How To Fix All Icons Are The Same On Windows 7/8/10 [Tutorial]

How to fix all desktop icons are the same are your Windows device.

Are you facing and issue, where you find that your desktop icons are not working or showing in Windows 10/8/7? Usually, this happens if the file associations are messed up. Before telling you how to fix it, I will in brief, talk about File Associations. If you have been working on computers for long, you can identify the applications needed to open certain files just by looking at their extensions.

Desktop icons not working

However, I recommend turning the visibility of extensions off, as many users might not be able to deal with them. There is always a possibility that you rename a file and overwrite the file extension – thereby, leaving it with no extension. In this case, Windows will present you with a dialog box when you double-click the file. The dialog box will ask you to select a program to open the file. The overwriting of file extensions is actually disassociating the file from regular applications and somewhat similar to the problem of desktop links not working in Windows 8 | 7.

Desktop Icons and File Associations

The desktop icons are shortcuts to respective applications. If you right-click any desktop icon and click on Properties, you will get a Properties dialog box with the Shortcut tab selected. If it is not, select the Shortcut tab to see the program it is associated with.

Most of the shortcuts, whether on the desktop or elsewhere, have the extension “.lnk”r. Do not confuse it with the capital case of alphabet “i”. It is – in fact – the lowercase of the alphabet “L”. That is supposed to mean ‘link’ without the ‘i’. This is where many get confused when setting up file associations as the characters look similar.

Fix .lnk File Association

Normally, most of us know which file types need what apps. If not, the option of searching the Internet is always there. Just open the Default Programs under All Programs in Start Menu and set up the file association. You can also use the Default Programs to make a file type open in a different application rather than having it open in what Microsoft decided is best for you.

This tutorial will apply for computers, laptops, desktops,and tablets running the Windows 10, Windows 8/8.1, Windows 7 operating systems.Works for all major computer manufactures (Dell, HP, Acer, Asus, Toshiba, Lenovo, Samsung).

[deejayspider]

So I did everything and got to .lnk but there was only open with progids but I’m sure that my icon is the internet explorer icon. Is there anything you can do to help?

[mv]

Thank you for your support. Even after all these years your video is still relevant.

[commahax]

What about names? My issue is that if I make a new folder it sometimes changes every file on my computer to that name and gets super annoying and I can't navigate my laptop at all.

[pkvision]

Thank You So Much.
Its Working.Keep Going with Your Outstanding Tricks.

[wassimenouel]

Even regedit is changed and opening in WORD, what to do?

[bigcrashg]

I was having this problem with one of my CNC machines here at the job. And happy to say this works in 2024 still. Thanks for your help.

[jeankinde]

I get small clocks in the left corner of each icon also I get small x's in the left corner of my icons. Do you know what that is? The icons still work when this happens.

[stausuniverse]

sir, in my pc i enter regedit it starts in notepad plz help me
in like your video i got nothing

[peterjensen]

What to do if the userchoice-folder isn't there?

[chukwumachibuzo]

Very reach information. It was helpful to me. Thanks a lot

[gabrieleboigbe]

I did exactly as you said in the video and yet no change it is affecting mt ext files

[khristinealmendrala]

Thank you so much!!!! This really helps me fix the problem. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 👏🏻👏🏻 🇵🇭

[rivaldy]

My icon such "FL Studio" must be a mango icon but now it looks like an injector, do you know why sir? I've tried my best to solve this problem but still.. fail. Please help me out this thing:(

[baljeetkaur]

In .ink there is no userchoice folder plz help

[suryakenway]

Bro my system game, music and movies all icons same bro..how to solve please reply

[chiradeepmukherjee]

I just have a quick question. Will this resolve the issue which I am facing? My laptop screen has several duplicate more than 300 icons of Chrome and when I delete them it comes back again. Is this due to .lnk?

[brockandroll]

I have similar issue. My steam game is showing the same icon on all my desktop shortcuts. Is this how i cam fix this?

[ashishgupta-urui]

thanks man, it worked out perfectly for me

[vikrampanchal]

thank you so much bro i can't solve lnk problem but your video information i solve it thanks again give you 10 star

[christypung]

Thank you! now it's working after I restart my computer .