Generic icon problem for certain file types

Hello,

After installing Office, certain file types are no longer
represented with their associated icons. Instead, a generic
icon is displayed. After looking into the matter a little
more deeply, I discovered that those file types exhibiting
the problem have a ShellEx subkey in their registry entry
that Windows XP x64 ignores.

For example, let's consider the .html file type. In the
registry, look under

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.html

This entry points you to htmlfile, so now look under

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\htmlfile

After a fresh install of Windows XP x64, only the
following five subkeys appear under the htmlfile key:
BrowseInPlace, CLSID, DefaultIcon, ScriptHostEncode,
shell. The default icon representing the file
type was described in the DefaultIcon subkey.
(The default data for the subkey is
"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore,1"
without the quotes.)

After installing Office, however, a sixth subkey gets
added, named ShellEx. Under ShellEx is another subkey
labelled IconHandler. In this subkey there is a reference
to a CLSID which actually describes the icon. The CLSID
for both the htmlfile and mhtmlfile file types is:
{42042206-2D85-11D3-8CFF-005004838597}
The same default data as the one listed above should be
found in the CLSID entry.

The icon setting within the CLSID key is supposed to
take precedence over the setting in the DefaultIcon
subkey of htmlfile.

Now, for some reason, the method of describing the
icon of a file type via a CLSID "persistent handler"
does not not seem to work properly in Windows XP x64.
Anyone know of a way to fix this? This problem doesn't
only apply to html file types, but to many others, such
as .indd for InDesign.

One more thing. If you run a 32-bit program (such as
Word or Windows Media Player) and click on File -->
Open, you will see the files represented with their
proper icons! (Make sure to choose Any File under the
file type drop-down list.)

Any help would be much appreciated.

Regards,
Mike

Mike H