Desktop icons get mixed up after reboot

Does anyone know how to "reset" file icons so that they are associated with the application that created them? For example, I have a number of MS Word documents/files that whose icon is only the generic file icon and NOT the MS Word Icon with the little "w" in the corner.

Barbara, I did as you recommended and still ended up with the same generic looking file icons. However, a couple interesting points. The issue shows only for Microsoft Word, not Excel.

Also, the icons only look "generic" on the desktop, not when the file is dragged into a folder and show in List View. In this mode, the icons show the little "w". In addition, when the Mac was booting up, the Word file icons first showed correctly, and then "switched" the generic looking version.

Thoughts?

If you've lost your icon association, then you have a corrupted LaunchServices database. Launch the Terminal app in /Applications/Utilities/, copy & paste in this one-liner, hit the return key, quit the Terminal app, and restart:

*/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchS ervices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user*

Well, it's fortunate that baltwo already suggested a fix because I would not have another suggestion because I don't run Windows and would not know if there is a difference in behavior or fixes.

Had that problem for a while now.

My workaround is keeping this in my Dock: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19789/desktop-icon-manager

It's a simple 143K Applescript application that memorizes and restores icons positions on the desktop.

You could even fiddle around with "Startup Items" to automate the process when rebooting. Unfortunately, there is no "Shutdown Items" like in the MacOS 9 days... 🙂

baltwo wrote:
If you've lost your icon association, then you have a corrupted LaunchServices database. Launch the Terminal app in /Applications/Utilities/, copy & paste in this one-liner, hit the return key, quit the Terminal app, and restart:

*/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchS ervices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user*

Does anyone tried out, what baltu recommended, to fix the icon mess problem?

I've used it w/o issues, as have others that I've recommended it to. What are you really asking?

I've spent a week migrating from 10.4 to 10.6. I have tested pretty
much everything, I have the feeling that 10.4 was the last great osx
release ever. On the topic, 10.6 is so unpredictable with icons and
views that I was forced to reset my views (via DS_Store), after going
in and out of time machine. Time machine must have produced the
unpredictable views, switching back to some undefined settings,
overwriting mine which I have spent days to set from my older laptop.
Extremely disappointing, no further comments. Looking for other
alternatives for Finder, just in case this can fix my problem...

Start your own thread if you want help with your issue.

Problem seems to be solved now, finally by update to OSX 10.6.6 ?!?!
Your experience?

Well, for some odd reason, it just happened to me for the first time since I updated to 10.6.6. I hadn't shut down my computer for about 2 or 3 days, when I rebooted this morning, my desktop icons were reoganized in alphabetical order. It hadn't done it since the update, thought this little bug was gone...

i have the same problem with my new imac with operating system mac os x 10.6.7! every morning it is a game of pure chance: are the icons on the right side of the desktop or on the same place as i reside before. any solutions? best regards

Hi
I think this is because there are too many objects on the Desktop. Try with no more than 30 icons on the desktop.

Hi, I saw that several people had the same problem as I did when I upgraded my OS. The problem of all types of documents showing up on the desktop with generic icons instead of appearing as PDF's, Word documents, etc., was driving me crazy. My OS is 10.6.7. I fixed the problem by clicking on the View menu while in Finder. Under the View menu, select "Show View Items".....when that window opens, make sure that both "Show Item Info" and "Show Icon Preview" are NOT checked. I had to do this for the desktop view and then open a folder and do the same for the folder view. You can click on the default button in this window to make it so for all folders and all desktop documents. Good luck. Hope this works for you.