Change the program icon. Methods for solving the problem

First of all, we must turn off the thumbnails of the bedside tables. Those. so that several thumbnails are not shown inside the folder. To do this, let's go to the panel “tuning system presentation and performance”(in English: “performance options”). Just type this after pressing “start” to immediately find the desired menu item.

And in the window that appears, uncheck the “display thumbnails instead of icons” option. Actually, at this same point, you can remove other effects of the seven. However, their consideration is beyond the scope of this article. So, with this action, we achieved the following look:

The next step is to replace the default folder icon in the registry. To do this, you need to have administrator rights on the system. We do the following:

  • Start->Run or win+r
  • We write regedit
  • If UAC complains, agree. After which you should start the registry editor, which looks like this:

  • Next, expand the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
  • Create another folder in it:

  • Which should be called: Shell Icons. For some, this folder may already exist, in which case there is no need to create anything again.
  • Select this folder and go to the right side of the window. In it, right-click and select “create” -> “string parameter”. In the name, indicate the number 3 . That's all! There is no need to write anything else in the title. Then right-click on the parameter (on our C grade) and select “Change”.

  • In the value we indicate the path to our icon. This can be a *.ico file (like mine) or a library file with parameters. It is important that the icon size is 256*256, since only in this case is the correct resizing in the system guaranteed. Keep this point in mind when choosing an icon file.
  • Click "OK".
  • Close the registry editor.
  • Log out of your account or reboot.

To return standard folder icons, reset the key value "3", which we created in the registry, and best of all, delete the icons you can view and download in the icons for windows 7 section

The standard Windows folder and file designations migrate from version to version and, perhaps, someone is quite tired of them. However, many users do not suspect that these icons can be replaced with others. The system's capabilities in this regard are too limited, but, fortunately, third-party developers have made sure that we can diversify the design of Windows 8 to our liking.

Let's figure out how and by what means you can change the standard Windows 8 icons to more attractive ones.

Changing icons using Windows

Consider a situation where you need to change the icon of a single folder or shortcut to make it stand out from the rest. Let's assume you don't have any special desires for originality and you'll be satisfied with the standard icons from the Windows set.

Changing the folder image

  • Open the context menu of the folder whose icon you want to change and select Properties.

  • Go to the “Settings” tab and click the “Change Icon” button.

  • By default, a set of icons from the Shell32 system library will open. Select the appropriate image and click OK. If none of the pictures suits you, you can click “Browse” and select another file with icons. The icons contain various Windows libraries and executables, but to find something specific, you need to know exactly where to look.

  • Click on an empty area of ​​the desktop and press F5 - the desktop will refresh and the folder will change appearance.

  • To return the folder to its original icon, open the change icon window again and click “Restore Defaults.”

Changing standard desktop icons

The standard desktop icons in Windows 8 are the “This PC”, “Trash”, “User Files” and “Network” icons.

  • To access the settings you need, open the Personalization panel. To get there, call up the desktop context menu and click the corresponding item in it.

  • Click “Change desktop icons” in the navigation bar.

  • In the “Icon Options” window, select what you want to change and click “Change Icon”.

  • By default, a set of icons from the imageres.dll library will be opened. Select any image and click OK. The icon will change.

  • To return the default image in the “Desktop Icon Options” window, click the “Normal Icon” button.

Changing program shortcut images

The program's desktop shortcut image is created based on the resources of the program itself. The icon is usually contained in the executable file or some library of that application.

  • To change the image of a shortcut, open its properties from the context menu, go to the “Shortcut” tab and click “Change Icon”.

  • Select one of the suggested options or click “Browse” and specify a different file. In our example, the MEGAsync application icon is located in the MEGAsync.exe executable file.

After selecting a different icon and clicking OK, the program's shortcut will be changed.

Installing icons from other sources

On the Internet you can find a lot of tools for designing Windows. These are ready-made themes, which include icons for folders and system icons, and thematic sets of pictures in ico format (single icons), icl (groups of icons of different sizes) or png (regular pictures with elements of transparency), and applications for changing icons “ in one click."

Icon set

To set a png image as an icon, you must first convert it to ico. To do this, you can use a simple program AveIconifier2.

We drag the png file into the right window of the program, take ico from the left window and drop it into the same folder. After that, change the folder icon in the same way as we discussed above. We specify the folder with the set of icons as the source.

Here's what we ended up with:


Applications

Programs for changing icons have O greater opportunities. With their help, you can design not only folders and system icons, but also files, drive icons in the “This PC” directory, control panel elements, etc.

IconTo

As an example of such programs, consider IconTo. It comes with about 300 icons in different artistic styles, but these are not the only ones you can install.

