DPlot file icon

Albannach · Post by **Albannach** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 4:15 pm

All my DPlot documents have lost their standard DPlot icon. The application file itself and its shortcuts are OK, but the documents have all reverted to the generic Windows icon for file extensions it doesn't recognize. One of the old versions of Windows (3.1?) had a mini-app where you could do lots of things with file access, including attaching any icon you wanted to a file, but I am unable to find it in XP and I forgot what it was called. Anyone know how this can be done nowadays?

Post by **DPlotAdmin** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 6:19 pm

I'm flummoxed on this subject. You're the third to report this, but I've been unable to reproduce it no matter how I screw up the registry entries. If you elect to "Associate DPlot with the .grf file extension" in the setup program, well then... .grf files should show a DPlot document icon, plain and simple. But that's apparently not happening for some folks.

Thinking out loud: The only version-dependent change I can think of that might have anything at all to do with this problem is the inclusion of a .manifest file in the resources to show XP-like dialog controls. Perhaps that is somehow interfering with Windows grabbing the document icon from dplot.exe. (Though if that's the case its a puzzle why it doesn't affect me as well.) I'm only writing this down to remind myself to look into it, no response expected

Post by **DPlotAdmin** » Sun Jun 15, 2008 10:54 am

Found the problem, finally, thanks to input from you and a couple of others. Unfortunately there's nothing you can do at your end to fix this. Will post an update soon.

If any developers are interested in how this happened, the resource compiler I'm using apparently gets confused by new resource types (which the RT_MANIFEST is, as far as it is concerned). The manifest is used to tell Windows to use the XP style dialog controls within DPlot, and it must have an ID of 1. Here it gets a little confusing, because the manifest does work as expected, but somehow the compiled resource file confuses the manifest with ID 1 with the 2nd icon (index=1) in the resources. The manifest of course isn't a valid icon, so DPlot documents get the generic text document icon or something else, but not the intended icon. The fix (there may be a better way but this works) was to duplicate the document icon within the resource file.

jsc · Post by **jsc** » Sun Jun 15, 2008 4:09 pm

David,

You're not going to like this, but it still just displays the generic icon. I've tried a couple of things to force it, but still, when HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\DPLOT\DefaultIcon is "C:\PROGRAM FILES\DPLOT\DPLOT.EXE,1", I still get the generic icon. If I change the value to 0 or 2, I get a DPlot icon, but value=1 is the generic icon. (Yes, this is with 2.1.7.7 and XP Home with SP3)

Post by **DPlotAdmin** » Sun Jun 15, 2008 4:33 pm

Hi Jon,
You... well actually I... jumped the gun a bit and got the update before it was truly fixed. It turns out there are 2 problems with versions at least as far back as 2.1.6.6. One was fixed in the version you updated to, one was not. And because I figured nobody but Jon Canale would use "Check for Updates" on a Sunday afternoon, I didn't change the version number. So "Check for Updates" won't do you any good. I've sent a private e-mail to you with the link to the update which should, definitely, no doubt about it, crossing fingers, work.

Post by **DPlotAdmin** » Sun Jun 15, 2008 4:38 pm

If any developers are interested in how this happened...

The cause was only partially correct, and the fix didn't work at all. It turns out that a 2nd problem was the use of the UPX executable compressor. The default options with UPX end up eating all but the first embedded icon. I started using UPX a while back when discovering that ASPack-compressed executables caused trouble on Vista - namely that the digital signature was deemed invalid.

Don: I've sent you a private e-mail with a link. If you haven't used "Check for Update" today (Sunday) then doing so should fix the problem. Otherwise you'll need to download the licensed version from the link provided in the e-mail.

Albannach · Post by **Albannach** » Sun Jun 15, 2008 7:15 pm

Thanks, David. I installed the update and that solved the problem.

jsc · Post by **jsc** » Sun Jun 15, 2008 9:42 pm

Okay, now I'm starting to get a little self conscious! Only me on a Sunday afternoon! The trouble is, you're right! I should be outside (riding my bike!) or doing something on the honey do list...

But the latest fix worked on my system too. Thanks much!

Jon