Published on March 2, 2007 By babbageleaf In Docks
So I have been using ObjectDock happily for some time now, and I have encountered a rather peculiar problem. Every once in a while when I boot up my computer, I will get a dialog box that says "Error opening file: c:/etc,etc.random icon.ico." It appears one of my dock icon files (which I never move around on my hard drive) decided to go missing! The question mark placeholder shows up on the dock in its place, and if I search for the icon through explorer, it's really gone!! Are my icons deleting themselves?

Has anyone else encountered this problem? It is really frustrating to continually redownload icons for my dock.

Comments
on Mar 02, 2007
No this does not happen to me, but I never use ico, only png...much better image IMHO...Do you have your icons stored in either the file c:programs\objectdock\images? or in your ObjectDock folder in My Documents? If not that may be why the OD can't find them... and have you tried saving your theme? Even a copy of any iconpackager themes are best kept in the OD folder.

It's My Secret
on Mar 03, 2007
I keep them in My Documents/My Icons. It just seems very random because a particular icon will work for a long time, and then suddenly will get lost. I wonder if there's another app that's messing with them??
on Mar 03, 2007
...I will give you a few links...to see if we can get your icons back...But change the location of your icons to the proper folder first. And yes another app may be messing with them. Another thought is that you may have a virus, trojan etc.

Pc Inspector this is free...

This is a link to a post here listing programs ...I would suggest for now A-squared ..Of course get any others that you don't have if you choose

Utilities for Windows
Note I am not sure if these work in Vista

I suggest trying to find your icons...scanning your system with Anti virus & the other programs

Post back & let us know if anything helped.

Since the icons disappear I suggest Drive Sentry.(free 30 day trial)..also in that post I linked to...the reason is that this program will ask you if you want to allow permission to access files...you will need to read instructions throughly....and select...trust this program then allow & remember in the popup to let normal programs through. This may help you find that program that is hijacking your icons It can be annoying while it gets used to your trusted programs...but boy oh boy nothing will get through that shouldn't. once you have gone through teaching it. It will use about 50% resources initially while it is scanning your system...but then uses only about 1 %

Please Post back & let us know if any of this helped

It's My Secret


on Mar 03, 2007
It depens,what icon is missing.Some other programs could mess with your icons,when you installing or uninstalling them.(icon and program associations).It sometimes happend to me,but the error was I/O problem during opening the icon XX.And as My Secret said,it better use PNG files instead of ico files.It should make your problem disappear.
on Mar 05, 2007
I do agree that PNGs are better, but how will that remedy the problem?

Okay, it happened again today, and I caught it in the act:


Here's the error message.


Here's the very lo-res (16x16 maybe?) icon that now appears on my dock.

I'm trying to remember if this has ever happened with a PNG, but actually I don't think it has.
on Mar 05, 2007
Hmmm sounds like your file is read only...you need to rightclick on file folder .. properties..and uncheck read only.. if that doesn't work then you need to show hidden files. In Control panel go to Folder options & View..show hidden files...then go back & uncheck read only
You also make it easier for OD to find the icons by putting them in the OD+ image folder found in My Documents.

Also found some articles for you to try
Clearing the cache

Techincal Troubleshooting

Scroll down on this thread and follow Cork_O's instructions. Please post back and let us know if any of this helps. I know things like this are frustrating

It's My Secret
on Mar 08, 2007
I have this issue occasionally as well. Seems to be random and affect different types of icons. I think there is some kind of bug.
on Mar 11, 2007
Oh wow I didn't expect to hear that someone else has this problem. Maybe there really is a bug??

Anyway, I am now using all PNGs on my dock, and I have stored them all in ObjectDock's images folder. So we'll see how it goes now.