I created desktop shortcuts for a few Windows 11 apps (by drag-and-drop from the start menu), and their icons turned to the default blank page after a short while (maybe when restarting the Explorer, I don't remember exactly when it occured). More specifically, this happened to the following app icons: Paint, Calculator, Time, Screen Sketch, Terminal. (It also occured for MyASUS and Armoury Crate, which are not Windows programs.) The icon is correctly displayed in the start menu, but not on the desktop.
I was able to solve the problem for Paint, Screen Sketch and Terminal (and MyASUS), by using the following steps:
- Take ownership of the
C:\Program Files\WindowsAppsfolder (option 2 in https://youtu.be/Sug1OVa0Q3A worked for me) - Right click on the blank desktop icon, go to properties
- Identify the WindowsApps subfolder that I need to go to (for instance
Microsoft.Paint_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App) - Still in the Properties box, change the icon, and navigate to the folder (for instance
C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.Paint_11.2401.20.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\PaintApp)
Unfortunately, this procedure does not work for Calculator and Time (and Armoury Crate). Indeed, in this case, there is no app in the subfolders, or the app does not contain any icon (by the way, the app does not start if I try to launch it from the WindowsApp folder, but it works if I start it from the start menu, from the desktop blank icon or from the Execute prompt).
To be more specific, in C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsAlarms_11.2401.9.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe there is the Time.exe file, without any icon, and in C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsCalculator_11.2401.0.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe there is CalculatorApp.exe, again without any icon.
I was able to locate the calc.exe file in C:\Windows\System32, which seems to be the same app when I start it (it didn't use the default settings, because I changed that to the Scientific setting, that is probably stored somewhere in the AppData folder), but has a different icon (and it does not seem to be a symbolic link to the app in the WindowsApps folder). I could use this icon (but I don't like it, I prefer the other one).
I was not able to locate time.exe (or anything like that). So I don't have any icon for this app.
I found the icons in PNG format (in C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsCalculator_11.2401.0.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\Assets and in C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsAlarms_11.2401.9.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\Assets). I know I could simply convert them to the ICO format somehow, and use that. But I didn't do it because:
- as I understand, this is not an optimal solution (the icon would not be resizable); EDIT: This is actually a decent solution for my use case, as an ICO file contains multiple sizes of the icon, and therefore the icon is resizable. This is what I eventually went for, following the gimp tutorial here: https://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Windows-Icon.
- the icons for Calculator and Time clearly exist somewhere, otherwise they would not appear in the start menu.
Conclusion
I guess that I am "simply" not able to locate these existing icons.
I don't know how to resolve paths myself in Windows. For instance, I don't know the location of the app that is started when you write "time" in the Execute prompt. I don't know the location of the app that is started when you double-click on the desktop icon that has the target set to Microsoft.WindowsCalculator_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App.
Of course, I tried to Google how to resolve paths in Windows, but I was not successful (there seems to be the Resolve-Path command for the Windows shell, and the XmlResolver.ResolveUri(Uri, String) method for C#, I tried for a solid hour to make them work, but I am very clearly not knowledgeable enough to use them).
I am amazed by how difficult it is to do such a simple task as "creating a desktop icon for a default Windows app"!
Does anybody have a solution to this problem?
Also, please note that this is my first message on StackExchange, I apologize if it is not perfect. I did try to solve this myself for a few hours, I did Google this problem quite extensively.
EDIT: It is not a duplicate of Windows 10 Keyboard Shortcut to Calculator?, as I am not just trying to create a shortcut on the desktop, I want a shortcut with the correct icon!
