Drawing icons for your desktop. How to make a folder icon (icon) from your photo

If you want to give the folder an original look, then change the folder icon. I'm not talking about those that are already in the system, but specifically your icon from your photos or from any images.

You can make a folder icon (icon) from your photo in a standard program - Paint, which everyone should have in the Windows 7 operating system

Believe me, with your icons it will be much easier and faster for you to find the folder you need without reading the text (folder name)

Here's a small example. This type of folder speeds up searching among a large number of similar folders.

Find the program “Paint” “ you can through “Start” and “All Programs” Launch it and drag the picture into the program window. And it’s even easier to call up the context menu by right-clicking on the image you want to use as an icon. Select “Edit” The “Paint” program will open

Create an icon in Paint

And first of all, what we must do is cut out the desired part of the image. In addition, they should be cut so that all sides are the same size. If you do not adjust the aspect ratios, the icon will be square and the image will be flattened.

We cut it off. On the program panel, select the “Select” tool. In the selection parameters, specify the shape “ Rectangular area“Use the left mouse button to select a fragment of the photo. Hold down the key and watch how the size changes in the bottom panel of the program.

Adjust the size, press the “Crop” button

Now the photo is square, let's continue.

After cropping, change the size of the future icon. Click “Change size” Change in pixels and enter the size 64 vertically and horizontally. Save “OK”

Put your icon on the folder

We have everything ready, apply it to the folder. Place the cursor over any folder and use the right mouse button to bring up the menu. At the very bottom of the list, go to “properties” Next “Settings” And at the bottom the button “Change icon..”

A window with system icons will open. But we don’t need them, we want to use our own image. Then go to the overview and look for our just created icon.

By the way, you may not find it in Explorer, since our image is not an icon in the “ ico” To see it, select display “All files *.* “

Now everything is fine, click “ OK“

It's that simple. The folder has become different from the others, and it will be easier for us to navigate when searching for it.

But that is not all. You can also apply your own icons to shortcuts. Look how they look on my desktop.

A trick that will make your computer immortal!

Today my colleagues from the ClubPro team are talking for the first time about a trick that makes your computer invulnerable to any adversity:

Thanks to this trick, your computer will be in perfect condition after every reboot.

At the same time, even if the day before you caught a virus, deleted system folders or broke the Operating system, it will be enough to restart the computer and it will work again as before.

Using this approach, you will never again have to regularly clean your computer, reinstall the Operating System, call a technician, etc. The computer will always be in the same state after every reboot.

To learn how it works and how to implement this technology during the New Year holidays, see here.

Some of the basic computer concepts are things like file, shortcut, and folder.

Each of these digital units interacts with each other in one way or another, and any user needs to understand the differences between one and the other.

This article will help you understand what packages, folders and shortcuts are for, as well as what is generally meant by these names.

What is a file

It’s worth starting the analysis of this concept with an explanation of how the computer’s file system generally works.

So, each hard drive has its own capacity, calculated in computer units - bytes.

Relatively speaking, these bytes represent cells, each of which is occupied by information.

The number of these cells that is needed to install a program or transfer any data to media is also indicated as a number - volume.

However, the whole point is that the PC does not perceive interconnected cells as different data. It compiles them into packages.

In other words, a file is a group of interconnected information cells that take up space on the hard drive.

It is very important that in order for the computer to perceive the occupied area as a single whole, it must be named the same - and that is why we cannot create two documents with the same name.

Each file has its own format, which determines its content, as well as the application in which it will be opened.

Here are examples of the most common ones:

.exe is a so-called executive file. Its task is to simultaneously launch the work processes specified in the program.
.doc is a text document format of the Microsoft Word application. For versions older than 2010, the format was modified to .docx.
.mp3 – audio format.
.avi – video format.
.dll is a format for operating system functions that cannot be opened by the user.
.jpg – format of images and drawings.
.pdf – image format for the Adobe Acrobat Reader application.

These are the most common formats, but in fact there are many more of them.

