V2 icons disappeared from desktop shortcuts in Win10

[daibhidh]

No problem dragging icons onto desktop from apps folder to create shortcuts and they work fine, but today the program icons have been replaced with generic Windows icons. I tried creating new shortcuts but still no icons. Reboot no help. I can change the icons to v1 icons from the v1 program files, but I'd rather have the new icons back.

I found 3 v2 .exe files in the Users folder (e.g.: Users\[me]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\SerifEuropeLtd.AffinityDesigner2_3cqzy0nppv2rt\AffinityDesigner2.exe), but they are all 0 bytes with no icons. Very strange. Where are the V2 programs?

(Probably coincidence, but I first noticed the missing icons after using the MS Edge browser today for the first time since installing V2 apps.)

[Huw99]

Exactly the same problem has occurred with my system running Windows 11. Re-installation did not resolve the issue and the icons are a missing from the appsfolder. The task bar and start menu do have appropriate associated icons with each affinity program.

[Ron P.]

Welcome to the forums @Huw99,

Please read this post...

 

[daibhidh]

@Huw99:

On my system the icons still exist in the appsfolder, but the desktop shortcuts had generic document icons.

Today I deleted all three shortcuts and again dragged icons from the appsfolder to create new ones. I now have the V2 icons back.

The issue might be that I shortened the screen names of those three shortcuts, and that the icons disappeared after exiting and restarting Windows. I still don't grok why this might be so.

[Huw99]

I originally made shortcuts from the AppsFolder and all appeared good with appropriate desktop icons for each of the affinity programs. Overnight these became generic windows icons both on the desktop and in the AppsFolder. I deleted the desktop shortcuts, uninstalled the programs. Subsequent re-installation did not resolve the missing icons in the AppsFolder?  

[daibhidh]

This is getting crazy. I've shut down and started numerous times and the logos were still there. I restarted today and the Publisher icon was replaced. Dragging the Publisher logo from the AppsFolder does not bring it back. Photo and Designer logos remain. During the interval I only used Photo, not Designer or Publisher. I'm going to completely shut down and then start and see if anything changes.

Nope, no change. I can make shortcuts with Photo and Designer logos, but not with a Publisher logo.

Edited December 4, 2022 by daibhidh
add information

[Muirén]

I suspect this may be related. I'm running V1 & V2 Upgrade on a Surface Book 2 with 8 GB RAM, Windows 11 Pro 64-bit.
My desktop V2 icons have no issue but every time I pin the V2 icons to the taskbar, they look fine until I reboot the system, then they appear blank though still functional.

[daibhidh]

@Muirén: I pinned V2 apps to the taskbar 9 days ago. Icons still there in Win 10. Gave up on the desktop and deleted all Affinity shortcuts. This on Win 10 Pro, I believe Win 11 treats the taskbar differently.

[Checkmate]

I got around this by creating manual shortcuts to the Affinity 2.0 apps, using the exe locations from this thread:

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\AffinityDesigner2.exe

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\AffinityPhoto2.exe

C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\AffinityPublisher2.exe

(Replace 'username' with your own).

Instructions:

1. Right click on the desktop and choose New > Shortcut
2. For file location use the relevant location above
3. Once the shortcut is created, right click and choose Properties > Change Icon
4. Choose the appropriate .ico file for each app (attached)

Note: I also used these .ico files and exe locations to add each app to my right-click context menu for certain files like PDFs:

 

Affinity Designer 2.ico Affinity Photo 2.ico Affinity Publisher 2.ico

[ezez]

So what is going on with these icons? Just installed Designer and Photo v2, icons on desktop are gone after reboot.

Windows 10 Pro.

[Callum]

Hi Ezez,

Welcome to the forums

Please could you try the suggestions posted previously in this thread to see if they work for you?

Thanks
C

[irkmiller]

Had a similar problem. The icons were showing if I created them on the desktop (as suggested by the thread Ron P. references above) but, as soon as I dragged them into a folder on my desktop, the icons were replaced. I finally created shortcuts using Checkmate's suggestions and they worked fine when I dragged them into a folder. I saved the .ico files  into the same WindowsApp folder to simplify the process.

 

Edited February 17, 2023 by irkmiller
clarity

[Markus_S]

On 12/4/2022 at 3:31 AM, Muirén said:

I suspect this may be related. I'm running V1 & V2 Upgrade on a Surface Book 2 with 8 GB RAM, Windows 11 Pro 64-bit.
My desktop V2 icons have no issue but every time I pin the V2 icons to the taskbar, they look fine until I reboot the system, then they appear blank though still functional.

Had the same problem with but with Photo only. The other apps were fine. Worked around the problem by uninstalling everything and installing the MSI versions instead. Not the first time Windows messed MSIX and Windows Store apps for me.

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, Markus_S said:

Had the same problem with but with Photo only. The other apps were fine. Worked around the problem by uninstalling everything and installing the MSI versions instead. Not the first time Windows messed MSIX and Windows Store apps for me.

Updating the MSIX versions moves the files, and can invalidate shortcuts you've created manually.

[Markus_S]

10 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Updating the MSIX versions moves the files, and can invalidate shortcuts you've created manually.

Photo was not showing an icon without pinning and mere running. Well, it's alright now with the regular MSI version.

[Void2258]

Mine are doing this too, and I cannot find any icon files to work with. The exe files are in the location above but there are no icon files and trying to make new shortcuts just makes more generics without the proper icons. Start menu icons are fine.

[Checkmate]

Hi @Void2258 I had this issue when I was using the MSIX installers and I ended up uninstalling those and using the regular MSI installers instead.

However if you wanted to manually change the icons, here are the .ico versions of all 3 apps that you can use (instead of trying to find the exe).

Affinity Designer 2.ico Affinity Photo 2.ico Affinity Publisher 2.ico