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Why doesn't Firefox show site-specific favicons on Windows shortcuts?

  • 2 replies
  • 32 have this problem
  • 13 views
  • Last reply by Antonimo

jgaines
jgaines
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I like to access web sites by clicking URL shortcuts on my Windows Desktop screen or Taskbar. When Internet Explorer is the default browser, these shortcuts display "favicons" that are specific to the web site and provide instantaneous visual recognition of the site. When Firefox is the default, the Firefox icon appears. I, therefore, have numerous look-alike Firefox icons on the screen and Taskbar.

Why doesn't Firefox allow these "favicons" to appear?

I like to access web sites by clicking URL shortcuts on my Windows Desktop screen or Taskbar. When Internet Explorer is the default browser, these shortcuts display "favicons" that are specific to the web site and provide instantaneous visual recognition of the site. When Firefox is the default, the Firefox icon appears. I, therefore, have numerous look-alike Firefox icons on the screen and Taskbar. Why doesn't Firefox allow these "favicons" to appear?

All Replies (2)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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IE is part of the Windows Operating System and thus can set a specific icon for the desktop shortcut. Firefox is a cross platform application and can't set an icon.

If you want a different icon (favicon) then you have to assign that icon yourself to the desktop shortcut (right-click: Properties).
You can usually get the favicon if you append "favicon.ico" to the main domain of a website (e.g. http://www.mozilla.com/favicon.ico ) to display the favicon in a tab and save that image to a folder or see if you can find it in "Tools > Page Info > Media".

Antonimo
Antonimo
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If hunting for the favicon is hard work, you can open the shortcut that you created from Firefox in IE and after the page loads, the icon will refresh to the site's favicon.

- Tested IE9 Windows 7