  • Run IconTo as an administrator.
  • Click the “Specify folder/file” item. Let's check if the program can change icons for an entire type of file (let's take text files, for example).

  • Select an icon. The program makes it possible to install icons from Windows 8 files, from its own, quite rich set, or any others. Let's take one of the pictures from our fruit set.

  • After selecting the appropriate image, click “Set Icon”.

This is what we got: all text files now look very tasty.

To return them to the standard view, you need to click “Remove icon from folder”.

Other programs work in a similar way. Their capabilities are quite enough to completely transform Windows, but sometimes problems arise with restoration to its previous appearance. Therefore, before launching such an application, create a restore point in case you are not satisfied with the end result.

In the new operating system, Microsoft has redesigned each interface element and allowed the user to personalize the appearance of each of them. Desktop icons have also undergone changes. There are few people who want to get used to the new look of desktop icons when switching from Windows 7, so the developers took care of the function of replacing their icons. In this regard, let's look at how to change desktop icons in Windows 10 to your own or those present in the system.

Changing the appearance of the main desktop icons

The main icons are those that are displayed on the desktop immediately after installing the operating system. In order to replace one of them, we perform the chain of actions below.

1. Call the “Options” menu using the keyboard shortcut Win→I.

2. Go to the personalization section.

3. Activate the “Themes” tab.


The above steps can be replaced by clicking on the “Personalization” item in the desktop context menu.

5. In the window of the same name, select the element whose icon should be changed and click “Change icon”.


6. Select the icon you like from those available in the system or specify your icon file in ico or dll format.

To do the latter, unpack the archive with icons, click on the “Browse” button and specify the location of the icon library.


7. Having replaced all the icons, click “Accept” and confirm the action.


Free icon packs can be downloaded from sourceforge.net/projects/openiconlibrary.

Can all shortcut icons be changed?

The icon of any desktop element, be it a system directory or a link to an application/directory, can be replaced with your own. The exception is files located in the “Desktop” directory, which belongs to the current account.

Let's look at the process of changing the appearance of an application shortcut (using the example of the popular Internet browser from Google).

1. Open the shortcut context menu and click on the last item “Properties”.

The window can also be opened using the Alt+Enter key combination.

2. Activate the “Shortcut” tab.

3. Click on the “Change icon...” button located in the last row.


4. Indicate the icon you like from those proposed.


5. Click “OK” and save the new settings.

If you click “Browse”, you will be able to select any file with icons located on your PC and specify one of the pixel images packed in it in ico format as the application icon.

Replacing the directory icon

There are virtually no differences from specifying a new look for a shortcut and a folder.

1. Open the “Properties” window of the directory (applicable to any folder except system folders).

2. Activate the “Settings” tab.


3. In the “Folder Icons” form, click “Change icon...”.

4. Specify your or your favorite icon and save the changes.


How to create an icon yourself?

If you want to be original and not use other people's ideas, spend a few tens of minutes working on your own icons for the icons located on the desktop. The powerful IcoFX utility is best suited for this. You can download it from the official resource pixabay.com. The same site contains thousands of freely available images that can be converted to ico files.

1. Launch the installed utility and open the raster image, which will be the basis of the future icon.


Select the second item “Create an icon from the image”.


As a result, a pixelated version of the image with several sizes will open.


Unnecessary icon sizes can be removed; for example, 16×16 and 256×256 are unlikely to be needed by the average user.

2. Save the finished icon in ico format through the “File” menu.

Using the editor, you can easily create your own icon from virtually any digital image. It also allows you to apply additional effects and change the appearance of the original icon.

Resizing icons

You can reduce or increase the size of desktop icons in Windows 10 in the same way as in previous versions of the operating system.

You can enlarge or reduce icons on the Windows 10 desktop using the mouse wheel while holding down the Ctrl key. Each rotation of the wheel in one direction or another changes the size of the icons by several pixels in the corresponding direction.

The second option for changing the icon size is as follows:

  • call the desktop context menu;
  • in the drop-down menu select “View”;
  • Click on the appropriate item to specify the size of the icons.


This way you can change the scale of icons in three positions: small, large and medium images. The function is necessary for selecting the optimal icon size for various working conditions and monitor sizes.

Welcome to my blog!
After reading this article, you will find out how to change icon in windows. When you customize a system for yourself, sometimes you want to make it beautiful and unique. Replacing icons is one of the options for customizing Windows.
The icon can be changed not only for a shortcut or directory, but also for elements such as “Trash”, “My Documents”, “My Computer” and “Network Neighborhood”.

How to change the My Computer icon in Windows XP.

To change icons for items such as “My Documents”, “Network Neighborhood”, “My Computer” in Windows XP, open the “Display Properties” window.

In this window, go to the “General” tab. Here in the top section, we can specify which icons should be displayed on the desktop and which should not.

Below you can change the icon for any element that we see. To do this, you need to select the element for which we want to replace the icon and click on the “Change Icon” button.

Then select a new icon from those offered.
You can also run the Desktop Cleanup Wizard here. To do this, click on the “Clean up desktop” button and follow the instructions.

How to change a folder icon in Windows XP.

For a folder in Windows, you can also select an original image. To change the folder icon, right-click on it and select “Properties”.

Go to the “Settings” tab. Here you can select a picture for the folder, which will be displayed as a thumbnail when viewing Explorer. You can also select any image for the folder here. For example, a camera for a folder with photos.

To do this, click on the “Change icon” button and select any one you like. Windows has its own collection of icons, but if you don’t like it, you can find any other icons on the Internet.

In Windows 7, replacing icons is slightly different from Windows XP. But everything changes just as easily.

How to change the My Computer icon in Windows 7.

To set a new icon for the “Computer”, “Network”, “Trash” elements in Windows 7, you need to open the “Desktop Icon Settings” window.

To do this, open the screen properties and select “Personalization”. Unfortunately, the youngest versions of this OS do not have such an item.

Then, in the left section of the new window, select “Change desktop icons.”
The new window will have only one tab, “Desktop Icons,” where you can specify which icons from the presented elements are displayed on the desktop.

And most importantly, here you can change the icon for any of these elements. Just highlight the desired element and click the “Change Icon” button
Alternatively, you can allow Windows themes to change their icons to their own.

If you don't like the standard icons, you can also install them from the Shell32.dll file, which is located in the directory: \Windows\System32\Shell32.dll.
Or install any other icon.

How to change folder icon in Windows 7.

To change the folder icon, go to the properties of the folder you need and go to the “Settings” tab.

Here you can also select a picture for the folder icon and change the icon itself. In order to change the icon, click on the “Change Icon” button and select any one you like. For example, for a folder with music, you can select the appropriate picture.

By default, we are offered to select an icon from the same Shell32.dll directory; if it does not suit you, you can upload your own icon images.

How to change a shortcut icon in Windows.

Replacing the icon for a shortcut is the same for all versions of Windows, so I'll tell you how to do it using Windows XP as an example.
To change the icon for a shortcut, right-click on it and select “Properties” from the menu.

Then open the “Shortcut” tab and click on the “Change Icon” button.

Select the new icon and click OK. If the standard set of icons does not suit you, then click on the “Browse” button and select any other icon.
I hope this article will help you understand how to configure icons on the desktop of your computer.

If your mouse suddenly fails and you need to work at the computer, then pointer control will help you.
Good luck!

If you are tired of the standard icon design in Windows 10 and 7, you can change it. Who needs monotonous folders that are no different from each other? After all, they can choose individual icons. For books - a volume in a beautiful binding, for documents - a stack of papers with a paper clip, for music - sheet music, for games - a joystick. If you do the same with shortcuts and system directories, you get a unique design theme. Find out how to change icons in Windows 7 and other versions. You can decide for yourself how your desktop elements will look.

There are several requirements for the image. She must be:

  • Square.
  • In .ICO format.
  • Suitable size (16x16, 32x32, 48x48 or 256x256).
  • Go to Start - Run.
  • In the window that opens, enter “regedit” without quotes and click OK. The Registry Editor will appear.

  • Click File - Export.
  • Come up with a name for the backup and indicate where to save it. If something goes wrong, you can restore them all.

Now start changing icons.

  1. In the registry, open the folder “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE”
  2. Go to "SOFTWARE".
  3. Then in Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer.
  4. Right-click on Explorer.
  5. Item “Create - Section”.
  6. Name it "Shell Icons". If such a directory is already in the list, open it.
  7. In the right part of the window, call the context menu and select “Create - Stock parameter”.
  8. Write type 3 (three).
  9. Right-click on the newly created parameter “3” (“Three”).
  10. “Change” item.
  11. In the “Values” section, enter the path to the icon along with the file name and extension.
  12. If you have a 64-bit system, open the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE folder again.
  13. But this time go to Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer
  14. And repeat all the steps described above.
  15. Restart your computer and enjoy the new look of the icons.

Edit the registry only if you are well versed in this matter. Get one parameter mixed up and errors will occur.

If you don't like the way folders and shortcuts look, you can change their icons. You only need pictures of a certain format. This way you will make a beautiful desktop.