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WinXPTutor's XP Resources

Windows XP Tips, Illustrations and registry edits

Incorrect or generic Windows icon displayed for a Drive in My Computer

When you open My Computer window, one or more of the disk drives may be assigned an incorrect or a generic Windows icon (unknown file type icon) rather than disk drive symbol.

This happens due to any of the following reasons:

  • Presence of the file named Autorun.inf in the Drive's root folder (say C:\ )
  • Uninstallation of a third-party theme or an icon library has failed to remove the drive icon settings in the registry

RESOLUTION

  • Enable Windows to Show all files and then locate the file Autorun.inf and delete it from the root folder. Restart Windows.

If that does not help, try this:

  • Open Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) and navigate to the following location:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE \Microsoft \Windows
    \CurrentVersion \Explorer \DriveIcons \<drive>

Example:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \Explorer \DriveIcons \C

  • Backup the key by exporting it as a REG file. See here for more information.
     
  • After backing up the key, delete the <drive> key from the registry.
     
  • Navigate to the following key, backup and delete the <drive> key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \Applications \explorer.exe \ Drives
\<drive>

  • Close Registry Editor and restart Windows.