Windows 10: How to search for files matching a specific icon overlay

Running W10 64 1903

I'm using QNAP's qsync which uses icon overlays in Windows Explorer. My question isn't really specific to qsync but to any app that uses icon overlays:

How can I search for/locate all files that have a specific icon overlay? I'm not necessarily looking for a solution in Windows Explorer (I thought I saw somewhere there was an "-icon" flag?); maybe cmd or powershell… maybe an sql query to the SystemIndex?

:)

 

Icon overlays Windows 10

At this point, we don't have a consolidated article for the list of overlay icons used by Windows. However, you can always check our

Windows 10 support page for more information or use the search box if you're looking for a specific topic.

Let us know should you need further assistance.

 

Icon Overlays less than 15

Hi fantasiom,

I read from an article on ghacks (link below) that there are two places in the registry that the overlays are being "loaded" from.

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIcon‌OverlayIdentifiers
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explor‌er\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers

Fix Sync icons not showing up in Explorer - gHacks Tech News

The second location is for 32-bit applications running on 64-bit windows. OneDrive is storing the same 6 ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers in both locations. I suspect this is because the OneDrive client is 32-bit, and windows explorer is 64-bit. It appears that
the six overlays in the Wow6432Node are loaded first leaving 9 in the other location.

OneDrive will ask to "install icons" if it not all it's icons are not in the top 15. Installing icons means adding spaces in front of the name in the registry so it appears first alphabetically.

I would suggest adding spaces in front of the "BoxSyncNotSynced", "BoxSyncProblem", and "BoxSyncSynced" registry keys so they appear ahead of or next after the six OneDrive overlay icons. I don't use file locking so I don't feel the other two BoxSync icons
are useful.

Essentially the problem is that the ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers is limited to 15 and One Drive is setup to use 12 of them currently. OneDrive has introduced a new status column instead of overlay icons, but it seems for now this is limited to files-on-demand
functionality.

 

Icon overlays in Windows 10

Hi,

There are currently 15 slots allotted for icon overlays in the system image list of Windows 10. 4 of these are reserved for the system, and OneDrive uses 5, leaving six slots for use by other icon overlay handlers. If more than 15 icon overlays are registered
in the system, the extra icon overlays aren't used. This limit of 15 overlay icons applies to Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10.

Don't hesitate to let us know if you have any other questions about your computer.

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