NAS No Icons – Local Drive Icons???

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[RetiredGeek]

Hey Y’all,

I just ram into an interesting problem that I don’t understand at all.

If I create a shortcut to a program on my NAS (Synology DS220+) the shortcut will not show the Icon embedded in the file.

I’ve even tried extracting the Icons from the files using the NirSoft ResourcesExtract.exe and pointing the shortcut at them with no avail.

If, however, I point the shortcut to the file loaded a local drive the icons appear as they should directly from the file.

Anyone have a solution or even an explanation?

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

• This topic was modified 8 months, 1 week ago by RetiredGeek.

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I don’t have a NAS, but here’s a few things that come to mind for you to check.

Were the extracted icons still on the NAS or were they on a local drive?

Does the NAS use a drive letter or UNC path?

If UNC, do the shortcuts properties show they’re program shortcuts?

Or network shortcuts?

Are the files on the NAS compressed or encrypted?

BTW, I use those same GRC programs and they’re great!

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n0ads wrote:

Were the extracted icons still on the NAS or were they on a local drive? On the NAS

Does the NAS use a drive letter or UNC path? UNC Path

If UNC, do the shortcuts properties show they’re program shortcuts? YES

The above got me thinking since I create these shortcuts via a PS program. So I tried to create one manually for GRC Inspector and it worked. Of course doing the same for DNS Bencd did not work. It appears to be something in how the icons are stored in the program that is causing the problem.

Here are the properties for the two program shortcuts when generated by my program.

Note: the shortcuts call a scheduled task that is also generated by the program.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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RetiredGeek wrote:

Were the extracted icons still on the NAS or were they on a local drive? On the NAS

Since the Change Icon function doesn’t really care “where” the icon files are located in reference to the shortcut’s program location, suggest you place them on a local drive and try it again.

If that still doesn’t work, it’s possibility your master icon cache may be using the old icon for the shortcut instead of the new one, it happens sometimes, and needs be rebuilt to remove all the old “unused” icons (BTDT!)

For those who might not know, how to rebuild Windows 10 & 11 icon cache.

FYI, I use a LOT of custom icons for various different shortcuts and created a special icons folder on my main C: drive to house them all so they’re always in a “known location” when I use the Change Icon function.

BTW, I find NirSoft’s IconsExtract more useful for extracting icons from files because it displays all the icons it finds first and then you decide exactly which ones you want and where to put them instead of extracting them all “without” showing you what they look like the way ResourcesExtract does.

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n0ads wrote:

NirSoft’s IconsExtract more useful for extracting icons from files because it displays all the icons it finds first and then you decide exactly which ones you want and where to put them instead of extracting them all “without” showing you what they look like the way ResourcesExtract does.

Unfortunately, IconsExtract can only extract icons from 32-bit executable files. It cannot extract icons from 64-bit files. Choked on my system on which I only have the 64 bit versions.

I’ll give it a try with the Icon files on the local drive.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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RetiredGeek wrote:

Unfortunately, IconsExtract can only extract icons from 32-bit executable files. It cannot extract icons from 16-bit files.

I’ve been using Microangelo Toolset 6 (which can extract icons from 16-bit files) since I was running Windows XP Pro and only started using IconsExtract when Microangelo had trouble extracting the new style icons Microsoft created starting with Windows 7.

The strange thing is, once they’ve been extracted, Microangelo can access/edit those new style icons with no problem!?!? In fact, I still regularly use it to create new “custom icons” for programs where I don’t like their default icons and they work just fine as replacement icons with Windows 10.

Unfortunately, Microangelo Toolset 6 was never updated to handle Windows 7 style icons. The last version, 4.10.17.4, was released 11 years ago but, thankfully, my licensed copy of it still works!

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n0ads,

Seems to work OK if I place the extracted Icon files on a local drive but reference the actual program from the NAS.

Thanks for the suggestion!

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Glad I could help.

So, are you gonna mark this topic as RESOLVED or keep it open until you figure out why the icons sometimes don’t work from the NAS?

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RetiredGeek wrote:

Unfortunately, IconsExtract can only extract icons from 32-bit executable files. It cannot extract icons from 64-bit files.

Late to the party – sorry – but only just saw this…

Perhaps use the 64-bit version of IconViewer?

IconViewer 3.02 (direct link), a freeware utility, is really old… but works in Windows 10.

What it does is add an Icons tab to the Properties dialog, so you can view and save embedded icons from executables.

Let’s say I want to create a shortcut to SetDPI.exe – a commandline utility with no embedded icon(s) – and, for some obscure reason, I want to use the icon from Windows PowerShell ISE for the shortcut.

A quick check with System Informer shows this is a 64-bit executable:

After installing IconViewer 3.02, I right-click on the ISE’s executable, select Properties then select the new Icons tab.

I choose the size icon I want to save then click on the Save as… button:

(I know 32-bit is appended to the icon size under Device images: but the ISE executable is definitely 64-bit.)

All that remains for me to do is to point the shortcut’s icon location to the newly-saved icon:

Hope this helps…

2 users thanked author for this post.

satrow, RetiredGeek

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