F&*k!ng dropbox problem…
ShellIconOverlayIdentifier are Icons I NEED to see, particularly:
(these came from LinkShellExtension program but the entries are default in Windows)
This is what it SHOULD look like.
I deleted the following Dropbox registry entries YESTERDAY; they were causing me to not be able to see ANY other shell Overlay icons (inside Windows File Explorer and shell Save/Open).
….and today they’re back.
Theres so many of them, and even have artificial spaces to take precedence, that they block out the more important ones below, most importantly the Hardlink, Junction and SymbolicLink (Symlink).
Why?
Theres a windows limit of 15 overlay handlers……. Don’t ask me.
This obnoxious Dropbox “Feature” makes it so i can’t see my junctions or symlinks or hardlinks AT ALL.
Actually the hard link would be the 15th in this picture but theres a different reg key (non WOW6432Node) for File Explorer (64-bit) and that one has an extra one as the 15th (not depicted)…
Dropbox is a real asshole for trying to use 10 out of max 15 things for itself. I actually have no idea what icons they even represent, maybe one or two is necessary, but just no.
I also had like 20 other different ones in there yesterday, a lot from Tortoise SVN and random others, but they stayed removed.
But Dropbox puts them back. Possibly because it updates itself so much (from a sneaky Scheduled Task).
This leaves me no choice but to uninstall:
Before (bugged)…
Uninstalled Dropbox:
AFTER (fixed)!
The registry entries are located at :
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers
Not only that, the regular uninstall process didn’t even remove all the Wow6432 ones -labeled 1 2 and 3 with no spaces or zeroes. They are safe to delete manually.
To update, you will need to close all secondary instances of Explorer.exe down from Task Manager and then Restart your main desktop shell Windows Explorer, for the changes to take effect and show the updated icons.
Hopefully the day will come when Microsoft will let us have more than 15, or Invent a “Priority” reg-Value and companies won’t have to resort to including spaces in the name to exert dominance.