[Grey47]

Hello everyone!
I'm running my pc on Windows XP Pro, sp3, recently bought (january-ish?) so drivers and stuff are up to date

A couple of weeks ago I installed a program, Google Maps. A day later, however, I realized a large number of my shortcut icons were replaced with the generic icon. Upon trying to change the icon of a changed shortcut, a popup box popped up saying that the file '%SystemRoot%\Installer\{bunch of numbers}\[a filename]' could not be found. Entering that directory I found it was empty.

It's not only the icons that have been changed, but in common applications, such as Microsoft Word (03), I install certain features using the install packages (by that, I mean going to Control Panel>Add New Programs>Microsoft Office Word 2003>Change).

I've tried doing system restore but that didn't cahnge anything (I guess the files in the Installer folder were replaced, and system restore doesn't usually bring those back )

I hope someone can help me either somehow retrieve the files, repair my icons, make new ones, and/or prevent this from happening again.

Thank you

[vistashen]

Can you show me the ICon screenshot. Running an antivirus scan may make sense. as well as post Hijackthis log to identify if it is a malware issue so that we we can move to HJT forum.

download Hijackthis from here save on the dekstop run it and install and "do a system scan and save logfiles" automatically hijackthis log opens in notepad copy and paste it here. Do not fixed anything in hijackthis scan.
http://dw.com.com/redir?edId=3&siteI...edfc60493106f4

[Grey47]

Here's a ss of a shortcut to an app and some office files:



I did a full system virus scan multiple times, and I am sure i have no virus or unwanted software.

[vistashen]

How about the icons in add or remove programs? Try to delete one of the icon and try to recreate from the source file. eg. C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12 and create a shorcut for MS word the filename for ms word is either "winword" or "Word"
and see if you can see the correct Icon image.

[Grey47]

Only the application shortcuts are missing the icons, the actual executables themselves still have them. However, it's difficult to replace the icons for filetypes such as '.doc', as the source .ico files are hidden (I believe) in the .msi patch package in the 'Installer' directory.

Btw, if I make a new shortcut, it contains the correct icon. I'm guessing that Microsoft (like few others) links their pre-made shortcuts to the patch packages in the Installer directory, rather than to the main executables.

[Grey47]

bump

[Grey47]

double bump

[Grey47]

triple bump

EDIT: will quadroople bump if provoked

[Grey47]

So hear I am 2 months later, and my problem persists. I've tried everything to figure out what went wrong but have had no success. If someone that has that same problem is reading this, probably your only solution to returning the missing resources in C:\WINDOWS\Installer is to reinstall the software that has evident issues. It is a big pain, but it appears to be the only way, seeing as System Restore doesn't help, and the unknown-named files can't be restored from deletion. If somebody knows of anything that deletes files in this folder that isn't a virus, please share, so that it can be dealt with to prevent future re-occurrences.
Thank you.