You don't need to install PowerIcons. AfA definitely starts with icon support. If it doesn't then something went wrong during the install. IIRC, the line inserted in the startup-sequence which assigns AfA_OS_Libs: to the directory where the libraries are kept always points to Libs:AfA_OS_Libs regardless of where you actually install them. So as AmiKit said, you need to change that line to the location where you actually put the AfA libraries so that AfA_OS_Loader can find them. Make sure the Assign command comes before the loader. Also, make absolutely, 100% certain that PowerIcons is not running at the same time as AfA, as I suspect they are incompatible and neither will work if they are both running (though I'm not certain of that).
AfA can be tricky to set up but persevere with it. It's faster and has more features than PowerIcons.
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moto