Restore the Real Internet Explorer Desktop Icon in Windows 7
When compared with the previous versions of Windows, the Internet Explorer icon is no longer always lay on the desktop and you can easily right-click it to quickly access the Internet Options screen in Windows 7. Actually it is entirely gone…Today I will show you how to restore it back.
An Easy Way to Bring Back the Internet Explorer Namespace Icon
If you just want to bring the IE icon back, what you need to do is just download the RealInternetExplorerIcon.zip file, extract the contents, and then double-click on the w7_ie_icon_restore.reg file.
There’s also an undo registry file there if you want to get rid of it.
Download the Real Internet Explorer Icon Registry Hack
Manual Registry Hack
Launch Regedit.exe using the Start Menu search box, and then navigate to the following location:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ CLSID \ {871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D}
Right-click on the key on the left-hand pane, choose Export, and save it to a .REG file (say, ie-guid.reg)
Open up the REG file using Notepad.
From the Edit menu, click Replace, and replace every occurrence of the following GUID string
{871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D}
With a custom GUID string, such as:
{871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30301D}
Important step: Save the REG file and close Notepad, then double-click on the file to merge the contents to the registry. Either re-open the registry editor, or use the F5 key to reload everything with the new changes.
Navigate downto the following registry key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ CLSID \ {871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30301D} \ Shellex \ ContextMenuHandlers \ ieframe
Double-click on the (default) key in the right-hand pane and set its data as:
{871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D}
With this done, press F5 on the desktop and you’ll see the Internet Explorer icon that looks like this:
Note: The icon appears incomplete without the Properties command in right click menu, so keep reading.
Final Registry Hack Adjustments
Firstly click on the following key which should still be viewable in your Registry editor window from the last step.
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30301D}
Then Double-click LocalizedString in the right-hand pane and type the following data to rename the icon.
Internet Explorer
Now select the following key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30301D}\shell
Add a subkey and name it as Properties, then select the Properties key, double-click the (default) value and type the following:
P&roperties
Create a String value named Position, and type the following data:
bottom
Now the window should look something like this:
Under Properties, create a subkey and name it as Command, and then set its (default) value as follows:
control.exe inetcpl.cpl
Navigate down to the following key, then delete the value named LegacyDisable
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ CLSID \ {871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30301D} \ shell \ OpenHomePage
Now head to the this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Desktop \ NameSpace
Create a subkey named {871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30301D}.
Finally press F5 to refresh the Desktop, and here is how the Internet Explorer icon would look like.
That’s it! You could just download the registry hack and get the icon back with a double-click rather than follow many steps. But you can choose what you like from this two ways. It just depents on you! Enjoy yourself!
You can get more Windows 7 tips, Windows 7 Wallpapers, Windows 7 Software from http://www.Newton360.com
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