PTE bug or Windows constraint?

[LumenLux]

I often like to use my own icon for an .exe file created with PTE. I have now spent a couple of hours trying to determine why PTE will accept an icon for some .pte/.exe creations, but not for all! The icon itself, seems not to be the issue. The same icon can work in some shows, and not others. My diagnosis so far, is that the size of the .exe or possibly the number of slides, is the problem.

The problem first surfaced as my .exe file was approximately 1Gb from 236 slides including one video file. A new project, of only 3 slides, accepted the icon just fine for the .exe. Then from the 236 slides, I created several .exe files, after removing various numbers of slides. Ultimately, I narrowed it down, that the icon fill "work", show as the created .exe file, for 170 slides, but will not work if I have 175 slides. It is not a matter of which 5 slides are removed. The 175 slide .exe is 752MB, and will not utilize and display chosen icon. Two .exe's, using 170 slides each (different slides removed from the 175 slide PTE), each accept and display the chosen icon. So 175 slides for .exe of 752MB will not utilize the icon, but two versions of 170 slides each, produce .exe's of 730MB and 740MB and both accept and do display the desired icon.

Question for Igor, and the rest of you/us: Is this a bug in PTE or a constraint in Windows for .exe files accepting .ico files? I have done my testing with PTE Version 7.01 and Version 6.57.

Attached image, shows the .exe files that accept the .ico of my choice, and those that do not.

[nobeefstu]

Robert,

Can you clerify a few important details in your issue:

1- Is it that the PTE program wont accept/reject the custom icon you selected in the Project Options ?

2- Is it that Windows itself does not display the custom icon you selected ?

3- When you right-click the Properties of the EXE file in Windows, what icon is displayed ?

4- Does switching Windows to different folder views change the icon displays ?

* Turn off any real time virus protective servies running and see if icons return to proper display. I think you may see where my questions are leading to the direction as to your possible issue.

[denwell]

Not in answer to the issue above, but possibly related .

When I use a personal icon in a project and produce the .exe, then Avast AV gives it an 'unsafe' status and sandboxes it. However when using the default PTE icon all is well. The personal icon file scans OK with Avast/MalwareBytes. No slide number limit seems to affect this as far as I can tell and icons show correct in Properties.

This has occurred for several weeks now using 7.0 and has become an inconvenience.

[LumenLux]

Robert,

Can you clerify a few important details in your issue:

1- Is it that the PTE program wont accept/reject the custom icon you selected in the Project Options ?

2- Is it that Windows itself does not display the custom icon you selected ?

3- When you right-click the Properties of the EXE file in Windows, what icon is displayed ?

4- Does switching Windows to different folder views change the icon displays ?

* Turn off any real time virus protective servies running and see if icons return to proper display. I think you may see where my questions are leading to the direction as to your possible issue.

1. Sorry for my choice of words. PTE does not object to the custom icon, it does accept it in all cases.

2. So Windows XP does not display the custom icon.

3. On several computers, properties displays the same generic icon as the various folder views. Properties does not display custom icon.

4. Different folder views do not change the icon view.

5. Virus protection: Turning off virus protection on originating PC, still will not display custom icon. Also, with virus protection off, a scan of the .exe file detects nothing. BUT, the above led to something. I have a laptop that has never had any virus protection installed. When I copied the PTE.exe show to that never-protected laptop, the custom icon displays in all views!

6. So Stu, it seems you have us headed in the right direction, thank you. I hope you can maybe shed additional light now with the info above. What still seems strange to me, is that the custom icon displays correctly onall the pc's, until the .exe file size is some critical size?

(I also created a version for showing on Mac, and the custom icon shows fine on the Mac.)

[LumenLux]

Not in answer to the issue above, but possibly related .

When I use a personal icon in a project and produce the .exe, then Avast AV gives it an 'unsafe' status and sandboxes it. However when using the default PTE icon all is well. The personal icon file scans OK with Avast/MalwareBytes. No slide number limit seems to affect this as far as I can tell and icons show correct in Properties.

This has occurred for several weeks now using 7.0 and has become an inconvenience.

Yes, it seems the erratic behavior you have noted is likely related. See also my response to nobeefstu's input.

[nobeefstu]

Robert & Den

Virus Protection Programs have so much influence and control of our PCs these days ... we are somewhat at their mercy.

The best bet at this point is to contact the makers/vendors of the Virus Protection Programs and make them aware of your current issue(s).

Hopefully they can address the issue thru a definition update or some other program setting on their part. Visit their users site board to see what others are experiencing.

As for;

Virus protection: Turning off virus protection on originating PC, still will not display custom icon.

Its hard to tell if its really and fully turned off and some of them just dont turn off. Its also possible when you did turn it off ... the icon display didnt return because its reading/using the icon cache. Sometimes a cold boot is required (while the protection is still turned off) to clear the cache.

[fh1805]

Robert,

Like Denwell's post, this is not going to help resolve your problems. I have just experimented with assigning a customized icon to a small slide show (5 images) and had no problems. My environment is: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit with SP1, PTE v7.0.1, AVG 2012.0.1831 Free Edition with database level 2092/4568. I'll now increase the number of slides to 200 and see what happens. Will be back.

regards,

Peter

[fh1805]

I promised I'd be back. I didn't mess around with just 200 images. I went for broke and built an EXE file of 944MB (containing c.1000 images) with Icon - no problem. Sorry if all I've done is confuse the situation. Whatever you're problem is, it seems to be system/iconfile/sequence specific and not a general problem with icon files or large sequences. Note that my sequence had no video in it as I don't have any video capability in my cameras.

regards,

Peter

[LumenLux]

I promised I'd be back. I didn't mess around with just 200 images. I went for broke and built an EXE file of 944MB (containing c.1000 images) with Icon - no problem. Sorry if all I've done is confuse the situation. Whatever you're problem is, it seems to be system/iconfile/sequence specific and not a general problem with icon files or large sequences. Note that my sequence had no video in it as I don't have any video capability in my cameras.

regards,

Peter

Thank you Peter, I agree with your "conclusions" even though not "solutions.". I think too, after the deductive testing,the video is not relevant.

[fh1805]

Robert,

Just a thought... on which drive and in which folder is your customized icon? What happens if you assign a real Windows icon to the file(s) which currently fail?

regards,

Peter

[Igor]

I reproduced this problem.

It seems that Windows XP can not display icon for executable file larger than ~700 MB. And it does not matter, default icon or custom icon.

Windows 7 displays correctly icon for same executable file. We tested even with 1.5 GB EXE file. Everything is OK.