When I create a custom 256x256 icon in photoshop and try to apply it to a shortcut, it will only work when its in medium size. When I make the icons large then they are still in medium format and have a clear box around them. How can I fix this? Thanks.

I believe the .ico format allows you to embed several different sizes of your icon. In order to get your icons to work outside of the 256x256 size, you will need to create all of the sizes you want and save them as such.

Note: I may be wrong about the .ico format, but i know there is such a format, and that is the one you want to use.

I found out what was wrong. If I make an ico file and try to make the shortcut use that ico, it comes up small. If I put my ico inside of an exe (created one with VSC++) then I browse to the exe and use it from there, then it will show up full.

Try IcoFX. You can use it to design icons at various sizes and save them in different formats.