It is worth making a note that the user can create files with the same names, but in different formats.

In addition, it is worth understanding that the shortcut and folders, which will be discussed further, are also files, but they are private options that differ from others.

What is a folder

In fact, this is the same program, only its functions are very different from the rest of the capabilities of ordinary information packages.

They were created specifically to make it more convenient for users to structure information on their hard drive.

A folder is a special type of file that serves as a container for larger layers of information.

It is displayed in any operating system as an image of a stationery package, and also has its own names.

Just like regular packages, folders cannot have the same name, but here the restriction is more lenient - two identical names cannot exist only within the same place of creation.

If, say, you create one on drive C and the other on drive D, then you can name them whatever you like.

The entire folder system is divided into levels. The very first one that needs to be opened to access files is indicated first.

If there are other similar containers in it, then they are indicated at the second level, and so on.

Although most often these packages are created by the user independently, or at his request, there are applications that create folders without the user’s knowledge.

Below are examples of such folders:

Spacekace is a place that is created by a special driver update program. Most often it appears in the root directory of the system drive. The software is called DriverDoc, and if it is not already installed, then you can safely delete this container.
NNU is another file that appears after installing third-party software without the user’s knowledge. This is also the place where updates are stored, but for a different program - Navigator.

In addition, there are system folders that are created by the OS itself. These include winevt, which stores information needed to run Windows.

It is highly not recommended to remove or perform any manipulations with them, since this may cause malfunctions and the subsequent need to reinstall the system.

What is a shortcut

A shortcut is also a special type of package that was made to facilitate the process of launching software or opening containers of information.

It also aims to eliminate the need to constantly dig through the contents of the hard drive, and instead keep the buttons to launch the application in one place.

Essentially, a shortcut is a pointer through which the computer understands which program should be launched in a given case.

In the properties of each such package there is a clearly defined path to the location and a specific indication of what needs to be launched.

This way you can quickly open folders and programs. Typically, shortcuts are created immediately when installing new software, or they are created by the user independently as needed.

In general, this is all that can be said about the differences between files, shortcuts and folders.

You need to understand that the first is a collective concept that denotes all the information stored on a PC, while the second and third are special cases that facilitate and structure work with a computer.

Therefore, if you need to quickly launch your favorite game, then you should create a shortcut, and if you want to structure your document storage, then in this case you cannot do without containers.

Shortcuts on the computer desktop. What it is? How are they different from folders and files? How to create a shortcut on the desktop, and what happens if you delete it? Is it possible to change the shortcut icon? You will find answers to all these questions in this lesson.

While working on the Windows 10 operating system, you've probably noticed that you spend too much time opening the Start menu, finding the desired folder or program, opening that folder or launching the program, and returning back to the desktop. But all this can be done much faster and easier. All you need to do is create a shortcut and place it on your desktop.

Shortcuts on the computer desktop

What is a shortcut

Label is just an icon that links to a program or file, so it doesn't take up system resources or affect your computer's performance. A shortcut, unlike a folder or file, has very few " ". Therefore, it is much safer and more convenient to keep shortcuts on the desktop rather than folders.

How does a shortcut differ from a file and a folder?

The shortcut has a small arrow in the lower left corner. If this arrow is not there, then you are working with the source.

If you copy a shortcut to a flash drive, it will not open on another computer, because... This is not a file, but just a shortcut. Many novice computer users do not know the difference between a shortcut and a file, and do not understand why this happens.

In order not to endlessly open the menu and search for the required folder or program in it, you can create shortcuts on the desktop. To do this you need to do the following:

Folders and documents. Open, right-click on the folder or document to which you need access, and select the command in the context menu Send and then the option Desktop (create shortcut). And a shortcut to this folder or file will appear on your Desktop.

You can simply select any folder or disk icon with the left mouse button, and without releasing the mouse button, drag it to the Desktop.

