Registry Hack - Mysterious Chameleon Icons

Desktop Icons mysterious changing?  Here is a cure

I call them ‘Chameleon’ Icons because they keep changing their appearance.  What happens is that down at the area some call 'Quick Launch' others call Taskbar, icons randomly changing their appearance and masquerade as a different application.

Note: This changing icon problem does not seem to affect XP or Windows Server 2003.

First Objective: find

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

Second Objective: create a String Value called Max Cached Icons

Edit (Menu), New, String Value called: Max Cached Icons Please note:  Include spaces as shown, MaxCachedIcons is wrong

Third Objective set the value

1. Set the value of Max Cached Icons to 4096 (Range 100 to 4096 default = 500)

2. DELETE the ShellIconCache file in the \winnt folder. N.B. This is a hidden file and it is a file not a folder

3. Log off and Log on again.

If the MMC still misbehaves reset the Icon, right click, properties, Change Icon, Browse MMC.exe

Getting Started

The best executable to hack the registry is Regedit.

Click on the START (Button), RUN, REGEDIT (Type), Click on the OK (Button).

Note The Windows 2000 /3 Regedit remembers the last place you visited which is useful. 

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