The missing icon mystery.

Vsynced · Nov 4, 2024

I have one for our resident Win 11 detectives here. The game is The Sims. Installed and runs fine. The only problem is this...

The icon for the exe is MIA. The file properties window does show the icon in the upper left.

Here's the weirdest part. If i rename the file to anything other than sims.exe, the icon comes back. If I rename the install folder, the icon comes back. If I copy the exe to any other folder, the icon comes back.

I tried rebuilding the icon cache. I tried copying the exe to a different folder, deleting the original, and moving the copy back. No change.

Any ideas?

Ghot · Nov 4, 2024

Vsynced said:
Any ideas?

I would uninstall The Sims and reinstall it.
Make sure you have no external devices attached to the computer, during the reinstall.

Also... you get ten points, just for filling out your computer specs.

antspants · Nov 4, 2024

Not at my PC but would assume there may be a registry fail.
Find the program in the registry and look for the icon/shortcut entry?

I’d know more If I could access regedit but like I said, AFK

Vsynced · Nov 4, 2024

antspants said:
Not at my PC but would assume there may be a registry fail.
Find the program in the registry and look for the icon entry?

I’d know more If I could access regedit but like I said, AFK

I have poked around the registry a bit. I found tons of matching entries for the search term "the sims" but nothing that I could work with.

Ghot said:
I would uninstall The Sims and reinstall it.
Make sure you have no external devices attached to the computer, during the reinstall.

Also... you get ten points, just for filling out your computer specs.

Hey! I listed 2 sets of specs. I want 20 points.

antspants · Nov 5, 2024

Is it Origin games based or standalone version?

Vsynced · Nov 5, 2024

antspants said:
Is it Origin games based or standalone version?

Standalone. It's the Complete Collection to be specific.

antspants · Nov 5, 2024

Version?

Vsynced · Nov 5, 2024

antspants said:
Version?

The exe states that it is version 1.91.

antspants · Nov 5, 2024

Vsynced said:
The exe states that it is version 1.91.

Game version, is it sims 4?

Vsynced · Nov 5, 2024

antspants said:
Game version, is it sims 4?

Oh. Sorry. No, it's the original from way back when.

antspants · Nov 5, 2024

So no version number at all. Just “The Sims”?

I assume that means there are no needy teenagers and odd prefixes to people names

Vsynced · Nov 5, 2024

antspants said:
So no version number at all. Just “The Sims”?

I assume that means there are no needy teenagers and odd prefixes to people names

Yeah, It's the first in the series. I guess it could be referred to as The Sims 1. No, thankfully there's none of that silliness in this one. I don't think they limped onto that bandwagon until the 4th game.

antspants · Nov 5, 2024

I don’t have the game, flying blind here.

Go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Maxis\The Sims

Look for an entry Displayicon
If it isn't in there, don't worry. I suppose you could create a Displayicon entry

If not:

Try to manually set the shortcut icon:

Right-click the game shortcut, select Properties
Go to the Shortcut tab, and click Change Icon.
Browse to the game’s executable file and select it.
Pick an icon or the icon
Click OK

If not:

Create a new shortcut

Create a shortcut, replace the shortcut that is already there: desktop/start menu/both?

Go to the game folder
Right click on Sims.exe
Select send to
Select Desktop (create shortcut)

Go to the desktop shortcut
If the icon isn't showing
Right click on the shortcut
Select Change Icon

Browse to the game folder and select Sims.exe

If more than one icon selection, pick one, select OK

If this works.

You can replace the current non showing icon with the new

There are two Start Menu/Program folders

Code:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\

And

Code:

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\

Look in the Startup Folder in both locations.

What you seek should be in there.

Remember, this is NOT a simulation. If you get frustrated and headbutt your monitor, you will bleed.

antspants · Nov 5, 2024

Back to the registry entry idea:

The last 2 suggestions I made should work (Hopefully)
If not, in regards to the registry entry for the Sims.exe Displayicon, you could try the following

I'm obviously using Grand Theft Auto in all these example screenshots, because I don't have the sims

Open Regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Maxis\The Sims
With path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Maxis\The Sims in the left of Regedit, on the right hand side create a new string.
Right-click in the right pane, select New > String Value, and name it DisplayIcon.

Double-click on the DisplayIcon entry you just created, and set its value to the path of the icon file you want to use
e.x. C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\The Sims\sims.exe
Click OK

Log out or reboot.

If this doesn't work, you can just go back and delete the "Displayicon" reg entry

Vsynced · Nov 5, 2024

antspants said:
I don’t have the game, flying blind here.

Go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Maxis\The Sims

Look for an entry Displayicon
If it isn't in there, don't worry. I suppose you could create a Displayicon entry

If not:

Try to manually set the shortcut icon:

Right-click the game shortcut, select Properties

Go to the Shortcut tab, and click Change Icon.

Browse to the game’s executable file and select it.

Pick an icon or the icon

Click OK

If not:

Create a new shortcut

Create a shortcut, replace the shortcut that is already there: desktop/start menu/both?

Go to the game folder

Right click on Sims.exe

Select send to

Select Desktop (create shortcut)

View attachment 115317

Go to the desktop shortcut

If the icon isn't showing

Right click on the shortcut

Select Change Icon

View attachment 115318

Browse to the game folder and select Sims.exe

View attachment 115319

If more than one icon selection, pick one, select OK

If this works.

You can replace the current non showing icon with the new

There are two Start Menu/Program folders

Code:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\

And

Code:

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\

Look in the Startup Folder in both locations.

What you seek should be in there.

Remember, this is NOT a simulation. If you get frustrated and headbutt your monitor, you will bleed.

I appreciate the work you've put in. I will give these a shot as soon as I can get back in front of the PC. Thank you.

Farquard · Nov 5, 2024

I have had this happen a few times. What I finally did was find a PNG of the icon that vanished (or a jpg and converted it to a PNG) then found a site on the net that does a conversion from PNG to ICO and made a new one. I created a folder on my "C" drive called icons and placed it there, then using properties I browsed to that folder and chose my icon, Problem solved. Sometimes I have found other programs or updates cause an icon to vanish and each time I do the same thing. My icon folder now has about 8 icons in it. Not all that hard to do, and I always have one to use when an update causes one to vanish again.

Vsynced · Nov 5, 2024

Farquard said:
I have had this happen a few times. What I finally did was find a PNG of the icon that vanished (or a jpg and converted it to a PNG) then found a site on the net that does a conversion from PNG to ICO and made a new one. I created a folder on my "C" drive called icons and placed it there, then using properties I browsed to that folder and chose my icon, Problem solved. Sometimes I have found other programs or updates cause an icon to vanish and each time I do the same thing. My icon folder now has about 8 icons in it. Not all that hard to do, and I always have one to use when an update causes one to vanish again.

I did the same thing here. I have a games folder pinned to the start menu for quicker access and had to use the custom icon option to get this games shortcut looking proper.

Vsynced · Nov 5, 2024

Unfortunately, @antspants the registry tweak didn't work. I was actually pretty confident that it would. Again, I appreciate your time and effort to help.

I guess as long as the game works, not having the icon display properly is a very minor inconvenience that can be solved with custom icon shortcuts and simply not looking inside the install folder.

Edit: Write once, proofread twice has failed me yet again.

The missing icon mystery.

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