>I don't like the sound of that. The only time I've seen something like this is when the file doesn't exist or the path (if it's on a network) is unavailable to the user. AFAIK, Windows resolves the reference in the desktop short cut (via ExtractIcon()) and uses either DrawIcon() or DrawIconEx() to display it. To me, this (what you're experiencing) doesn't sound right.

You're right, something is seriously wrong on the machine. About 90% of the icons are either DOS, or textfile-type icons, even though you can see all the usual icon choices, you can't activate them, even with the files on the hard drive. Only a very few are displayed correctly, like MS Word & Docs. Everything seems to be associated correctly, though, and everything runs fine.

If this were in my domain (my office subnet), I would try and fix it (since "Lan Help" is often an oxymoron around here :) In fact, if it were my machine, I would've had a fit a long time ago. But this user is pretty passive about it (says it's been like that a long time), and I got my app-icon working, so after that it's up to the user to give Lan or his own Subnet Admin a call to fix the rest of it, as I strongly suggested...