[Mark W]

My icons in the expanded control panel (start>settings>control Panel>...) are all messed up. They all show as folders with jibberish text. When I open the full control panel in explorer, everything is ok. I have tried disabling/enabling the expanded control panel but it was no help. Any ideas?

[Mark W]

No ideas?

[jaywallen]

Well, you could fire up REGEDT32.EXE (NOT regedit.exe) and go to this location in the registry:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

Look at the following REG_EXPAND_SZ Value Names to see if they show the corresponding appropriate entries:

Programs: %USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs
Start Menu: %USERPROFILE%\Start Menu

and also check these to be sure:

Desktop: %USERPROFILE%\Desktop
NetHood: %USERPROFILE%\NetHood
Startup: %USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

If you see evidence of corruption, try editing the values. (Please note that I typed these exactly as they are listed in my registry.)

I have seen corruption in these values cause visual and behavioral aberrations in the Start Menu. Hope this helps.

BTW, are you using any sort of desktop control utility (Norton, Window Blinds, any other such stuff)?

Regards,
Jim

[Mark W]

Thanks. I'll try it. The funny thing is, sometimes the icons are there and work perfectly, and sometimes they are all messed up. I'm not running any desktop control utilities.

[jaywallen]

Mark,

What I was suggested was for a system with a consistently farkled start menu, or subset thereof. When you say that they are sometimes okay and sometimes not, that sounds more like an icon cache size issue. Please let me know if the previous suggestion doesn't help. The shell icon cache size can be increased, and sometimes shelliconcache corruption can cause some inconsistent behaviors in the start menu, too.

Regards,
Jim