Change File Icons Windows 10

[Cherish Asleson]

Toarrange icons by name, type, date, or size, right-click a blank area on the desktop, and then click Arrange Icons. Click the command that indicates how you want to arrange the icons (by Name, by Type, and so on). If you want the icons to be automatically arranged, click Auto Arrange. If you want to arrange the icons on your own, click Auto Arrange to remove the check mark.

Some icons are shortcuts to programs on your computer. Shortcut icons usually have an arrow in the bottom-left corner. If you do not want a shortcut on your desktop, click the icon, and then drag it to the Recycle Bin. This action only removes the shortcut, not the program that it is pointing to. You can also right-click the icon, and then click Delete to remove a shortcut from your desktop.

Some icons such as My Network Places, Recycle Bin, and My Computer cannot be deleted.

If there are no icons available in the list, the manufacturer may not supply additional icons. To find other icons, follow the same procedure on a different icon, locate its source file (usually an .ico file), and then go back to the original icon that you want to change. Follow the same procedure, but when you click the Change Icon button, browse to the location of the source file from the different icon.

NOTE: Third-party tools are available that enable you to change icons.

For additional information about changing icon pictures, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

NOTE: TweakUI is an unsupported tool. The following information is provided for informational purposes only. Microsoft Product Support Services is unable to answer questions about TweakUI.

If you are a Windows power-user, you can use TweakUI 1.33 to manipulate icons. However, this is an unsupported tool. Read the document that accompanies TweakUI carefully before you download and use the tool.

We'll show you how to change icons on Windows 10, including program and folder icons. With a bit of work, you'll have an all-new interface with a unique look! While we focus on Windows 10 here, these tips largely work the same on Windows 11.

Flaticon is a great resource for all your Windows icon needs. The site contains millions of high-quality icons arranged in thousands of convenient packs. You can grab everything in a pack at once, or download single icons.

The site offers downloads in several formats. We recommend downloading them in PNG for easy conversion to the ICO format. Keep all the raw downloads in a folder called PNG Icons or similar.

ConvertICO offers an easy way to do this. You can upload up to 50 PNG images at once to convert them into the ICO format. If you prefer, you can also enter the URL of an image you want to convert, cutting out the middle step of downloading the PNG.

Windows 10 makes it easy to change the program icon for a shortcut, but not the main executable. Thus, you should make a desktop shortcut for the app icon you want to change, if you don't have one already.

To do this, search for an app in the Start menu, then right-click its name and choose Open file location. In the resulting folder, right-click the program name and choose Send to > Desktop (create shortcut).

Now you can modify the new shortcut on your desktop. Right-click it and choose Properties to open a new window. Here, switch to the Shortcut tab and click the Change Icon button at the bottom.

Want to customize the icons on your Taskbar too? The easiest way to do this is to follow the steps above to create custom desktop icons. After that, simply right-click a shortcut and choose Pin to Taskbar.

If you'd rather, you can customize an icon already pinned to your Taskbar. While holding Shift, right-click the app icon and choose Properties. From here, you can follow the same steps as above to set a new icon.

On the resulting window, switch to the Customize tab. Select the Change Icon button at the bottom to select a new icon from your computer. Windows includes many default icons for this, but most of them are old-school and ugly. Hit Browse to locate your custom icons instead.

Now, double-click the 3 string you just made. In the Value data field, enter the location of your folder icon in quotes. An easy way to do this is by holding Shift while right-clicking your ICO file, then selecting the Copy as path option. It should look something like this:

Using this, you can set up separate icons to distinguish file types, even if they open in the same program. You might want to make it easier to highlight JPG and PNG files at a glance, or spot old DOC Word files not using the newer DOCX format, for instance.

To start, create a new folder somewhere you can keep permanently. Name it Spaces or something similar. Inside this folder, right-click again and choose New > Text document. Double-click the file to open it.

Windows has blank icons built-in. But in our testing, these can appear as black squares on your Taskbar instead of transparent boxes, which is no good. This means you'll need to quickly make your own "blank" icon.

However, if you leave it like this, you'll run into the same black block problem. Thus, you need to take the Pencil tool, zoom in, and use it to draw a single pixel in a corner of the image. This will effectively be invisible when it sits on your Taskbar.

Once this is done, you'll need to add one more element in order to add these shortcuts to your Taskbar. In the Shortcut tab of each BAT file, enter explorer in front of everything in the Target box. Make sure there's a space before the opening quotes.

Now you can right-click all your Space files and choose Pin to taskbar. They'll appear as blank icons, allowing you to drag them wherever you like and group your other icons.

Just want to adjust the size of Windows 10 icons on your desktop? That's an easy fix. On the desktop, you can right-click any empty space and choose View to select Small icons, Medium icons, or Large icons.

If you don't see any icons on your desktop, chances are that you've hidden them all. Getting them back takes just a few clicks. Right-click anywhere on your desktop, then select View > Show desktop icons if it's not already checked. With this enabled, you should see your desktop icons with no problem.

Finally, if you're missing the default Windows 10 system icons, you'll need to restore them in another menu. Go to Settings > Personalization > Themes and on the right side of the window, select Desktop icon settings.

Now you know how to change nearly every icon on your Windows system. Whether you want to completely overhaul everything or just want to change a few shortcut icons, you have the tools to personalize your computer in a fun way.

I want to pin some Microsoft store apps in my taskbar and change their icons so that it opens in the same icon that's pinnedthere was this method on this site here through changing the shortcut ID for the app and then pin the shortcut using app called Win7AppIdbut the question have been removed and i tried it once and worked but now I forgot how to do it ?can any one tell me how to use this tool or if there is another way to do it?

Once that's done, open a new command prompt window, drag and drop in the "Win7AppId1.1.exe" file (if you no longer have it here's the download link) into the prompt, then press space, then drag in the shortcut you just created, the press space, then paste the App ID, then press enter.

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Rain Kengly. Rain Kengly is a wikiHow Technology Writer. As a storytelling enthusiast with a penchant for technology, they hope to create long-lasting connections with readers from all around the globe. Rain graduated from San Francisco State University with a BA in Cinema.

This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources.

This article has been viewed 2,371,037 times.

Learn more...

Do you want to customize the appearance of the icons on your Windows desktop? You can adjust icons by using the "Properties" options or you make new desktop icons entirely. You'll only be able to change the icon for system desktop icons, folders, and shortcuts. This wikiHow will show you how to change a desktop icon's appearance and how to download or create a custom icon on your Windows computer.

Windows has some built-in icons you can choose from, but there is also an untold number of icons you can download from sites like IconArchive, DeviantArt, and Iconfinder---all of which have loads of free icons. And if you can't find something you like, you can even make high-resolution icons out of any image.

Once you have the icons of your dreams, save them in a safe place---some of these processes will require they stay in a particular location on your PC. In other cases, you'll probably want them there just in case something goes wrong and you have to re-apply them.

Icons like This PC, Network, Recycle Bin, and your User folder 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 show them all. For a complete rundown, check out our guide to restoring missing desktop icons in Windows 7, 8, or 10.

But you can still change how these icons appear elsewhere on your system. To do so, you'll need to access the "Desktop Icon Settings" window to turn these icons on and off or to change the associated icons. In Windows 10, 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.

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