Question

There are no start menu icons showing up for my programs. This is a standard vs2010 setup project for a winforms project. I have set the icon for each start menu shortcut in the setup project’s file system window, each executable has it’s icon manifest set. The icons appear in windows explorer. I have recreated the setup project from scratch, didn’t help. This used to work. Nothing I have tried today has fixed this it doesn’t make sense. Any ideas appreciated.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
Version 10.0.40219.1 SP1Rel
Microsoft .NET Framework
Version 4.0.30319 SP1Rel

Answer 1

I’ve experienced this once quite some time ago, but frankly don’t recall the exact cause right away – two things come to mind:

• Icons can come in a wide variety of both size and color depth, so maybe you have chosen a combination of formats within the ICO file which doesn’t cover the required formats for the particular version and/or configuration (color/dpi) of Windows you are using currently? Here are some resources:
  • The Icons section within the Windows User Experience Interaction Guidelines, specifically Color and saturation and Size requirements – please be aware of section For high dpi in particular.
  • Creating Windows XP Icons, which is definitely outdated, but still provides some useful insights regarding the respective Windows (Explorer) defaults, see e.g. Icon Design Overview.
• Update – the following doesn’t seem to apply here as per your comment: Another association is triggered by your statement each executable has it’s icon manifest set: There could be an issue with 32 vs. 64 bit handling here, insofar Windows might pull all sorts of magic regarding respective executable treatment, e.g. regarding a 32 bit executable o a 64 bit host etc.

I’ll try to dig further and recall my specific experience, but maybe this can provide some ideas for further exploration on your side already.

Good luck!