Another "Vista" thing
 

NOT... blaming the SS.. However. in trying to see if "always on top" worked on my Vista machine... I have lost all my desktop icons.. to standard default DOS type of boxes... .. and can not get them back... HELP

They have ALL changed.. except the current Beta SS:TU: and the recycle bin. Opening properties and physically changing the icon.. will not stick. Changing the size of the icons.. right click desktop>view>large icons.. gives me the proper large icon.. with a copy of the standard default DOS icon imposed over it

(edit) Further investigation makes me think I have a corrupted shortcut arrow icon.. evidently the arrow is an overlay over the regular icon... thus, the SS shortcut which is normal is that way only because it is not really a shortcut but the actual program on my desktop.. (curses vista) but the fix has not been found yet...

I've had problems with icons in Vista before not related to this screensaver. You can refresh them following one of these methods listed here:
http://www.whizblaze.com/vista/icons/

Ralph, - have you tried 'Rebuild Icons' in the 'Repair' tab of TweakUI ? ... (But I'm not sure if there is a Vista version of TweakUI !)

Sadly there is no TweakUI for Vista from Microsoft.

Thanks Derrek.. have tried the two common approaches.. change the number of colors on the desktop and deleting the icon cache.. neither seem to resolve my problem.
I do think it is related to a corrupt "arrow" icon and I found a registry hack that will place a transparent icon instead of the regular one. Will have to wait a bit though.. currently doing a update of Vista... 48 updates.. Not one to do this often enough:)

And a tweakUI would be perfect... if there was one:sad:

Try this "TweakVista":http://www.stardock.com/products/tweakvista/

Or the tips for Vista:http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=499870

Note : on the Neowin site,there was a file "RemoveArrow.zip",please download it,a RestoreArrow.reg and remove Blank.ico from your Windows directory were inside.

Thank you.. That seems to have done the trick... at least I was able to put the arrows back on the shortcuts.. {edit} and taking them off works as well
It seems... somehow I (or something else) installed Winbubbles16. It writes a path to a transparent icon that replaces the icon #29 in the Shell32.dll. The folder that this "junk" was in somehow got deleted and thus the registry pointed to a non existing folder. For some reason... one could not modify or delete that entry in the registry..
Very strange... and wasted a good part of my afternoon.

I did try to install the latest version of WinBubbles1.76.. however ran into some suspicious "stuff" when I kept getting "unlockforus".. was preventing writing to the registry.

Anyone have any information on this program or the unlockforus routine? Seems like a scam to me

I found this page about "Winbubble":http://www.threatexpert.com/report.a...dbc2a757062d48

Ralph,

I would suggest that get rid of "Winbubble" for good. Some freeware would just brought unknown "goodies'' without telling the end-users,such as Flashget I have mentioned before. Always be cautious and install reliable vendor or source of software only.

Anything try to "preventing you writing to the registry" is bad,unless you youself allow that,not even on antivirus or firewall software.

Thanks... I had a bad feeling about it. Still do not know how it initially got on my system?

Hmm,maybe it automatically installed while you surfing some poison websites. In Taiwan these 3 days,my sis' Norton antivirus been stopped 3 malicious rogue wares in this way,such as "Antivirus2008/2009" or asking install some codes before you can see the Youtube-like flash video.

But..."Winbubble",have no idea either. Some sites did host it,but its freeware.....there are much more tool better than it anyway. As Morgan's "Ultimate Windows Tweaker' and mine's "TweakVista".:cool: