How Do I Change My Desktop Icons

Personalizing your icons is a dandy way to make a PC uniquely yours. Allow'south take a look at the different means Windows lets you lot customize your icons.

RELATED: How to Make an Icon for Windows 10 or eleven Out of Any Epitome

Windows has some built-in icons you can choose from, only there is also an untold number of icons y'all can download from sites like IconArchive, DeviantArt, and Iconfinder—all of which have loads of free icons. And if you lot can't observe something you lot similar, yous tin even make high-resolution icons out of whatsoever image.

Once you accept the icons of your dreams, salvage them in a rubber place—some of these processes volition crave they stay in a particular location on your PC. In other cases, you'll probably want them in that location just in example something goes incorrect and you have to re-apply them.

Change Your Desktop Icons (Reckoner, Recycle Bin, Network, and And then On)

Icons like This PC, Network, Recycle Bin, and your User binder are all considered "desktop icons," even though modern versions of Windows don't show them all on the desktop. Windows 8 and 10 don't show any of the desktop icons except for Recycle Bin, and even Windows 7 doesn't testify them all. For a complete rundown, check out our guide to restoring missing desktop icons in Windows 7, 8, or 10.

Merely you can nevertheless alter how these icons announced elsewhere on your organization. To do so, you'll need to admission the "Desktop Icon Settings" window to turn these icons on and off or to alter the associated icons. In Windows x, you can access this window through Settings > Personalization > Themes > Desktop Icon Settings. In Windows 8 and 10, it's Control Panel > Personalize > Change Desktop Icons.

Use the checkboxes in the "Desktop icons" section to select which icons you want on your desktop. To change an icon, select the icon yous want to alter and so click the "Change Icon" button.

In the "Alter Icon" window, you tin can select whatever icon you lot want from the born Windows icons, or y'all can click "Browse" to locate your own icon files.

If you scan for your own icons, you can select whatever EXE, DLL, or ICO file. After selecting the file, the "Change Icon" window will show the icons contained in the file you selected. Click the one yous want and then click "OK." Here, we're changing the "This PC" icon to utilise one that looks more like a laptop than a desktop.

Later changing your icon, you should run into the new icon used in File Explorer, on the Desktop, and in the taskbar when the folder is open.

And if y'all desire to reverse the modify, you can always go back to the "Desktop Icon Settings" window, select the icon you want to change back, then click "Restore Default."

Change Binder Icons

Changing the icon for a binder is not only a good style to pretty things upwards, but also to call attention to important items. To alter a folder icon, right-click the folder you want to change and and so choose "Backdrop."

select properties from a folder's context menu

In the folder's properties window, switch to the "Customize" tab and then click the "Change Icon" button.

In the "Change Icon" window, you can select whatsoever icon you desire from the built-in Windows icons, or you lot can Click "Browse" to locate your own icons.

If you scan for your own icon file, y'all can select any EXE, DLL, or ICO file. Afterwards selecting the file, the "Modify Icon" window volition show the icons contained in the file yous selected. Click the one you desire and then click "OK." Here, nosotros're changing the icon for this binder to a scarlet i to make it stand up out more.

And back in the properties window, click "OK."

The folder should at present show up with the new icon.

This characteristic works by creating a hidden Desktop.ini file within the folder that contains a few lines of information something like the following:

[.ShellClassInfo] IconResource=D:\Walter\Documents\Icons\Oxygen-Icons.org-Oxygen-Places-folder-red.ico,0 [ViewState] Mode= Vid= FolderType=Generic

This is one of the cases where you absolutely must keep the ICO file in any location yous had it when you applied the icon. Put it somewhere you know yous won't delete it start, or make the ICO file hidden.

And if you desire to fine-tune how folders await and operate on your PC, yous should also explore how to customize folder views with Windows' five templates and how to customize binder view settings in Windows.

Change the Icon for a Blazon of File

You can also change the icon for specific file types (those that stop in certain extensions) so that all files of that type employ the new icon. Why bother to do this? Suppose, for example, you use an image editing programme that uses essentially the same icon for all the different types of image files it supported—PNG, JPG, GIF, and so on. Y'all might notice it more user-friendly if each of those file types used a different icon, so they were easier to distinguish—especially if you keep multiple file types in the aforementioned folder.

Unfortunately, in that location's no built-in manner to do this in Windows. Instead, yous'll need to download a free tool to do the job: File Types Manager past Nirsoft. We've got a complete guide to using File Types Manager to change the icon for a certain file type, and then if you call up this would be useful for you lot, requite it a read!

filetypesman window

The one type of file that File Types Manager is not good at handling, though, is executable (EXE) files. For that, we've got another free tool recommendation: Resource Hacker. And of course, we also have a guide on using it to alter the icon for an EXE file.

Change the Icon of Any Shortcut

Changing the icon for a shortcut in Windows is likewise pretty simple and works the same whether it'south a shortcut to an app, folder, or fifty-fifty Command Prompt control. Right-click the shortcut and choose "Backdrop."

choose properties command on shortcut's context menu

On the "Shortcut" tab, click the "Change Icon" push.

This opens the standard "Change Icon" window we've seen a couple of times already. Choose one of the default icons or browse to any EXE, DLL, or ICO file that contains icons. After making and applying your selection, you'll see the new icon in File Explorer, on the Desktop, or on the taskbar if y'all have your Shortcut pinned there.

If you desire, you tin even customize those shortcut icons further past removing (or irresolute) the arrow overlays or preventing Windows from calculation the "- Shortcut" text.

Change the Icon of Apps that Are Pinned to the Taskbar

Icons that are pinned to your taskbar are really shortcuts—they merely don't have the arrow overlay and "- Shortcut" text normally associated with shortcuts. Every bit such, you can customize their icons in nearly the same way that y'all customize any shortcut icon. You only demand to go on a few things in heed:

You tin can simply customize the icons of apps that are really pinned to the taskbar. If the icon is but on the taskbar considering the app is currently running and it isn't pinned there, yous tin't customize it. And so, pivot it start.
If an app is pinned, just is currently running, you lot'll need to shut the app earlier you lot can modify the shortcut icon.
Just correct-clicking a pinned app shows you lot the app's jumplist. To access the regular context menu instead, hold the Shift fundamental down while correct-clicking the icon. Choose "Properties" from that bill of fare and and so the residue of the procedure will be familiar to you from the previous section.

choose properties command on taskbar shortcut's context menu

Change the Icon of any Bulldoze in File Explorer

There's no simple congenital-in mode to change the icons for drives in Windows. That doesn't mean you can't exercise it though. The easy mode is to use a free app named Drive Icon Changer. There'southward also a style that works a bit differently and involves a lilliputian Registry editing. You tin can read all about both methods in our guide to changing drive icons in Windows.

Drive Icon Changer is the easiest way, though you tin do it from the registry if you'd prefer not to use extra software.

Hopefully, this gives you plenty data about changing icons that you tin brand things await merely the way yous desire them.

Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/13631/customize-your-icons-in-windows-7-and-vista/

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