[Guide] How to Change Default Folder Icons in Windows

This tutorial has been written by AskVG reader “Slinky Grafix“.

This simple method of changing the standard, default and ugly folder icons in Windows operating system has existed for many years and does not involve modifying any system file using Resource Hacker or any other tool. It can be applied easily with the help of a simple Registry tweak.

To make it easier to follow, this tutorial has been broken down into 2 parts:

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  • PART 1: How to change default folder icon
  • PART 2: How to customize individual folder icon

PS: Also see the “Tips for Using Customizing Icons” given at the end of this tutorial.

So without wasting time lets start the tutorial:

PART 1: How to Change Default Folder Icon

1. On your keyboard press WIN+R keys together to open the Run dialog box. Now type regedit and click on OK button to launch Registry Editor.

2. Now go to following Registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

3. With the Explorer key highlighted, right-click on it and in the pop-up menu select New -> Key option. Name this new key as Shell Icons

4. Now in right-side pane, right-click on a blank area and in the pop-up menu select New -> String Value, do this twice and name these string values to 3 and 4

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5. Double-click on each String and set their value to C:\Icons\Folder.ico

Change_Default_Folder_Icon_Windows_Registry_Editor.png

6. Now close Registry Editor and open an Explorer Window.

7. Open C: Drive and create a new folder and set its name as Icons

8. Open Icons folder and place the icon file (.ICO) you want to use as your new folder icon in this folder. Name this new icon file as Folder.ico

Copy_New_Folder_Icon_Windows.png

9. Now restart your computer to take effect.

Once the computer restarts, open an Explorer window and you should see your new folder icons.

Customized_Folder_Icons_Windows.png

TIP:

If you like to view large folder icons as shown in the image above, you can change this in the “View” menu on the Explorer toolbar. To make large icons show correctly you’ll also need to enable “Always show icons, never thumbnails” option in the “Folder Options” menu:

Enable_Always_Show_Icons_Never_Thumbnails_Option.png

NOTE:

The change mentioned above in the “Folder Options” has one undesirable effect which prevents thumbnail images appearing on some files. Thankfully however, there’s a simple solution to this problem. You’ll need to download and install the free program called “Sage Thumbs”. Sage Thumbs will restore those missing thumbnail images once more:

See this interesting AskVG article on Sage Thumbs for download link

PART 2: How to Customize Individual Folder Icon

So if you’ve got this far, you might have noticed that some Windows Icons have not changed, especially in the “Users” folder. Changing these individual folder icons or any others for that matter is very easy to accomplish.

Simply right-click on the folder you wish to change and in the “Properties” tab, select the “Customize” tab. Here you can choose another icon of your choice.

Here’s a before screenshot:

Default_User_Folders_Icons_Windows.png

Here’s a screenshot after customization:

Customized_User_Folders_Icons_Windows.png

Tips for Using Customized Icons

Can I use any kind of Icon?

=> No! Only icons with the file extension ‘.ico’ can be used. Windows 10 can show very large icons in the Explorer window, each icon is made up of several icons of differing sizes, typically these sizes are as follows:

256, 64, 48, 40, 32, 24, 20, 16 [All icons are 32-bit true color + Alpha channel]

If you’re not sure about a particular size, open the icon in an icon editor to see what sizes are contained within the icon. There are many free icon editors available for this purpose. My favorite is IcoFX.

Where can I get customized icons?

=> Luckily there are many icon resources available online, here are some of my favorites:

  • deviantart.com/browse/all/customization/icons/
  • iconarchive.com
  • findicons.com
  • veryicon.com

Published in: Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista, Windows XP

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

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  1. Hi,
    I have a request, I have been serching this all damm thing abut imgres.dll ant that and this is the only way that i found to make possible this icon change, but where I can find in the regedit all the other icons, i mean not fine but where i have to put it. Ans not only that, do i have to do it equaly, like puting this 2 string value in 3 and 4 or what? I kind of deduce that, not the name value of the string value but the info value, is the directory of my icon no? so in the info value of the string i put C:/Icons/Ihavetopee.ico and i put as name of my folder ico “Ihavetopee.ico” it would work equaly. Or is it that the windows scripts only detects the icon as folder to actuate on that? Thanks for giving your knowledge.

