# Where is the info about Favorites icons stored?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-info-about-favorites-icons-stored/273237>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 5, 2004, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-info-about-favorites-icons-stored/273237 "2004-11-05T19:27:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![According\_to\_Pliny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@According\_to\_Pliny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/According_to_Pliny)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2004, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-info-about-favorites-icons-stored/273237/1 "2004-11-05T19:27:47Z")

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I’ve noticed that some of the links on my Favorites lists have tiny pictures with them.  
Some of these appear on all browsers and some only appear with Internet Explorer.

What I don’t understand is where the information for the picture is stored.  
It must be in two separate places, or else perhaps the icons themselves are in distinct folders?

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**Author:** ![galt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/35a633/32.png) [@galt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galt)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2004, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-info-about-favorites-icons-stored/273237/2 "2004-11-05T20:00:34Z")

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IE lets the page specify the icon by including code like this:

```auto

	<link REL="SHORTCUT ICON" HREF="http://www.site.com/foo.ico">

```

I don’t know offhand if other browsers use this same method or not.

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**Author:** ![According\_to\_Pliny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@According\_to\_Pliny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/According_to_Pliny)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2004, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-info-about-favorites-icons-stored/273237/3 "2004-11-05T20:03:06Z")

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If I right-click on a favorite and go to Properties, I can change the icon, so these must be attached by some other method. Where are properties recorded?

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**Author:** ![Omphaloskeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bcef8e/32.png) [@Omphaloskeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omphaloskeptic)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2004, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-info-about-favorites-icons-stored/273237/4 "2004-11-05T22:28:40Z")

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IE stores Favorites links, at least on this XP system, in the Favorites folder (\Documents and Settings[username]\Favorites). Each link is stored as a text file with .url extension. The icon can be specified within this file, using fields IconIndex and IconFile (the IconIndex used because a single IconFile may contain multiple icons). If you look at a couple of these \*.url files you’ll get the idea. If it’s not specified explicitly, my guess is that it uses the cached icon from LINK REL (explained by **galt** ) seen in the last visit, if available; I haven’t checked this though.

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**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\
**Post date:** [November 6, 2004, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-is-the-info-about-favorites-icons-stored/273237/5 "2004-11-06T02:50:05Z")

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On a related note, IE has trouble keeping track of the special icons for your favorites - once you clear your browser cache, they usually vanish, and revert to the default symbol. [Here’s a nice utility](http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,108438,00.asp) that makes the icons persistent, so they stick around. It also lets you do things like assigning the “favicon” from one website to another one, checking for redirected pages, checking for dead links, and so on. Freebies.

So when is the SDMB getting a favicon.ico?!!