OT - Icon Files & File Associations

news wrote:
In message , DAB sounds worse
than FM writes

For all MP2, MP3, MP4 and MPG files, when I double-click the files
the correct program starts and plays them back, but it's just that
all the icons are wrong.



Has anyone else found that all the Windows ".dat" files are associated
with Windows Media Player, and are described as mpeg video?


You can change the file associated with .dat files by going to Settings
Control Panel Folder Options File Types scroll down to DAT
click Change, and select something like Notepad.


I'm surprised Windows runs at all.


At times I know exactly how you feel.


--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

Find the cheapest Freeview, DAB & MP3 Player Prices:
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/fr..._receivers.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/da...tal_radios.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/mp...rs_1GB-5GB.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/mp...e_capacity.htm

"DAB sounds worse than FM" wrote

You could try this:

Windows maintains a cached copy of all the icons on the system to
avoid having to reload the icons every time they are displayed. If
this icon cache becomes corrupt then the wrong icons may be shown.
To clear the icons cache make sure you can view hidden files and then
open your Windows directory in Explorer and delete the file called
"ShellIconCache".


I've just looked for that file in c:\windows (with hidden files being
shown) and it wasn't there. So I rebooted, looked again and it's still
not there. I then searched for the file in all directories, including
system directories and hidden files, and it doesn't appear to be on my
system at all.

On Windows XP it's called "iconcache.db" and is stored for each user under
the "C:\Documents and Settings" directory.

John Howells

John Howells wrote:
"DAB sounds worse than FM" wrote

You could try this:

Windows maintains a cached copy of all the icons on the system to
avoid having to reload the icons every time they are displayed. If
this icon cache becomes corrupt then the wrong icons may be shown.
To clear the icons cache make sure you can view hidden files and
then open your Windows directory in Explorer and delete the file
called "ShellIconCache".


I've just looked for that file in c:\windows (with hidden files being
shown) and it wasn't there. So I rebooted, looked again and it's
still not there. I then searched for the file in all directories,
including system directories and hidden files, and it doesn't appear
to be on my system at all.

On Windows XP it's called "iconcache.db" and is stored for each user
under the "C:\Documents and Settings" directory.


Aha, that one is there. Thanks.


--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

Find the cheapest Freeview, DAB & MP3 Player Prices:
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/fr..._receivers.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/da...tal_radios.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/mp...rs_1GB-5GB.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/mp...e_capacity.htm

DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
After updating Nero a couple of days ago all the icons for MP2, MP3,
MP4 and MPG files have changed to the icon that you get when Windows
XP doesn't have an association for that file extension, despite the
fact that all the above file extensions are associated with the
appropriate applications.

Anybody any idea how to restore the icons to Winamp and Nero icons?

TIA.

If you have Tweak UI there is an option, repair, to rebuild icons. HTH.
--
Adrian

In article ,
says...
Yeah, I've tried that, and for Winamp it's set to C:\Program
Files\Winamp\winamp.exe, but I still get the wrong icons for Winamp. Is
that the correct exe file to get the Winamp icon?

I don't use Winamp myself, but that sounds about right. Do the shortcuts for
Winamp itself have the correct icons? If they do, check the path to the exe
that they are pointing to.

Sounds like the Icon cache is trashed - the old way (a la 3.x/9x) was to
hunt down the 'shellconcache' (thats how it was spelt) file, and delete
it (from outside windows usually) and then reboot

If you've got tweakUI (freely d/l from MS) - you go to the repair tab -
and select 'rebuild icons'

Should sort it

Mark

Has anyone else found that all the Windows ".dat" files are associated
with Windows Media Player, and are described as mpeg video?

Since I've no idea what application I could associate them with instead,
it remains a minor irritant.

I'm surprised Windows runs at all.

I think it is because the mpeg1 files that are used on standard VideoCDs
have a dat extension. So if you have a VideoCD, but no VideoCD
specific player software you can browse to the actual video file and
play that directly, similar to playing a VOB file directly from a DVD
rather than using DVD software to play the disk properly.

The application you should use depends on the content of the file. A
file with a DAT extension could be anything. If its less than a couple
of meg I'd view it in notepad and decide what it is.
If it starts with PK its a zip file, MZ and its a windows executable etc.