Category Archives: Blog

Restore, Enable and Display the Missing Internet Explorer (IE or IE7) Icon on Windows Vista Desktop

Windows Vista does not place Internet Explorer (currently Internet Explorer 7 or IE7) icon or shortcut on desktop. Even if initially there is IE desktop icon, once you delete or hide the IE icon, it’s pretty hard to get back the full applet IE7 desktop icon even though during the deletion, the warning message prompts you to restore it later from Personalization in Control Panel, as IE7 or IE is not contained in Desktop Icon Settings Creating shortcut to IE7 won’t be nice as it’s shortcut icon, not an actual IE7 desktop icon which allows you easy access to Internet Properties and other related Internet functions (see image below).
IE7 desktop icon and desktop shortcut side by side.

To re-enable, restore, show and display the Internet Explorer 7 (IE or IE7) Vista desktop icon, here the step on how to do it:

Start registry editor by clicking on Start button, then select “Run”. Type in “regedit” in the Open text box and hit “OK” or press “Enter”.
Navigate to the following registry key:[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion
ExplorerHideDesktopIconsNewStartPanel]If you’re using classic theme or scheme, browse to the following registry location instead:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersion
ExplorerHideDesktopIconsClassicStartMenu]

If the above key doesn’t exist, create a new key.
Edit or create a DWORD (32-bit) value named  and set it with value of 0 (dword:00000000).
Refresh Windows Vista desktop by pressing F5 or right click on desktop and click “Refresh”.
You will see the IE or IE7 icon has been put back on Vista desktop.

For easier way, here is the registration (.reg) file that you can download and then double click to execute the file to merge the required registry key and value into the Vista registry. Refresh desktop after applying the registry hack.

Alternatively, copy and paste the below code to a text file and save it as a file name with .reg extension. Then double click on the file to merge the data to the registry. After refreshing desktop, IE7 desktop icon will be back on view.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerHideDesktopIconsNewStartPanel]
“{871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D}”=dword:00000000
Or for classic Windows desktop:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerHideDesktopIconsClassicStartMenu]
“{871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D}”=dword:00000000
The trick is also used to restore IE desktop icon in Windows XP SP3.

How to download and install Zune 2.2 firmware when your HTTP Proxy Requires Authentication?

Symptoms:

Returns the error id: “C00D11CD” when trying to install the zune 2.2 firmware.

Cause:

This is caused beacused BITS does not like being behind a HTTP proxy server that requires authentication. By default, BITS doesn’t automatically provide your domain user information to the proxy server. so, when the zune software attempts to use the BITS to download the firmware, it fails and only presents “C00D11CD” error code.

Resolution:

1. Close Zune Software (if running)
2. open regedit
3. Browse to the key “HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionBITS”.
4. Change the value of “UseLmCompat” to 0 (2 should be the value you have by default)
5. Stop and Restart the “Background Intelligent Transfer Service”
6. Start the Zune Software and you should be able to click the install button

NOTE: If you have zune software running while you restart the BITS, the process might hang and will need to be killed. Also you may want to change the registry setting back after the firmware download is completed.

Of course the basic disclaimer stuff applies here ….
Do this at your own risk … I’m not responsible for what you do with this information…