Web sites. Open the browser from which you access the Internet. Roll it up so that the desktop is visible. Select the link in the address bar, left-click on it, and without releasing the mouse button, drag the link to the desktop and release. You now have a shortcut to this site. Just double-click on it with the mouse and the browser will start and the page of this site will open.

Can a shortcut be moved and deleted?

The shortcut can be moved to another location. It will still work. But if you move the object to which it refers to another place, you will need to create a new shortcut and delete the old one.
If you delete the shortcut, nothing bad will happen. Only the shortcut itself will be deleted, and all the files it refers to will remain intact and unharmed.

How to find out the name of the program that a shortcut refers to and where it is located

In order to find out what program this shortcut launches and where it is located, you need to right-click on this shortcut and select the command in the context menu Properties. A window will open in which in the field An object the path to it and its name will be specified.

How to change a shortcut icon

You can change the shortcut icon. To do this, right-click on it and select the item in the drop-down menu Properties, go to tab Label, and click the button below Change icon.

On your monitor screen there are a large number of different folders and icons that have a standard appearance. Perhaps you are tired of their usual look and would like to change it. It's possible! But in order to do this, you need to download some collection of different icons for files and folders. For example this one.

Download icon set. This set contains icons in two formats.

How to change a folder icon.

To change the folder icon, hover the cursor over the desired folder and press the right mouse button. A list will appear. Select “Properties” in it.

A window with icons will appear. You can choose your favorite folder icon from this list or select an icon from downloaded icons.

If you want to select an icon among the icons you have downloaded, then to do this, click the “Browse” button, go to the folder with icons, select the one you like among them and click “Open”, then click “OK” in the windows that appear. The icon you like will be applied to the folder.

For example, here is the folder that I got.

How to change a file icon?

Let's do it the same way! Right-click on the file, go to the “Properties” section, but here go to the “Shortcut” tab, click “Change Icon”.

By following these simple rules, you can gradually change all the folder and file icons to the ones you like best. The folder icons are all the same, so they most often need to be replaced. Then you will be able to distinguish them not only by name, but also by color and shape.

Now that you have tidied up your folder icons, you need to figure out how easy they are to use. Some programs are best used in a portable version, so that in case of emergency you can always have them at hand, namely on a flash drive. However, in this case, folders with programs become like a dump, and searching for an .exe file in them to launch becomes inconvenient. This problem can be solved by creating separate shortcuts located in the root of the flash drive. These “smart guys” independently run all the necessary programs on absolutely any computer, regardless of where you put the storage device.

2. Return to its root and click on an empty space with the right mouse button. Now select the “Create” and “Shortcut” functions.

3. After that, we need to specify the path to it like this:

%windir%\system32\cmd.exe /C start /B /D \*path to the program folder* \*path to the program folder*\*file name.exe*

When you write it, don’t forget to include the backslash “\“. In our case it looks like this:

%windir%\system32\cmd.exe /C start /B /D \Soft\OpenOffice \Soft\OpenOffice\X-ApacheOpenOffice.exe

A small footnote: if you decide to place all the shortcuts in a separate folder, creating an additional one in the root of the flash drive, indicate on the command line that it will need to go back to this folder. Just put a dot as the first slash. In our specific case it looks like this:

%windir%\system32\cmd.exe /C start /B /D .\Soft\OpenOffice .\Soft\OpenOffice\X-ApacheOpenOffice.exe

6. To prevent the command line window from being displayed at startup, select the “Collapsed to icon” option in the “Window” field:

7. Right on the tab at the bottom of the window, click the “Change icon” button, and then in the window that appears, open the program’s executable file, since this is what we are creating the shortcut for. We mark it and click “OK” - the same as in the properties window.

8. Now the shortcut will automatically change its icon, and we can launch the program from the root of the flash drive. You can easily move this folder, along with the program and the shortcut, to any convenient location. In this case, they will work normally, maintaining the relative path from the shortcut to the working executable file.

We hope that each of our articles helps you become more confident and not be afraid of any actions when working with a computer. Have a positive working mood!