CfApi unexpected behavior when setting a custom folder icon with desktop.ini and deffered placeholders
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(307.2, 16%, 39%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EAA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Anne Admin
21
Reputation points
We have a cloud filter API service which uses the StorageProviderHydrationPolicy.Partial, StorageProviderPopulationPolicy.Full and CF_OPERATION_TRANSFER_PLACEHOLDERS_FLAGS.CF_OPERATION_TRANSFER_PLACEHOLDERS_FLAG_DISABLE_ON_DEMAND_POPULATION
We are settings desktop.ini to give folders a custom icon (much like the way OneDrive does), however we have noticed that the icon looks like a regular folder icon until the user navigates into the folder and back out again.
I believe this is due to some shell behavior regarding the hydration policy - however I can't figure out a workaround. I've tried many things including calling CfConvertToPlaceholder on desktop.ini, simulating a file request to desktop.ini, etc but nothing seems to work.
Windows development | Windows API - Win32
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![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Anonymous2025-11-06T07:55:23.0133333+00:00 Hello @Anne Admin , my apologies for the late reply. Have you been able to resolve the problem? If you're still encountering issues, please don't hesitate to reach out.