XYplorer Beta Club

I'm not sure if this is a bug or a feature (©), but I do remember a time that it wasn't like this (or is it my imagination?). The same place from a fresh; 28.40.0500. I didn't noticed when this was changed, but is there a setting that I missed somewhere?

Are you using LinkShellExt ?

jupe wrote: ↑24 Oct 2026 21:53 Are you using LinkShellExt ?

Yeap..

Just a theory, but possibly they were shown in x32 XY, but not x64 because of display priorities being different, check this reg key:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers

and make sure the LSE entries are near the top of the order, rename the entries and prefix spaces to move to top if necessary, an OS restart will likely be necessary for changes to apply afterwards.

Well, my problem is not with the symbolic link overlay.
I've been battling with Dropbox/Mega/OneDrive overlays for a long time and I know the drill..
The thing is, there is no folder icon there, and I'm sure it was, since I was debugging some problems with them (with Don), when the empty folder property was introduced (among other things).
Thanks for the idea though.
Are you seeing the normal folder icon in your system?

Well if you say it doesn't show in fresh, then it isn't CFI related. Overlay problems can manifest themselves as a blank icon, not just a missing overlay. What does Explorer show for the same folders?

But yes, I don't have any folder icon issues, but I also don't use LSE.

Well, jupe, you were right after all!
Rebooting with the LinkShellExt entries renamed and at the top, showed the folder icons again.
The thing is, in the many years that I use LinkShellExt, I have never saw these overlays before!
I was seeing the icons without it (because of the registry battle), and most of them were custom icons.
So, there must be something that is changed in XYplorer, that I would very much like to have again, since I don't mind the overlays but I don't want to fight with all the other apps for the icon display.

Never mind, I just saw that there is an option to turn the overlays off in LinkShellExt, so that will fix everything..

noembryo wrote: ↑25 Oct 2026 10:02 Never mind, I just saw that there is an option to turn the overlays off in LinkShellExt, so that will fix everything..

I spoke too soon..
Disabling the overlays in LinkShellExt brought back the black/empty icons.
So, perhaps there is something weird with the way XYplorer handles them after all..

No I very much doubt it is XY, you probably have other entries in that reg key that point to non existant icons, so when you disable LSE it falls back to them again, or in the past you have tried to replace the default overlay icon, and that is now pointing to a non existing icon in the registry still. And you never answered my question.

jupe wrote: ↑25 Oct 2026 00:55 What does Explorer show for the same folders?

Disabling these might bypass the registry issue though:

Configuration | General | Refresh, Icons, History | Icons | [ ] Show shortcut overlays
Configuration | General | Refresh, Icons, History | Icons | [ ] Show icon overlays

jupe wrote: ↑25 Oct 2026 22:25 No I very much doubt it is XY, you probably have other entries in that reg key that point to non existant icons, so when you disable LSE it falls back to them again, or in the past you have tried to replace the default overlay icon, and that is now pointing to a non existing icon in the registry still.

The other entries at that key are the ones I wrote already, but what do they have to do with symbolic links?
Dropbox et al. influence their own folders, not every folder in windows..

And you never answered my question.

A, sorry, I forgot.
Explorer shows the icons normally.

Disabling these might bypass the registry issue though:

Configuration | General | Refresh, Icons, History | Icons | [ ] Show shortcut overlays
Configuration | General | Refresh, Icons, History | Icons | [ ] Show icon overlays

Disabling "Show shortcut overlays" bring the icons back alright, so you see that this is something XYplorer does.
I don't think this is a proper fix though.
I have to wait for Don to chime in..

It wasn't meant as a proper "fix"

Do normal lnk shortcuts and hard/symbolic links to files display the icon and overlay ok for you then?

Anyway I'll leave it upto Don then.

jupe wrote: ↑26 Oct 2026 00:21 It wasn't meant as a proper "fix"

Yes, sorry if this came out rude (not a native speaker).
I'm thankful for your time.
I just didn't think we solved the mystery yet..

Do normal lnk shortcuts and hard/symbolic links to files display the icon and overlay ok for you then?

Well, now that you mention it, no. This of course, was not always the case. I could see shortcut icons.
This points more and more to something broken in my system..

Yes, I am almost certain it is a registry issue, check if you have this reg key:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons

if it is there remove the 29 entry, if it had a value and you make a change a restart will be required.
.

jupe wrote: ↑26 Oct 2026 00:45 HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons
if it is there remove the 29 entry, if it had a value and you make a change a restart will be required..

Well, it was there, it contained a value, I removed it, rebooted and now I can see the icons and the default Windows overlay arrows that I haven't seen for years.
I don't think this was it also..
I'll have to revert it (I don't like these arrows)..

If you don't like the arrows, just set the XY config option I mentioned earlier, or if you want them removed OS wide instead, just leave the 29 entry empty instead of removing it.