    PD: I am spanish an i am 15 years old so srry if i wrote wrong something, jajaj well thanks for your help

  2. a sorry i forgot to ment that if someone wants cool icons he can visit iconarchive.com, they have very nice icons there.

  3. What I am looking for is a way to set certain folders in a batch fashion. The basic idea is that I am backing these folders up onto DVDs. I need a way to tell which folders have already been backed up (by putting a disc icon for the folder). I want the other non-backed-up files to have a standard icon until I upload them to the dvd, usually in a batch. Then, I would select the folders that were just uploaded and change their icons to the disc icon. Right now, I have to do each folder separately, which is tedious. Thanks.

  4. I once used a “install registry” file which changed my icon, could you tell me how to reset them? could i find what regestry was edit with the specific file?

  5. The majority of the icons found in this tutorial were obtained from Deviant Art, see link below. You will need to search for ‘Leopard OSX Folder Icons’.

    deviantart.com/customization/icons/whats-hot/?q=Leopard+OSX

    IMPORTANT!

    Make sure that each icons you downloaded contains the following icon formats:

    256, 64, 48, 40, 32, 24, 20, 16 [All icons are 32-bit true colorl]

    TIP!

    If you can’t find ones with the correct sizes just download the first one ‘256 x 256’ then use an icon editor and create the additional sizes needed.

  6. yes it worked but i have another issue, when i change folder view from small to large icons, its thumbnail icon changed so how can i change that icon? i am sharing screenshot as reference.

    screnshot:
    i68.tinypic.com/2j1mt1j.png
    imageupload.co.uk/images/2017/12/15/foldericon.png

  7. hey! please help me im hella desperate
    not only it didn’t work, but ALL my icons disappeared, including the desktop icons, the windows explorer icons, every single one of them is simply gone and i have no idea how to undo this, please please please help me

  8. I would just like to say i cant change the icons for the folders like desktop and downloads. help please

  9. How can I change the Desktop icon? There’s “customize” in the properties but no option for changing the icon. I know it’s system-based and Shell32.dll doesn’t like being poked or prodded. But is there a way to modify default icons such as these?

  10. So it works, but inside the windows explorer.. when i change icon size from small to large or extra large, they revert back to the default folder. Why is that?

  11. Hi there I have a issue with this I am trying to use a different icon as my open folder and its showing the same as the default folder in explorer. But it shows fine in regedit any ideas please. I have tried a few different things and am still having issues with this. I even reinstalled my windows from scratch and this is still a issue for me.

  12. So when you are doing the regedit method, how are you supposed to know what numbers do what? I understand 3 and 4 change the folder icon look. But how do we change other things, like text docs, batch file, etc. Do we just change the associated executable’s icon with something like Resource Tuner?

  13. How do I revert the changes? I saw some folks saying that I should delete the 3 and 4 strings but Im kinda afraid to do that, idk why

  14. Hi.

    I tried this and it worked. The only problem is that the “shortcuts” of the folders still look like the default folders. How can I fix that? I want both the folders and their shortcuts to look how I want them to.

    I tried the resource hacker method too, but I don’t see anything named Icon or Icon Group or whatever at all, so I can’t change it there either.

    All I see are MUI and Version Info.

    Thank you.

    Best wishes,

  15. Hello, I did this and it works perfectly but I want to revert my folders to the default windows ones now, how can I undo everything?

  16. Hii! Everything is fine regarding the basic of the method. I changed the folder Icon, placed a Folder.ico in the correct directory but I now want to change that .ico and when I change it, and restart my pc it does not change even though the old .ico has been deleted.

    I also removed the strings in the key, added them back. Still nothing. Any idea?

  17. Is there any way to beat the system, and just have FLAT closed folder icons that do not flap open, as in Windows 7? They should never have used that again in Windows 10. It creates chaos on the desktop, you get dizzy looking at it. Do you know if they kept it for Windows 11?

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