Unusual Symbol on Word Desktop Icon

jeffbeish · Dec 1, 2022

Not sure what it is since the icon for Excel does not have it. Anyone have any idea what the blue and yellow symbol is?

Mooly · Dec 1, 2022

If I remember correctly it means the program needs admin rights to run and so you see the user account box appear to ask if you want the program to make changes to your PC.

Lots of info if you search:

Remove Yellow & Blue Shield From Shortcut Icons On Desktop In Windows 10

What does the yellow and blue shield on program shortcuts on desktop indicate? In this guide, we will know what is the shield icon and how to remove it.

www.intowindows.com

jeffbeish · Dec 1, 2022

Well, that didn't work, but now I know what the Yellow & Blue Shield means. The real problem with that icon is that it will not finish opening the doc file when I double click on a file using File Explorer. Excel.exe icon works okay in File Explorer, so Word should as well. Of course, I have read a least a million Internet suggestions on how to fix that very problem, but to-date nothing works. I remember vaguely the fix is somewhere, but where is a mystery. Anyway, I attempted to remove the Admin Rights from the Icon shortcut but that did not fix the problem either. It's one of those way in the bowels of MS code.

wiganken · Dec 1, 2022

The icon looks like an older version of Word so may not be fully compatible with Windows 11. Try right-clicking on it and then click on 'Trouble shoot compatibility' from the context menu. You can also see the 'Run as administrator' (with blue & yellow shield) option that @Mooly mentioned. See photo.

davehc · Dec 1, 2022

Surely ir us Wordpad? (Winword.exe, down in the windows folder)

jeffbeish · Dec 1, 2022

Oh, I forgot to say that I still use Office 2003. Yeah, I'm retired on fix income so Bill Gates former company can kiss my rear until I have enough saved. I paid for Office 2003 so I still want to use it.

I even use Visual Basic Pro 5.0 too.

wiganken · Dec 1, 2022

wiganken said:
Try right-clicking on it and then click on 'Trouble shoot compatibility' from the context menu. You can also see the 'Run as administrator' (with blue & yellow shield) option that @Mooly mentioned.

@jeffbeish - Did you try either of these? If so then did they work? Good luck.

jeffbeish · Dec 1, 2022

wiganken said:
@jeffbeish - Did you try either of these? If so then did they work? Good luck.

Still does not work. I will give it a rest and tackle it later. I can open Word then snath the file okay.

wiganken · Dec 2, 2022

@jeffbeish - I also see the blue/yellow shield on two icons. One is an old program dating back to 2007 and the other is O&O RegEditor. It seems reasonable to say that Windows 11 security is seeing these as security risks and marking them as needing Administrator rights to run so it launches the UAC prompt in order to continue. Nothing you can do about except click on 'Yes' to continue opening Word. I don't know why it shows on the Word icon but not on the Excel icon though. Both Word and Ecel can run Macros so I can't see that as the issue.

Something we have to live with.

Try3 · Dec 2, 2022

Jeff,

I suggest you search in the TenForums Office section and then post there if the problem remains. There are several MSOffice 2003 users posting in that section and I'd expect some of them to have tried Windows 11 [where I'd expect it to run as easily as it does in Windows 10].
Microsoft Office and 365 - TenForums

When I first saw your thread & that icon, I did wonder if you had already been trying compatibility steps for it in Windows 11 because Admin permissions & hence that overlay shield can be the result of those.

Best of luck,
Denis

jeffbeish · Dec 2, 2022

Try3 said:
Jeff,

I suggest you search in the TenForums Office section and then post there if the problem remains. There are several MSOffice 2003 users posting in that section and I'd expect some of them to have tried Windows 11 [where I'd expect it to run as easily as it does in Windows 10].
Microsoft Office and 365 - TenForums

When I first saw your thread & that icon, I did wonder if you had already been trying compatibility steps for it in Windows 11 because Admin permissions & hence that overlay shield can be the result of those.

Best of luck,
Denis

I'm banned on that forum. Don't ask me why, no one will tell me. I remember bad mouthing Microsoft once, maybe that did it.

Try3 · Dec 2, 2022

jeffbeish said:
I remember bad mouthing Microsoft once, maybe that did it.

No.

You can still search that forum section.

Denis

jeffbeish · Dec 2, 2022

Try3 said:
No.

You can still search that forum section.

Denis

Yes, I do, thanks.

jeffbeish · Dec 12, 2022

Found the answer!!!!! Had to think a minute then I put two apparent problems in the same bit locker.

After reinstalling Office 2003 on my Windows 11 Dell laptop I could not open a .doc file using File Explorer. The desktop icon for Word had the Administrator Mode symbol embedded in the icon and that was the problem. So, after a week of searching I finally found the cure. Wow, search engines are useful but too many faulty answers pop up wjen you ask the question not exactly as it should be asked. This is the post by Tiger Sagar Monday, February 8, 2016 1:26 PM:

"If you have admin rights on the machine then follow the below steps

1.) Search in programs for the program (Example, Microsoft Word, powerpoint, outlook etc)

2.) Right click on it and open properties

3.) go to "compatibility" tab and select option "Run this program as an administrator".

If the option is not enabled. Then click on button "Change settings for all users" (It might ask for admin authentication), and then option will be enabled." So, my Word icon was locked up into admin rights, although it did not indicate such. Yeah, MS has many little snags than mess one up if one is tired and irritated.

URL: MS Office run as administrator.

Mooly · Dec 12, 2022

Thanks for the update, I'm pleased you found a fix.

jeffbeish · Dec 12, 2022

Mooly said:
Thanks for the update, I'm pleased you found a fix.

Guess I'm just getting old and not too bright. The signs of the problem were right in front of me, but at times the trees are disconnected from the forest. I noticed the Admin shield in the icons in the context menu and then imbedded within the Word shortcut icon, but just didn't get the 2 + 2 = 5 like contemporary programmers understand. Then I read that post, one among hundreds, that made sense and the light bulb went off. An 82-year old brain just can't catch up to reality at times. So, anyway, it's like finally getting the answer to a simple question; it all makes perfect sense afterwards. In the first computer coding project, back in the 1960's, we learned to phycology of user input and output. A post her4ein also gave me autosuggestion relief. Sometimes MS programmers forget that.