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Forum Discussion
A certain icon overlay doesn't work in Windows
I have been working to resolve issues regarding icon overlays. After reading a lot of posts on this forum, I figured out how to edit my registry and move Dropbox overlays to the top of the list, giving them priority. This worked - with one odd exception. The icon for mixed state files won't display no matter what I do. According to this link, that should be DropboxExt09. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Shell_Icon_Overlay_Identifiers)
I realize this is a minor issue. But having spent a lot of time on the general issue, I am hoping someone can help me fix this one quirk.
Thanks ...
With thanks to Buster from Dropbox support, I resolved this problem. In case anyone else has a similar issue, here are the steps that I took.
1. Uninstalled Dropbox and restarted my computer.
2. Using the registry editor (Run REGEDIT), deleted "Dropbox" and "DropboxUpdate" registry entries, checking the following two locations:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\3. Made sure that remaining Dropbox folders did not exist or were deleted by checking the following locations in Windows Explorer: %APPDATA%
%PROGRAMFILES%
%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%4. Manually deleted any remaining Dropbox icon overlays in this area of the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers
5. Restarted my system and installed the newest version of Dropbox.6. After Dropbox installed and everything was indexed, I made sure that the ten Dropbox overlay icon overlays were in the first ten spots in the registry area from step #4.
7. I restarted my system again, and all the icons worked. (I use OneDrive for work, and the icons there stayed in place even though their overlays are now "subordinated" to the Dropbox overlays in the registry.)
A complicated fix for a relatively minor problem, but glad to have the mystery solved. Thanks again to Buster from Dropbox support!
For those who are tired of editing regedit after every major Dropbox update please check out my idea https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-ideas/Add-option-to-disable-icon-overlays-in-Windows-Explorer
- Jay
Dropbox Staff
Hi Andrew K.24, thanks for joining the Community!
We haven’t heard of any specific overlays that aren’t working when it isn’t related to the 15 icon limit.
Could you check that you do have a mixed state folder on your account, which is one that contains both online-only and local files.
If you do have one, does it show any overlay at all? Could you forward a screenshot, while hiding personal info, of the folder and the files inside it to confirm it should be a mixed state folder?
Keep me posted!
Hi Jay,
Thank you for replying. I took a screenshot, but am not adept enough to block out my personal information. Can I DM it to you? It clearly shows a file structure with the top-level file having no icon, and the two sub-folder with icons - one showing a green check for local sync, the other showing a cloud.
I realize this is not an end-of-the-world issue, but I am puzzled. I have a laptop that is set up exactly the same way, and all the icons work there.
-Andy
