Solved All my Google Chrome icons changed.

archfoto · Oct 24, 2024

Hi All -
Yesterday, all of my Google Chrome shortcut icons all over my desktop and folders changed to a blank white oblong. I set Google Chrome as my default (which is what it always was). All of them then changed to this icon:

. I used to have this icon:

, and I have been trying to change them all back to this one. Google Chrome is my default browser (I made sure that was the case!) I have Googled fixes, but none of them worked. I am able to go to individual shortcuts and change them one at a time, but it seems there should be a way to change them all back with one operation. Has anyone dealt with, and fixed this with one operation? I also went into Google Chrome settings> Appearance> and reset to default settings, which seemed to do nothing!

Thanks.

Spunk · Oct 24, 2024

Right click shortcut icon and choose Properties/Shortcut tab, click the Change Icon button. Choose the Chrome Icon you prefer.

archfoto · Oct 24, 2024

Spunk said:
Right click shortcut icon and choose Properties/Shortcut tab, click the Change Icon button. Choose the Chrome Icon you prefer.

Hi Spunk -

Thanks, but I don't know how to change all of the shortcuts at once, I have a lot of them!

Spunk · Oct 24, 2024

When you change one, they all should change, if not Select all the ones you want to change. If they are all in a row in one folder. Click the first one hold down the Shift key scroll down to the last one, still holding shift and click the last one. They will all be selected. If there are other icons in between, then hold the CTRL key and click each icon you want to change. You can also hold the CTRL key and click on an icon to Unselect it.

antspants · Oct 24, 2024

What does your Google Chrome program shortcut look like?

archfoto · Oct 24, 2024

antspants said:
What does your Google Chrome program shortcut look like?

Hi Antspants -
They look like the first image in the text in my original post above, and I want to change all of them to the second image in the text.

Thanks.

antspants · Oct 24, 2024

archfoto said:
Hi Antspants -
They look like the first image in the text in my original post above, and I want to change all of them to the second image in the text.

Thanks.

But what mean is, what does the actual program icon look like. In your Start Menu or on your Taskbar if it’s there. Did that change also?

Does it still look like this?

archfoto · Oct 24, 2024

Spunk said:
When you change one, they all should change, if not Select all the ones you want to change. If they are all in a row in one folder. Click the first one hold down the Shift key scroll down to the last one, still holding shift and click the last one. They will all be selected. If there are other icons in between, then hold the CTRL key and click each icon you want to change. You can also hold the CTRL key and click on an icon to Unselect it.

Hi Spunk -
Thanks.
Yeah, I agree they should all change, but they don't. I have hundreds of them in all the folders in my computer. I was just hoping that someone had a magic bullet to change all with just one operation, like a setting I missed. Oh, well! It doesn't harm the function, it is just that I like the big circle icon.

archfoto · Oct 24, 2024

antspants said:
But what mean is, what does the actual program icon look like. In your Start menu or on your taskbar if it’s there. Did that change also?

Does it still look like this?

View attachment 113933

Thanks. On my taskbar, it looks like the one you posted here. Every other one looks like the first one in my first post, unless I go in and change it individually.

Spunk · Oct 24, 2024

It's easy to select all of your chrome icons using the method in post #4.
Are you saving Chrome Web Page shortcuts?

antspants · Oct 24, 2024

archfoto said:
Hi Spunk -
Thanks.
Yeah, I agree they should all change, but they don't. I have hundreds of them in all the folders in my computer. I was just hoping that someone had a magic bullet to change all with just one operation, like a setting I missed. Oh, well! It doesn't harm the function, it is just that I like the big circle icon.

I don’t think changing an icon for an individual shortcut changes all shortcuts. I just tried it. It only changes the icon selected. At least for me.

You could try cleaning the icon cache

Rebuild Icon Cache in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to rebuild the icon cache to clear and reset it for your account in Windows 10 and Windows 11. The icons that display for files in Windows are saved in an icon cache so they can be displayed quickly instead of having to manually scan and slowly load them each...

www.elevenforum.com

Also, change the default browser to Edge or something else and change back to chrome. See if that kicks it in the guts

archfoto · Oct 24, 2024

Spunk said:
It's easy to select all of your chrome icons using the method in post #4.
Are you saving Chrome Web Page shortcuts?

Hi -
Yes, I save web page shortcuts!
It's just that all of a sudden they all changed from one kind to another. I can see Edge is new (which I hardly use), and constantly pesters me to be the default browser. I do not use google chrome to make shortcuts, but rather go Windows and make a new shortcut there. They all went to a white rectangle, and going into Windows settings and clicking on making Google Chrome my default browser changed all to the white rectangles to one with the Google symbol on it. There's gotta be a way to change all of them at once, just like they changed to the white triangle, then with the google logo on it!

archfoto · Oct 24, 2024

antspants said:
I don’t think changing an icon for an individual shortcut changes all shortcuts. I just tried it. It only changes the icon selected. At least for me.

You could try cleaning the icon cache

Rebuild Icon Cache in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to rebuild the icon cache to clear and reset it for your account in Windows 10 and Windows 11. The icons that display for files in Windows are saved in an icon cache so they can be displayed quickly instead of having to manually scan and slowly load them each...

www.elevenforum.com

Also, change the default browser to Edge or something else and change back to chrome. See if that kicks it in the guts

I thought about changing the default browser to Edge and back. It could get screwed up even more!

antspants · Oct 24, 2024

archfoto said:
I thought about changing the default browser to Edge and back. It could get screwed up even more!

