In the “Change Icon” window, you can select any icon you want from the built-in Windows icons, or you can Click “Browse” to locate your own icons. Group Policy Editor is not available for Windows 10 Home users. Hopefully, this gives you enough information about changing icons that you can make things look just the way you want them. This opens the standard “Change Icon” window we’ve seen a couple of times already. How-To Geek is where you turn when you want experts to explain technology. If you are running Windows 7, follow these additional steps: Click Start, type Customize icons and then click Customize icons on the task bar. Choose “Properties” from that menu and then the rest of the process will be familiar to you from the previous section. This screen works differently from the first one. Let’s take a look at the different ways Windows lets you customize your icons. After selecting the file, the “Change Icon” window will show the icons contained in the file you selected. Note You can also select "Always show all icons and notifications on the taskbar" and "Restore default icon behaviors." The above article may contain affiliate links, which help support How-To Geek. Why Aren’t Viruses a Problem on Chrome OS? In the “Change Icon” window, you can select any icon you want from the built-in Windows icons, or you can Click “Browse” to locate your own icons. Suppose, for example, you use an image editing program that uses essentially the same icon for all the different types of image files it supported—PNG, JPG, GIF, and so on. You might find it more convenient 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 same folder. In the folder’s properties window, switch to the “Customize” tab and then click the “Change Icon” button. Click the “Turn system icons on or off” link at the bottom of the window to configure them. Except for Group Policy Editor, rest methods are applicable to all Windows 10 versions. In Windows 8 and 10, it’s Control Panel > Personalize > Change Desktop Icons. make high-resolution icons out of any image, restoring missing desktop icons in Windows 7, 8, or 10, how to customize folder views with Windows’ five templates, how to customize folder view settings in Windows, removing (or changing) the arrow overlays, preventing Windows from adding the “- Shortcut” text, How to Create and Manage To-Dos in WhatsApp Using Any.Do, How to Insert Outlook Contact Information in Microsoft Word, How to Pair Two Amazon Echo Alexa Speakers for Stereo Sound, Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr.: How to Stream the Fight Live. After making and applying your selection, you’ll see the new icon in File Explorer, on the Desktop, or on the taskbar if you have your Shortcut pinned there. Go to Settings->Personalization->Taskbar; Under the Notification area, click on Turn system icons on or off. Just right-clicking a pinned app shows you the app’s jumplist. You can only customize the icons of apps that are actually pinned to the taskbar. In the Notification Area window notice the link "Turn system icons on or off." Put it somewhere you know you won’t delete it first, or make the ICO file hidden. As such, you can customize their icons in nearly the same way that you customize any shortcut icon. System Icons - Turn On or Off How to Turn System Icons On or Off in Windows 7 and Windows 8 System icons, including Input indicator (Windows 8 only), Clock, Volume, Network, Power, and Action Center are special icons that are part of Windows. That is it. Open the Group Policy Editor from the Windows search. Click OK, make sure that the behavior for Power, Network, and Volume are set correctly, and then click OK. If an app is pinned, but is currently running, you’ll need to close the app before you can change the shortcut icon. Instead, you’ll need to download a free tool to do the job: File Types Manager by Nirsoft. Icons that are pinned to your taskbar are really shortcuts—they just don’t have the arrow overlay and “- Shortcut” text normally associated with shortcuts. Similarly, drag and drop icons from the system tray to the hidden icons section that you want to hide. For that, we’ve got another free tool recommendation: Resource Hacker. If you browse for your own icons, you can select any EXE, DLL, or ICO file. In the “Change Icon” window, you can select any icon you want from the built-in Windows icons, or you can click “Browse” to locate your own icon files. 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. Use the checkboxes in the “Desktop icons” section to select which icons you want on your desktop. Why bother to do this? There’s also a way that works a bit differently and involves a little Registry editing. And of course, we also have a guide on using it to modify the icon for an EXE file. Turn System Icons On or Off. By submitting your email, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. He's also written hundreds of white papers, articles, user manuals, and courseware over the years. Locate, click on and select the process named explorer.exe. For each system icon, select On to show the icon in the notification area, or click Off to remove the icon from the notification area. After changing your icon, you should see the new icon used in File Explorer, on the Desktop, and in the taskbar when the folder is open. To change a folder icon, right-click the folder you want to change and then choose “Properties.”. To access the regular context menu instead, hold the Shift key down while right-clicking the icon. Click Start (or tap the Windows Key) and type device manager then hit . In this folder, you will see a lot of files like iconcache_32.db, iconcache_48.db, iconcache_96.db, iconcache_256.db, iconcache_1024.db, iconcache_1280.db, iconcache_1600.db, iconcache_1920.db, iconcache_2560.db, iconcache_exif.db, iconcache_idx.db, iconcache_sr.db, iconcache_wide.dd, … To change an icon, select the icon you want to change and then click the “Change Icon” button. We’ve got a complete guide to using File Types Manager to change the icon for a certain file type, so if you think this would be useful for you, give it a read! Open the Control Panel "Taskbar and Start Menu." However, for some reason, if you want to hide or show the app icons from the system tray, you can do it easily without much trouble since it is more customizable in Windows 10, unlike the previous versions of Windows. Personalizing your icons is a great way to make a PC uniquely yours.