they are fixed you could use Mozbackup to get your bookmarks and extensions etc. back.

 

I should have said rename Mozilla folder to something different such as Mozolla1 or MozillaBackup. It is just to have another copy of the bookmarks if they still exist, rather than deleting that folder.

 

Thanks sach2, but I want to understand you. In your opinion is FF responsible for the icon issue, and the uninstall/reinstall the fix? I should mention that I did an uninstall of FF before using Revo uninstaller https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revo_Uninstaller

After reinstalling FF the icon thing was still there.

 

I'm thinking that since you get an IE icon if you set that as your default browser that the same should happen with FF. Windows XP appears to be able to change icons on internet links when instructed. So I am guessing something is wrong with FF's ability to tell Windows where to find its FF icon when it is set to the default browser.

I can't say whether Revo would have removed the appdata\Mozilla folder. I'm really not sure. I just know that FF uninstaller doesn't do it by default. I don't know that the problem is related to a file in that folder I am just suggesting a troubleshooting technique. We have tried most other things I can think of to change the icon.

 

OK sach2 and thanks. Unless anyone else at Major Geeks has thoughts I'll just have to try other places for answers, and/or live with the thing.

Thanks all.

 

DavidGP, rebuilding the icon cache was already tried along with uninstalling & reinstalling FF as sach2 said, though I did not use Mozbackup he suggested if that makes any difference, and I reinstalled an old app instead of version 17 in case the 17 upgrade was somehow responsible for the mischief. When rebuilding icon cache did nothing I got curious and looked to see if the cache was actually there. It wasn't. So obviously you can't delete it if you don't have it. (I checked an old HD that was still good and the cache file was still showing in that one).

Now here's something interesting I found when I tried yesterday a XP repair (after backing up first on a spare disk). THE REPAIR PROCEDURE HANGS JUST BEFORE THE FINAL BOOT AND OBVIOUSLY WON'T COMPLETELY FINISH.. I could leave the Windows "please wait" screen on until hell freezes over and it won't do anything...I tried the repair twice. So there's something wrong with the system files that prevents the repair from finishing. Though I can boot up with that unfinished drive I lose some settings and the internet shortcut I have on the desktop won't work+ they all have the wrong icon as well including on quick launch.

BTW when trying the cache rebuild I can't get past line two in cmd because a error message says file not found (I guess so since it's not there, that's why I tried a repair. Unless someone has a brainstorm it looks like I will have to do an XP reinstall. I hate that, so much to move and replace. :cry

Thanks for your response. :wave

 

Update. FYI here's what I answered to David GP.

DavidGP, rebuilding the icon cache was already tried along with uninstalling & reinstalling FF as sach2 said, though I did not use Mozbackup he suggested if that makes any difference, and I reinstalled an old app instead of version 17 in case the 17 upgrade was somehow responsible for the mischief. When rebuilding icon cache did nothing I got curious and looked to see if the cache was actually there. It wasn't. So obviously you can't delete it if you don't have it. (I checked an old HD that was still good and the cache file was still showing in that one).

Now here's something interesting I found when I tried yesterday a XP repair (after backing up first on a spare disk). THE REPAIR PROCEDURE HANGS JUST BEFORE THE FINAL BOOT AND OBVIOUSLY WON'T COMPLETELY FINISH.. I could leave the Windows "please wait" screen on until hell freezes over and it won't do anything...I tried the repair twice. So there's something wrong with the system files that prevents the repair from finishing. Though I can boot up with that unfinished drive I lose some settings and the internet shortcut I have on the desktop won't work+ they all have the wrong icon as well including on quick launch.

BTW when trying the cache rebuild I can't get past line two in cmd because a error message says file not found (I guess so since it's not there), that's why I tried a repair. Unless someone has a brainstorm it looks like I will have to do an XP reinstall. I hate that, so much to move and replace.

Thanks for your response.

 

Update. FYI here's what I answered to David GP.

DavidGP, rebuilding the icon cache was already tried along with uninstalling & reinstalling FF as sach2 said, though I did not use Mozbackup he suggested if that makes any difference, and I reinstalled an old app instead of version 17 in case the 17 upgrade was somehow responsible for the mischief. When rebuilding icon cache did nothing I got curious and looked to see if the cache was actually there. It wasn't. So obviously you can't delete it if you don't have it. (I checked an old HD that was still good and the cache file was still showing in that one).

Now here's something interesting I found when I tried yesterday a XP repair (after backing up first on a spare disk). THE REPAIR PROCEDURE HANGS JUST BEFORE THE FINAL BOOT AND OBVIOUSLY WON'T COMPLETELY FINISH.. I could leave the Windows "please wait" screen on until hell freezes over and it won't do anything...I tried the repair twice. So there's something wrong with the system files that prevents the repair from finishing. Though I can boot up with that unfinished drive I lose some settings and the internet shortcut I have on the desktop won't work+ they all have the wrong icon as well including on quick launch.

BTW when trying the cache rebuild I can't get past line two in cmd because a error message says file not found (I guess so since it's not there), that's why I tried a repair. Unless someone has a brainstorm it looks like I will have to do an XP reinstall. I hate that, so much to move and replace.

Thanks for your response.

 

sach2, you got me going again in the other thread about video /graphics card updates that is still running, when you popped up there offering advice. I have to thank you for trying to be the most helpful in both of my inquiries here at Major Geeks, and I want to get back to you here for the icon/favicon issue, and answer for which I have found in surfing for the "drag to save page shortcut" issue. It appears that after FF16 you no longer get the FF favicon (icon) saved but instead a generic Windows document favicon. There's a lot of buzz and disappointment about that, complaints about FF, etc but it appears that FF will just have to fix that because there's no reliable workaround to get that FF saved favicon back. I wanted to let you know (if you do not already), and this thread should probably be closed in the meantime. Thanks for your help and response. :-D

 

Not true for me.
See my post #23 on page 2 of this thread. That is definitely a FF icon not a windows document icon! I took that from FF version 17.0.1.