IconPackager 5 - Icons set wrongly

Reinstall Windows is the only way to fix it. IconPackager is not compatible with Win 8. At the bottom of the IconPackager product page it says "System Requirements Windows 7/Vista". I suggest contacting Stardock support.

Open Icon Packager and go to the Settings tab. At the bottom are 3 buttons. Rebuild Icon Cache, Repair shell icons and Repair icon images. Hit each of those and reboot. It may take several tries to get them all straightened out.

Does that really work? I tried to set default icons on my laptop and even deleted the iconcache files, rebooted. Everything changed except the live folders.

Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. It's worth a shot before he has to do a complete OS install. It would be helpful if you'd post where he can find the icon cache folder, I can't find that info ATM. He could also try a restore point but that too isn't always reliable.

 I guess this issue goes back a long way: https://forums.wincustomize.com/439211/page/2/#3568939  I'm still on Win 7 and I've had glitchy performance from time to time with IP and it isn't looking like it will ever get updated for newer Operating Systems.

There's a lot to be said for making full image backups and restore points before installing software that isn't compatible with your current OS.

Install Iconpackager (if you already uninstalled it)
now go and set wiondows default theme.
after you have done that you uninstall it and reboot your machine.
Before i go into detail on how to remove the iconhandler registry key/folder:
Please
Contact Support and ask for a fix, as far as i know they offer a simple one click solution to delete iconhandler, this way you dont accidentally delete the wrong thing.


However if you want to try this on your own. 
1. Press start 
2. in the search box type "regedit" and open it with admin privileges.(right click on regedit icon and then start as admin)
3. Navigate through the list on the left side 
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT 
now scroll down until you find the subfolder "exefile"
now look for "shellex"
there should be another folder inside called "iconhandler"
delete it.
4. close regedit
5. shutdown your PC
6. Reboot

If this did not help you, open start.
Windows 8.1
Press the WindowsKey+R on your keyboard type "msconfig"
A new windows will pop up, there will be a rider called "tools" on top.
press tools and scroll down in the list until you read systemrestore.
press launch.
follow the steps to restore your windows.

If you made a system restore point before you installed iconpackager then simply use that to recover.

PS: Im sorry that this happend to you,




 

That icon handler key fix is only for .exe files and is a working fix for blank icons, the OP's problems are much deeper than that. IP hoses Windows 8.1 which is why it isn't listed as compatible with that OS.

If support does have a fix, he should contact them. Icon Packager should be blocked from installing on non-compatible OSes. I believe it is for Win 10.

This is from a thread here in the Forums, I copied it and saved it.

"Search for iconcache* on the C;\ drive.  Found about 6 of them. Went to that directory in a DOS box and renamed them all to iconcache*.bak.

Rebooted.

All those files were re-created. I deleted all the *.bak files, and voila! Perfect. Even applied a few icon sets with no problems."

 

Although he renamed them in DOS, I renamed them right in the folder.

Thanks for all the help! 

I think I'm just going to have to reinstall windows. I've managed to manually hack some of my icons back to normal, but there are some that are still a mess. The 'composite' folder icons showing thumbnails of the folder contents look like an absolute mess, which is a shame.

In response to...

...Reply #1: I got IconPackager 5 as part of the ObjectDesktop bundle, and I didn't see the IconPackager store page. (See below...)

...Reply #2: I did try that several times, with a reboot each time, with no luck. Thanks for the suggestion, though!

...Reply #4: Yeah. I tried to do a System Restore, but for some unknown reason all the system restore points prior to the installation of IconPackager have disappeared. I don't know how, but they're just gone. (Also, I'm not a 'he', I'm a 'she'.)

...Reply #5: I did find this tip offered on another site to cute the problem, but it didn't seem to help. Thanks for that suggestion too!

...Reply #6: I actually have a support ticket pending with Stardock. No reply as of yet, though.

...Reply #7: I tried clearing the icon cache after rebooting into safe command prompt mode (so explorer.exe wasn't running and couldn't get in the way) but that didn't help. Thanks for that suggestion too!

 

So, in a nutshell, before I bought the ObjectDesktop bundle, I had a look through the compatibility matrix on the store page (shown at https://www.stardock.com/products/odnt/images/odnt_compatibilitymatrix_10.26.15.png ). That matrix listed "Start10" as being the only app *not* compatible with Windows 8. So I made a mental note that *everything* in the bundle would be cool *except* Start10. "Everything is good to try *except* Start10," I said to myself.

It never occurred to me that I would be given access to an application that was not listed in that matrix. If I'd known that IconPackager was in the ObjectDesktop bundle, but not listed in that matrix, I would have checked its system compatibility independently. So, it's a bit of a mess.

To be honest, I'm a little baffled as to why IconPackager would do *anything* if it is run on an operating system it does not recognise. Surely, an application like IconPackager that does a *lot* of hectic work "under the hood" would check the environment it's running in before it starts hacking away at stuff? I mean, there are system calls that programmers can use to check that, right? Plus, shouldn't the software look at what it's changing before it changes it? Look before you leap, right?

StarDock make some awesome software, but wow... IconPackager has really boggled my mind.