"R.Wieser" <address@is.invalid> wrote

| I'm in the habit of saving webpages locally, and noticed that dragging,
from
| the URL bar in FF of an URL to the desktop (or a folder) results into
| different icons, depending on the type of URL.
| | When its an HTTP(s):// URL I get the FF icon.
| | When its a file:// url I get the IE icon.
| You sure do get yourself into trouble, Rudy. :)

It's URL Protocol. https/http and file are all different.
In HKCR\file I have a CLSID key, which points to
an InProcServer32 of ole32.dll. Oddly, there's no
registered typelib for ole32, yet InProcServer32
indicates an in-process COM server. So I don't know
what that's about. I guess it's just another case of
Microsoft saying, "Everyone has to follow our rules
except for us."

I also have IE as my
default browser, so if I ever had a reason to make URL
shortcuts, they'd all have the same icon. But it may
be that you could copy the HKCR\http settings to
HKCR\file.

Under http, ftp and https I have the standard file format
settings of DefaultIcon and Shell\open\command. That
points to IE. So the file and http/https protocols are
set up a bit differently, but I don't know if that's required.

(I always set IE as default browser because it's very
fast and easy. Then I block it from going online in my
firewall. So sleazy software can't trick me into going
to their website. And I would never use an MS browser
online, anyway. I use Mozilla browsers for online.)

Newyana2,

> You sure do get yourself into trouble, Rudy. :)

And I was not even looking for it... :-( :-)

> It's URL Protocol. https/http and file are all different.

Yep. It turned out that I was looking at the "wrong" thing : where I
thought I needed to look at the ".URL" and "InternetShortcut" entries for a
solution, it turned out I had to look at the three you named, specifically
the "file" one.

Now looking back its easy to see (realize) why. Not so much when I was
trying to figure the stuff out.

> In HKCR\file I have a CLSID key, which points to
> an InProcServer32 of ole32.dll. Oddly, there's no
> registered typelib for ole32, yet InProcServer32
> indicates an in-process COM server. So I don't know
> what that's about. I guess it's just another case of
> Microsoft saying, "Everyone has to follow our rules
> except for us."

Hmmm, never noticed that. ole32.dll is a real DLL though, with standard
functions. I could imagine that the resulting objects of a few of those
functions need the in-process environment.

> I also have IE as my default browser, so if I ever had a
> reason to make URLshortcuts, they'd all have the same icon.

Thats the thing, I don't have IE as the default browser, and it has been
ages I last used it as such.

> But it may be that you could copy the HKCR\http settings
> to HKCR\file.

In the end thats pretty-much what I did, though only for the "DefaultIcon"
entry.

> Under http, ftp and https I have the standard file
> formatsettings of DefaultIcon and Shell\open\command.
> That points to IE.

In my case those point to FF, but yes, those look very much like a
file-extension registry entry. When I looked at the "file" registry entry
it just contained a guid.

> So the file and http/https protocols are set up a bit
> differently, but I don't know if that's required.

Yep. The difference was enough for me not to just try to throw something at
the "file" entry and see if it would work.

Luckily Ralph Fox was persistent enough to get me to make the DefaultIcon
change, which worked.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

On Sat, 2 Dec 2023 21:23:31 +0100, R.Wieser wrote:

> Just one question: do you have /any/ idea where the default "use the IE
> icon" setting for that URL shortcut comes from ? To be honest, I was
> assuming that I only needed to change that setting somewhere in the
> registry.

I don't know whether it is a registry setting or hard-wired into Windows.

> I already did try to change all "url.dll,1" entries in the registry with
> "url.dll,2", but didn't see any change when I created a new URL shortcut -
> so it seems it isn't coming from the registry.

I assume you meant change all "url.dll,0" entries.

In XP, FWIW, the proper place to change icons is at

Control Panel >> Folder Options >> File Types >> (select file type) >> Advanced >> Change Icon

screen-shot: <http://img4.imagetitan.com/img.php?image=27_ukg3ok_1__xp-change-icons.png>

When I go there I see there are two entries for "Internet Shortcut".
The second one has the "URL" file extension. The first one has no
file extension which would normally mean it is a URL protocol not a
file type. However, changing either one's icon changes the other's,
and both change the same two registry entries at:

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\InternetShortcut\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\url.dll,0"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\InternetShortcut\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\url.dll,0"

--
Kind regards
Ralph Fox
🦊

All is not lost that is in danger.

Ralph,

> I don't know whether it is a registry setting or hard-wired into Windows.

Ah. That makes two of us.

> I assume you meant change all "url.dll,0" entries.

Whoops... Yes, thats what I did.

> In XP, FWIW, the proper place to change icons is at
>
> Control Panel >> Folder Options >> File Types >> (select file type) >>
> Advanced >> Change Icon

Man... it has been so long ago that I forgot all about that one. (it might
also be because I've got no idea what it does behind the scene, and directly
changing the registry only does what I tell it to. :-) )

> When I go there I see there are two entries for "Internet Shortcut".
> The second one has the "URL" file extension. The first one has no
> file extension which would normally mean it is a URL protocol not a
> file type.

That (it is a URL protocol) is what I came to conclude too. Didn't expect
it to be mixed with the normal filetype entries though (maybe in its own
subfolder, like the clsid entries)

> However, changing either one's icon changes the other's,

Here the ".url" entry points to the "InternetShortcut" one, AFAIK meaning
that the former will use the entries of the latter. So I'm not surprised
that that happens.

> and both change the same two registry entries at:
[snip]

I also noticed that "shadowing" thing (where changing something in the HKCR
is copied to HKLM). Not sure when-or-why exactly that (doesn't) happen
though.

One question remains though : If an URL shortcut uses the DefaultIcon of the
protocol of the URL stored in it, than why does the ".URL" /
"InternetShortcut" has a DefaultIcon (that does not seem to be used) itself
? (when I did change the "InternetShortcut"s DefaultIcon I saw no
change. Hence my "not used" observation).

Regards,
Rudy Wieser