I have had this problem for years.

I have ticked my START/SETTINGS/TASKBAR & START MENU/SHOW SMALL ICONS IN START MENU

However, I like to do my AD-Aware, Spybot and Defrag operations in safe-mode. When I return to normal W98, my Start Menu icons have all changed to large icons.

As I do these often, it is becoming irritating. Does anyone know if there is a fix for this?

Jadag (Montreal, Canada)

"If you know you're going to lose - lose quickly"

Hellooo ? Anyone out there with an answer?

Open Notepad or a similar text only editor. Copy and paste the following (between the lines, including the two blank lines at the end) into the editor;

----------------------------------------------------------
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"SmallIcons"=dword:00000001


----------------------------------------------------------

Save it as Start menu small icons.reg or anything you like but give it a .reg extension. Click on the file and choose Merge. This should embed the setting into your registry. A restart ~may~ be necessary.

Thanks Dan,

I tried this "fix" on a previous occasion and again just a few minutes ago. No change I'm afraid.

If I set my START to "small icons" it will stay that way for days as long as I always start in "Normal mode". I only lose the small icons when starting in "Normal mode" after a Safe Mode session.

At first I thought there might me another key further down the registry that "undoes" the key you suggested, but then it would "force" large icons everytime I start in "Normal" mode ... but it doesn't.

There has to be something about "Safe Mode" that overides the "forced small icons" key.

Well, based upon this and this, it should be possible to use batch files to save, then recover your last saved shelliconcache file and copy it into place before windows starts. It would take a little tweaking but doable.

Are you familiar with DOS batch files?

Very interresting!! Thank you.

Here's the question: based on the paragraph;

CAUSE

When you start Windows in Safe mode, all shell settings return to their default values. When you next restart Windows normally, most of the shell settings return to their prior values. However, some shell settings, including the taskbar options, are not restored.

where are these "shell settings" stored? I thought the shelliconcache stored icons only - not any settings.

I am able to write batch files ... if they're straight foward - what would you suggest?

Well I've written a couple of batch files which worked for capturing/replacing the ShellIconCache file, however, no settings were saved as anticipated.

It's really a kick in the a$$ that MS never provided a means around this.

In order for this method to work, all shell instances with icon settings would have to be found, then exported from the registry, saved to a location, then the keys added back in (through DOS - autoexec.bat) via a choice or similar command in the instances after a Safe Mode boot.

Unfortunately, I don't have the time at the moment to pursue this for you. If you choose to explore this facet on your own, this site will help you along. I'm not saying I'm giving up, but it may take a while. I'd like to develop the means around this problem, it would probably make many people happy.

Thanks for the effort Dan, if you ever decide to pursue this further and solve MS's mess-up (a euphemism, of course) , please let me know via my email address in my profile. All of us here appreciate your efforts (and insights)