Windows 7 Icons in Microsoft Word 2007 Jump List Have Been Replaced With Generic Icons!

[ILikeBond]

I'm running Windows 7 Professional (64-bit).

As the attached photos show, the icons in my MS Office 2007 Jump List have changed from the standard MS Word icon to a generic icon. This problem has not happened in other programs, such as Microsoft Excel 2007 (shown in the first picture).

I've tried rebuilding my icon cache (by deleting the IconCache.db file), and running the repair function on my Office 2007, but neither thing worked. Does anyone have any other suggestions for how to fix this? Do I need to edit a file that points to the correct icon; if so - how do I do it?)

I'm thinking of uninstalling then reinstalling Office 2007 next, but don't want to do that if there's an easier solution (if I do that, do I risk losing any of my emails and email settings in outlook, or will they be restored upon reinstall?)

BTW, I've noticed this is a recurring problem with Windows 7. Every now and then when I install a new program, the drivers seem to mess with the paths to the correct icons. I installed an HP printer, for example, and doing so replaced the standard disc icons in explorer (for example showing the C:/) with a generic or missing icon. When I uninstalled it, the icon went back to normal.

I appreciate any advice you can give.

 

[ILikeBond]

Shameless bump. No ideas?

 

[Exp HP]

I've tried rebuilding my icon cache (by deleting the IconCache.db file), and running the repair function on my Office 2007, but neither thing worked. Does anyone have any other suggestions for how to fix this? Do I need to edit a file that points to the correct icon; if so - how do I do it?)

You can do it manually. Icons for file types are determined in the Windows registry (which you can browse by running regedit.exe). HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT determines icons, but it's all a chaotic mess of entries pointing with references pointing back and forth.

Windows XP used to have an interface for changing icons, but it was dropped in Windows 7. So if you don't trust yourself editing the registry, you need 3rd party software to fix icons. I would recommend Default Programs Editor.

The best place to look for the correct icon is in the EXEs and DLLs in the Office 2007 install directory.

Make sure to create a Restore Point before using any registry-editing software. They're not flawless. Not too long ago, I had a problem with TXT files that resulted from setting associations for BIN files, because these types somehow got linked in the registry for me.

 

[Exp HP]

Oh, wait, this is only happening in the Jump list?

I had assumed it was happening to .doc files everywhere.

 

[ILikeBond]

Exp HP -

Thanks for the help. Yeah, its only in the Jump List. Strange, I know. I tried fixing with Default Programs Editor as you suggested, but was unable to find the icon that lined up to the Jump List ones. Of course, there are a ton that pop up, and I haven't looked at every one, but its not in the Microsoft Office or Word list.

 

[Exp HP]

If you're still having this problem, I was able to narrow down the possible causes. Today I looked a bit further into this, since I myself was wondering how developers implement Jump Lists in their applications.

If you don't care that much about how they work, skip the next two paragraphs:

To implement a JumpList when programming a Windows 7 application, developers use a class called JumpList (surprise!). A JumpList object can contain two types of things: JumpTasks, which point to programs, and JumpPaths, which point to files. It is JumpPaths that are usually used in Recent Items lists.

While a JumpTask defines its own icon, JumpPaths have no such property. Also worth noting is that if a program is not a registered handler of the filetype in the registry, JumpPaths won't even show up in the Jump List. This means that recent/frequent item lists in Jump Lists rely heavily on the HKCR key in the registry, and that's probably where they get their icons... just like every other application.

What this all means is that the icon used in the Jump List should be the same icon used everywhere else. There doesn't appear to be anything special about these icons. My guess then is that the icon it's currently pointing to is incomplete; it has no 16x16 version.


Before I get ahead of myself, I probably should confirm this with you:

Do you get generic icons for .doc files in other applications when you switch to List/Details view?

 

[ILikeBond]

Thanks again for your help, Exp.

Here's a picture of a document list, in list view, in my Explorer window - you can see that it has the correct MS Word icons.



The other thing you should know is that the correct icons USED TO show up in the MS Word jump list. At some point they were replaced with these generic or incomplete ones, probably after I installed some new software (I don't remember exactly when the change took place).

The other thing is that other MS programs, such as Excel, show the correct icons - so I have to assume MS has a 16x16 icon for Word and that the list is just pointing to the wrong place.

I'm thinking of uninstalling and reinstalling MS Office to see if that fixes the issue. However, while I know my documents will be fine, I'm worried about losing my email settings and important emails in outlook - will those be kept so that I'm seamlessly back to my outlook email if I uninstall/reinstall?

Thanks again!

 

[Trouble]

Have you thought about clearing you jump list for MS word, by right clicking each item and choosing remove from list. Reboot the computer and open up a couple docs and see if the problem persists. Just a thought, seems to be a very weird problem, have you tried a different user to see if perhaps the issue is with your profile alone?

 

[ILikeBond]

Thanks for the good ideas, Trouble. I tried both, first just cleaning my jump list then opening new docs as the same user, and that didn't change anything - new docs still opened with the strange icons. Then I created a new user account and tried new docs through it, and same thing. Very strange.

 

[Exp HP]

I've been reading online, and yes, the uninstaller for Office does appear to keep Outlook account information safe. If it was me, though, I would look for the PST files and copy them to another place before uninstalling.
See this: Link Removed due to 404 Error
All mail, contacts, account information, and rules are kept in these PST files (which I think are by default located in [UserFolder]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook), and these files can be imported by Outlook.
Note that the email account itself is not included in these files, so right now would be a good time to make sure you know your server name, password, and et cetera. But based on what I've read, it probably won't prompt you. If it did, I would expect to find a lot more people on the internet asking how to recover their account when reinstalling Office. =P

I have no idea about settings for Word and the like. My guess would be that macros and templates are kept, while most Preferences are dropped.

 

[ILikeBond]

OK - maybe when I'm done working today I'll give it a go. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Badders]

This just happened to me yesterday. Office 2007 was updated with SP1 and my Word and Publisher icons have been replaced with generic icons. Excel and the rest are not affected. The icons for these 2 programs have been replaced on the taskbar and also the start menu too.

Pete.

 

[Badders]

I managed to fix mine by going to Add/Remove Programs, selecting Office and clicking Change. Then I used the repair option.

Pete.