Directory Opus 13.14 x64, build 9161
Windows 10 Pro - 22H2 (2009: 19045)
Here is what, sometimes, I see immediately after pasting a shortcut to a .docx file:
I think that more specifically I did this: created the shortcut, using the context menu; cut the shortcut using ctrl-x; posted the shortcut - into a different directory (using ctrl-v?). But either those are not the exact reproduction conditions or else the fault is intermittent.
Here is what I see, after - and seemingly only after - pressing F5:
Have you checked what happens if you do the same thing in File Explorer?
Icons come from the operating system in general, so the problem suggests the OS (or a shell extension the OS is asking in turn) is saying the shortcut should have the wrong icon just after it is created for some reason.
Details on what the other icon is may also be a clue as to why it's happening. E.g. Is that software involved in Word documents at all?
Have you checked what happens if you do the same thing in File Explorer?
I had not. Good idea. I have checked just now. Result: the problem does not occur with Explorer.
The program that provides the wrong, temporary icon is the text editor SublimeText. SublimeText cannot really edit - but can, if one forces it to, open - PDFs or docx files.
I add: the same problem - of the icon temporarily being a SublimeText-shortcut icon - happens with PDFs.
Does it happen with any formats SublimeText can't open, or only the ones it can?
I think SublimeText will open, or at least try to open, any file whatsoever. One might think that Sublime's current defaults are at issue, i.e. the files that are opened by Sublime unless the user says otherwise. But Sublime is not the default .docx or PDF handler (and indeed would display such files byte-by-byte).
If you make an empty, zero-bytes file (e.g. New Text Document.txt) and change the extension to .lnk, which icon do you get as a result?
I used the context menu option within Opus to start the process of creating a new text file. When prompted for the name and extension I changed the extension to .lnk. Result:
I'm sorry that the icon is so small. When I changed the view - the existing view, with the newly created file - to display large icons, I saw:
I'm not sure what's going on, to be honest. We ask Windows which icon the file has and display whatever it tells us to display, so it seems the wrong icon is being returned when the shortcut has just been copied.
FWIW I cannot reproduce the problem here when I do the same steps as in the first post.
Since it seems Sublime Text icon is wrongly used by the system, you could try to uninstall ST and see if it changes something.
If this in only happening with docx & PDF files, you could also try uninstall/reinstall of Word & Acrobat (or any other PDF reader you might use). Probably better to start with the PDF as Word uninstall/reinstall might be heavier. If other programs have the same issue, then no need to reinstall every app on your computer.
One complementary question: you have already rebooted the system since it occured? (answer's probably yes). I amready had issues with windows messing up with some icons associations, that came back right after a reboot.
Another idea is to search the registry for the name of the sublime text executable (should be sublime_text) as the icon probably originated from there.
Googling similar issues also brought up:
This one: similar but permanent wrong icon. Some steps to try and solve but no feedback on it (steps revolving around icon cache rebuild, but going up to user profile recreation )
Another one: but his time related to standard files icons, not shortcuts.
Third one: issue is a bit different, here the oberlay simbol is messed up and replaced by the icon of an app !!! (Audacity). Proposed solution is the cleanup rebuild of the icons cache (oneliner).
All this leads to a possible test: if you have another user registered on your computer, log in with this user and see if the issue persists. You can also try to create another (temp) user to test.
I logged onto a test user account that I had, began to make it usable - changing many grim Microsoft defaults - and found that, on that user account, the problem was absent. (And that problem had been affecting - on my main user account - .pdf, .docx, .png, and perhaps other file types too.)
Then I logged into my main account, searched the registry for sublime_text, saw many results, and removed, only, the 'intellipoint' entry for the app. (For, such entries are useless.) And now the problem has gone. I had rebooted since having the problem, and the problem had persisted. Yet, now, the problem seems to have gone!
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