I'd say if anything you'd end up where you started.

There should be a registry entry to change the default URL shortcut universally
I have found some registry entries but I am unsure about a couple of things.

For your problem. I downloaded Chrome and made it my default browser - Didn't change the existing url shortcut icons
I changed the properties of an existing shortcut on my desktop, changed the icon - It only changed the icon for the file I selected.
I searched the registry and went to Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ChromeHTML\DefaultIcon - The icon in there is “10” C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe,10
- Is that what yours is set at?
I searched the registry and went to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeHTML\DefaultIcon - The setting is the same as above. The icon in there is “10” C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe,10
- Is that what yours is set at?

However I am unsure if the impact that would have on desktop Internet shortcut .url
I am missing something.

I mean I haven't put 100% into this, but I put in at least a 95% effort and cant find an answer for changing the default Internet shortcut .url universally

archfoto · Oct 25, 2024

antspants said:
I'd say if anything you'd end up where you started.

There should be a registry entry to change the default URL shortcut universally
I have found some registry entries but I am unsure about a couple of things.

For your problem. I downloaded Chrome and made it my default browser - Didn't change the existing url shortcut icons

I changed the properties of an existing shortcut on my desktop, changed the icon - It only changed the icon for the file I selected.

I searched the registry and went to Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ChromeHTML\DefaultIcon - The icon in there is “10” C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe,10

Is that what yours is set at?

I searched the registry and went to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\ChromeHTML\DefaultIcon - The setting is the same as above. The icon in there is “10” C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe,10

Is that what yours is set at?

However I am unsure if the impact that would have on desktop Internet shortcut .url
I am missing something.

I mean I haven't put 100% into this, but I put in at least a 95% effort and cant find an answer for changing the default Internet shortcut .url universally

Hi Antspants -
Boy, you really have put some effort into this, and I really appreciate it. Yep, the registry value is 10 in both registry files. I didn't find the number 10 in Program files, however. I did find some new files that are dated on the 21st, however: Please see the attached screenshot.

While it is aggravating that I can't seem to find a fix for this with a magic bullet, it doesn't stop me from using my computer. I have a sneaking suspicion that it has something to do with MS Edge updating. Google Chrome updated several days ago, ahead of Edge. Maybe it will get fixed with the next update to Windows. Who knows?

Thanks, again.

antspants · Oct 25, 2024

Hi.

That screenshot, that stuff isn’t really relvant to your problem

Click on one of those URL shortcuts you have, go to whatever web page it takes you to, save the link to your desktop, overwrite when/if asked.

Does the new shortcut look correct as you remember it?

To be 100% honest with you, the Google icon you show in the first post that you say your shortcuts changed to, is actually the default icon for web/URL links if Chrome is your default browser, has been forever. Are you sure you didn’t change it somehow with some kind of icon changer software? And it’s now gone back to the default icon?

This is the default

archfoto · Oct 25, 2024

antspants said:
Hi.

That screenshot, that stuff isn’t really relvant to your problem

Click on one of those URL shortcuts you have, go to whatever web page it takes you to, save the link to your desktop, overwrite when/if asked.

Does the new shortcut look correct as you remember it?

To be 100% honest with you, the Google icon you show in the first post that you say your shortcuts changed to, is actually the default icon for web/URL links if Chrome is your default browser, has been forever. Are you sure you didn’t change it somehow with some kind of icon changer software? And it’s now gone back to the default icon?

This is the default

View attachment 113988

Hi Again -

Actually, the full-circle one, and not the one on the white rectangular document was my normal icon in Windows 10 on an older computer, and ever since I got my new computer, with Win 11 Pro from Dell, the full-circle one has been my normal one, too!

I have never used any icon changer software.

Any new link I make, comes out to look like the one you just put in the quoted post above. I can change it by going to properties and changing the icon. It stays changed once I do that.

I wrote to Google in the feedback on the settings page to see if they had any answers.

Thanks.

Edwin · Oct 25, 2024

The change in Chrome just seemed to appear! You'll have to change them individually!
From now on, though, save pages as mhtml

retexan599 · Oct 25, 2024

archfoto said:
Hi All -
Yesterday, all of my Google Chrome shortcut icons all over my desktop and folders changed to a blank white oblong. I set Google Chrome as my default (which is what it always was). All of them then changed to this icon: View attachment 113854 . I used to have this icon: View attachment 113855 , and I have been trying to change them all back to this one. Google Chrome is my default browser (I made sure that was the case!) I have Googled fixes, but none of them worked. I am able to go to individual shortcuts and change them one at a time, but it seems there should be a way to change them all back with one operation. Has anyone dealt with, and fixed this with one operation? I also went into Google Chrome settings> Appearance> and reset to default settings, which seemed to do nothing!

Thanks.

Just FYI, same thing happened to me. Not a fatal problem, but a bit off-putting when things change out of the blue like that.

archfoto · Oct 25, 2024

retexan599 said:
Just FYI, same thing happened to me. Not a fatal problem, but a bit off-putting when things change out of the blue like that.

Hi Retexan -
It's nice to know I am not alone. If you find an answer, please let me know. Good luck.

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