Windows 10: What happened to my desktop icons? some kind of windows update just wiped the photos I...

What happened to my desktop icons? some kind of windows update just wiped the photos I have stored on my desktop! I need those photos!!!!

:)

 

Remove Linux Desktop Icons

I am not sure whether this will work (Ubuntu does not have icons like that on the desktop by default), but I suggest opening the trash bin and sweeping the icons into the window showing the trash bin.

 

Windows vista x64 computer icon always changing

what icons are you referring to?
In the Windows Explorer list or desktop?

 

What Happened to My Photos Icon ?

Ok after playing around with some registry keys here is the solution that worked for me:

Before applying this method make sure the image files (.jpg, .jpeg, .gif, and others) are associated with Windows Photo app (Right click on the image file, properties, change "opens with" to Photos app).

1-Run Regedit.exe as admin. (You should also be logged in as admin obviously)





2-Make sure to backup your registry keys before you do this method (in case something goes wrong, don't blame me for it!!!!!).

3-Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.jpg
Where .jpg is the extension of the Icon you are having trouble with (Blank/White icon in Details view).





Now open the .jpg tree and click on "UserChoice". You can see in my case the Progld key has a data:
"AppX9mmmxp3bdgj1q6kq22bgdcwc6y9ykyhw"

Now right click on "UserChoice" folder and click on "Permissions..."

4-Click on Advanced.






The permission should have entries similar to screencapture. The black areas I blackened out should have entries like this:
Principle
Username (MachineName\User)
Administarators (MachineName\Administrators)

5-Tick "Replace all child object permission entries with inheritable permission entries from this object" and click "Apply", "Yes", "Ok", "Ok".





7-Now open a .jpg file (you might need to do this step or not, I had to do it on one machine and on the other machine, next step happened automatically).

8-You should receive a message that "an app default was reset" the .jpg will be automatically associated with Photo App and the icon should be back to its normal. Here is the proof (before and after):









9-Go ahead and do the same steps for the extensions that are having the same issue (.jpeg, .gif, ...)

10-What I realized is that now the value of "ProgId" key (on each extension) has changed from "AppX9mmmxp3bdgj1q6kq22bgdcwc6y9ykyhw"
to "AppX43hnxtbyyps62jhe9sqpdzxn1790zetc" which might be different on each machine.

Let me know if this works for you.

Thanks.
Tested on Windows 10 Pro Version 1703 (OS Build 15063.138)