I have Vista and put shortcuts on my desktop including one for this forum. Lately I have noticed some of the icons that were automatically put on my desktop for the shortcut have changed. For example this forum originally had a black HHR, but then changed to the XM logo. It is now back to the black HHR (which I prefer).
What causes this? Do advertisers pay to get there logo on a (non-related in some cases) site? If so, is there a way to lock it so it stays, or customize it?

 

My PC does this in the favorites. Sometimes I might have Ebay for the icon or MSN, it's a weird glitch thanks to microsoft.

 

When building a website the designer or webmaster has the option of using within the code favicon (favorite icon) along with uploading the icon to the host server for the site, this icon will appear in the browser address bar and is also used wherever you store the URL for a given site (Desktop or Favorites or Bookmarks), you could (?) refer to it as a logo. If the webmaster changes the favorite icon the next time you visit that site it will update. I am not a Vista user (still XP here) but if you right click on the Desktop then look for "arrange icons" you should be able to "lock the desktop".
Here is a sample of the YOUTUBE favicon -

 

Fixed this problem about 8 years ago.