Icons of .exe files

[Murray_H]

In my downloads folder, there are loads of .exe files and some of them show their icons immediately while others (most noticeably bink .exes) take about 3-5 mins to show up :/ (n.b. my downloads folder was an example, it happens anywhere on my pc )

Anyone know what could be causing the delay in showing the icon?

Thanks

 

[\\-shanE]

Have you tried defragmenting?

 

[Murray_H]

Oh yeah, forgot about doing that

Cheers!

 

[umop]

It may be because it has to read the entire file (the binks are large generally) before the icon shows up. Try making a .exe in vb and add a million large .bmp files in it so it's like a 300 meg file and watch how long the icon takes to load

 

[Shuzer]

There's also a feature in XP where all icons are cachced and stored in a file, after awhile this file gets too large, and the call to get the icon can take a long time.

Go to C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\Local Settings\Application Data\ and delete "IconCache.db" and restart. That should fix any slow loading icon problems

This can and should be repeated whenever you notice slow loading icons, as the file gets recreated after you delete it

 

[blahblahblah]

There's also a feature in XP where all icons are cachced and stored in a file, after awhile this file gets too large, and the call to get the icon can take a long time.

Go to C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\Local Settings\Application Data\ and delete "IconCache.db" and restart. That should fix any slow loading icon problems

This can and should be repeated whenever you notice slow loading icons, as the file gets recreated after you delete it

Is "IconCache.db" supposed to be re-created on restart? It didn't when I restarted. I didn't notice any harmful effects on my computer.

No worries though, I cut and pasted IconCache.db on to a USB flash drive and restored it to its proper place when it wasn't recreated.

And I didn't see an increase in speed when loading icons. Oh well.

 

[Shuzer]

Is "IconCache.db" supposed to be re-created on restart? It didn't when I restarted. I didn't notice any harmful effects on my computer.

No worries though, I cut and pasted IconCache.db on to a USB flash drive and restored it to its proper place when it wasn't recreated.

And I didn't see an increase in speed when loading icons. Oh well.

Did you delete IconCache.db from your profile, or the administrator? You need to do it from the profile of the user you're using.

Anyhow, it's not recreated on restart, it gets recreated at some point though. Not sure when or what dictates its creation, but whenever my icons take too long to load that fixes it for me