XP upgrade: Where did my icons go?

[BFD Deadeye]

Hi all,
A client brought me a computer that formerly ran Windows 98. She upgraded to XP Home, using the upgrade installation (meaning no formatting). After it installed, it did some weird things, so she brought it to me. A small list of problems:

1) Some icons are missing. Mostly Microsoft office. Office was previously installed, but upon the upgrade completion, no longer was there. The icons for Word reverted back to the notepad icon, and after I reinstalled Office, they disappeared altogether. I can get into the files, no problem, but the icons are gone.

2) Thinking the above was due to a virus, I installed NAV 2003. During setup, I got no pictures in the menus. The text was there, but the graphics did not show. Weird.

3) Nearly all the programs that once existed on this computer, no longer exist after the upgrade, or have to be reinstalled.

4) She couldn't find any of her documents in the 'My Documents' folder. I found the 'My Documents' folder with all (?) of her docs in the Program Files folder. What is up with that?

Anyone experienced anything similar? I await your response. Thank you.

[Alfie]

XP hides all icons,convert it to classic look and they may come back.
Upgrading from 1 OS to another can be problematic,especially with XP,a clean install is highly reccommended,using ntfs as the file system.

[BFD Deadeye]

Roger that, I know all about the joke of an upgrade. I wish she would've sought my advice before she did it. I always do a fresh install when upgrading. I have NEVER seen an upgrade installation work correctly. I tried to switch to classic view with no joy. Google brings up nothing addressing this problem, either. Any other ideas?

[trulad]

With XP, right-click on the desk top, select "properties", click on that and go to "desktop" than click on "customize desktop" and you can select the icons you want to appear on the desktop.
Trulad

[BFD Deadeye]

Thanks, but that really doesn't address my problem. Maybe I have been unclear. If I click My Documents, the files all show up with the details, file name, etc, but the icon is gone. If i go to Device manager, the floppy controller, and ports icons are gone, the rest are there. If I look in the sytem 32 folder, about 10% of the icons are gone. The files are there, but the icons do not show.

When I installed NAV, the normal graphics were gone, replaced with a plain background, but the text was all there.

[el_novato]

I went from 98SE to XP Pro flawlessly. What you can do is, uninstall the upgrade, back up her files and do a clean install. I don't know if that's convenient for you or her, but since you mentioned like to do clean installs, you can still go that route. Hth.

e.n.

[Alfie]

Look at Microsoft's site for Powertoys and download tweakui for XP,it has the ability to rebuild icons,may or may not work,but worth a shot.

[Confused]

Originally posted by BFD Deadeye Thanks, but that really doesn't address my problem. Maybe I have been unclear. If I click My Documents, the files all show up with the details, file name, etc, but the icon is gone. If i go to Device manager, the floppy controller, and ports icons are gone, the rest are there. If I look in the sytem 32 folder, about 10% of the icons are gone. The files are there, but the icons do not show. When I installed NAV, the normal graphics were gone, replaced with a plain background, but the text was all there.

Change the view. When you open "My Documents" or whatever, click "View" at top. It has probably defaulted to "Details". Change to "Tiles" or "thumbnails".
Chas