This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Making desktop web shortcuts display the website's icon, not Firefox's?

  • 8 replies
  • 98 have this problem
  • 19 views
  • Last reply by skounave

more options

Why do almost all but a very few of the web shortcuts I place on my desktop display the orange Firefox logo and not the standard logo (icon) of the particular website I am short-cutting to? Is there something I can do to replace this with the site's own icon?

Why do almost all but a very few of the web shortcuts I place on my desktop display the orange Firefox logo and not the standard logo (icon) of the particular website I am short-cutting to? Is there something I can do to replace this with the site's own icon?

All Replies (8)

more options

If you drag a link or favicon on the left end of the location bar onto the desktop to create an internet shortcut then that shortcut gets the icon of the default browser.

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".

more options

Now that is some major hoop jumping to achieve what IE does with every new shortcut automatically. (of course I'm not dragging anything, I am creating a desktop short by right clicking on the open page - which FF doesn't give me the option to do). Isn't there another "create desktop shortcut" procedure besides the drag and drop? That's pretty inconvenient, and the result is even more so. My desktop looks like it's on fire, and finding the link I want quickly is impossible. Thanks.

more options

Since another 5 months have gone down the drain since this "workaround" (thank you very much cor-el, not your fault that no easier couldbe found) and FF still seems to have this problem - i have it on my XP box, and my wife has it in Win7 - it seems that Mozilla are not interested to do something about it. If indeed there is no better solution, it will be back to IE  :(

more options

fakeall,

The limitation isn't in Firefox or Opera or Safari or Chrome, it's the way Windows works with with web browsers that are installed by the user.

more options

Thank you for the prompt reply. While i have to take your word for it, since my programming skills approach zero, i find it hard to believe that this works effortlessly in IE, but the whizz-bang kids at Mozilla could not find a way to do it.

more options

IE is created by MS and closely tied to the Windows OS and as such is able to set a specific icon for a new internet desktop shortcut. Programs like Firefox do not have that possibility and then create a shortcut that gets the icon of the default browser. Be aware that changing the default browser wil reset all icon of internet shortcuts, so you will have to redo them all in that case.

more options

Thank you cor-el. Now, at least, i understand a bit of what is going on. Maybe, one sunny day a solution will be found.

more options

One way to get the shortcut icon to show on the desktop is to set FF as your default browser, and then run IE and drag it from IE to the desktop. When you click on it, it defaults to FF. It seems to work for me, though for a few people it does not.