OT: win7 keeps creating ".icon" files on desktop
Elele
Posts: 1,097
Hello,
when i save a picture (just a file, not as wallpaper) on my desktop win7 keeps creating an ".icon" file for it. The .icon file is basically just a thumbnail of the original image. This only happens on the desktop and only for image files. Is there a way to turn this off?
I know this isn't the microsoft forum :), but thought maybe someone here would know.
Thanks,
Elele.
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Comments
LOL I wanna know about this as well...When you have a lot of icons on your desktop already, they really clutter up things if you save a lot of images, even to a folder...
How are you saving these image files?
I'm guessing you're doing something like right click->Save As in your browser?
If so what browser are you using?
I don't remember seeing that in Win7 and since I'm currently using Win8 I'm not sure how much help I can be but if I know the app maybe I can help you figure it out.
It happens with everything: Internet explorer, daz studio, carrara, photoshop, if i just move images to the desktop, ...
It's not really a big deal, but it's been annoying me for a long time and i finally hit my limit :D
I tried googling it, but haven't found anything.
So let me make sure I'm understanding this.
If you save an image file (.jpg/png/bmp anything or just specific ones) to your desktop you get the image file as well as a .icon thumbnail of the file?
Does this happen if you save the image to someplace other than your desktop? Say C:\Users\Public\My Pictures
Based on your comment it sounds like if you saved it somewhere else and just copy it to your desktop it creates this image file as well is that correct?
I'll start looking around but I've never seen this happen.
I have no idea what you are talking about. I save 1000's upon 1000's of images just from the promos at DAZ alone and have never had that problem. Did this always happen with W7 or did it start at some point?
It very well could be your settings are set up to save to the desktop.
Yup, that's it. It only happens on the desktop.
I'm using Win7 Ultimate 64 bit.
I have another pc with win7 home 64 bit and there i don't have this problem.
Also the .icon file does not get created right away when i move or save the file to the desktop, it usually takes a while. For the moment i search the .icon files and delete them, but after a while they are back.
Not finding any reason why that should happen. I just tried it on my wifes desktop, also running Win7 Ultimate 64bit, and it didn't happen.
Trying to do a search is almost impossible since anything with .icon in the search string turns up pages of hits on how to create a .icon file.
I'll poke around technet and see if I can find anything but I'd suggest you also ask your question on one of the Microsoft Forums.
I'd also suggest not saving stuff directly to the desktop but that's more an organizational thing.
The desktop is not intended as a file repository but as a place to quickly access programs and file shortcuts. Don't place your document file on the desktop, place a shortcut to it there. That way if you mistakenly delete the desktop icon you're not losing the file.
That makes it sound like some other program is creating these icon files. You probably have some app running in the background that automatically creates a .icon from any image file placed in the directory it monitors. I've never heard of such an app but that doesn't mean there isn't one.
Since you have a second machine that isn't having this problem I'd look into what's different about the apps that are running on each. The easiest place to start is the notification area of the taskbar. If you click the little up arrow in the bottom right corner (to the left of your clock) and select Customize from the little window that pops up you should get a list of everything that's running as well as whether it shows the icon or just notifications. Compare the list from the computer with the issue and the one from the one without the issue and see if something jumps out at you.
If not, you may have to check the task manager and look at the processes that are running.
If you see something you're not sure of a quick search will usually let you find out what it's doing.
Do you have the desktop selected as a render Library in DS?
You are a genius! I do have the desktop as a render library.
I start up DS and what happens? All the images get the .icon files :D
Thanks for the help everybody, guess i was in the right forum after all :D
You are a genius! I do have the desktop as a render library.
I start up DS and what happens? All the images get the .icon files :D
Thanks for the help everybody, guess i was in the right forum after all :D
Doh!
I never would have thought of that but it make sense.
I think it might be your system Folder Options. Open the Folder Options control panel, click on the View tab, and see if the top option "Always show icons, never thumbnails" is selected. What this doesn't tell you is that every time Windows makes a thumbnail it makes or updates an .icon file which I think is an index of thumbnails in that folder. And the Desktop is just another folder with special privileges.
This happens in every folder, BTW, unless you turn it off. It's just that the .icon file defaults to invisible in every other folder (unless you turn that off)...
Yes, this is something that's annoyed me (can you tell?) ever since Win95, so it's always one of the first things I turn off in a new Win version... then pound the control down flat with a big heavy rock.
Thanks, but it was the render library from DS :)