How do I change my Windows Desktop Icons
The example below (figure 1) is a portion of my own desktop in Windows XP. You can see there is "My Computer" , "My Network", "Recycle Bin" and two folder desktop icons.
Figure1 on Win 98 Only |
You
would probably see something like the Figure
1 example on most Windows 98 operating
systems. My Computer, My Network, and Recycle Bin are
called System Icons.
You can easily change
their appearance individually. On the other hand,
the yellow folders in the example are like clones and
by default have no unique identity among other
folders. This means if you change ONE folder they
will all
change
to the same icon (that's why I call them clones).
Folders are more complicated to change
without
the
help
of
an installer
or
3rd party application. So the first set of instructions
below deals with the easy part -- changing system
icons. Changing System Icons (not folders) This shows you how to change the system icons like Recycle Bin, My Computer, and My Network. Change System Icons 1. Click the Start button, go to Settings, and select "Control Panel" 2. Double-click the "Display" icon 3. Click on the Effects tab 4. From Desktop icons display, click the one that you would like to change/modify. 5. Click the "Change Icon" button. 6. Click the new icon that you would like use in place of the old one. Hint: Can't find the icon(s) ? Click the "Browse" button to locate folders containing icons which have ".ico" format file extensions. 7. Once you have chosen the icon you want, click OKAY then, click Apply...then of course one last OKAY and you are ALL SET! |
Is there any other way besides using software ?
Yes but the end result isn't as nice. It's the "Shortcut Icon" approach. See steps below:
Procedure
begins below:
This example is making a custom desktop icon be a shortcut to another folder.
This was demonstrated using WIN98 but should work on WIN95/98/2000/XP. If another
solution is found I will post it here.
1. Download the icon set you want. I recommend you download
the file to someplace like your desktop so the file is
easy to find. Then make a new file on your
desktop called "new icons" or similar. Decompress/unzip the file
to "new icons."
2. Create a new folder on your desktop or find a file that you want to change
to one of the new icons.
3. Right click on the folder you have selected and choose "Create Shortcut." For
this example we created a shortcut appearing on our desktop.
4. Once you have created a shortcut locate it on your
desktop and then right click on it to get the "Properties" option
and go ahead and select properties.
5. Selecting the Properties option will bring you to
another dialogue window where you can click on "Change Icon." After selecting Change Icon
another window will appear showing numerous system icons you can choose from.
Since your icons reside in another location (the file was placed on your desktop
in this example) you need to "browse" and locate the file containing
the icons.
6. The rest is pretty simple: click on your desired icon (you should see the filename at the bottom of the window for the icon you have selected), then click on "open." At this point another window should open confirming your selected icon. Click on "okay" and new icon you have chosen should show. Since the original folder and the shortcut folder both reside on your desktop (in this example) you may want to hide the original folder someplace safe so you don't have too much redundancy. After all, why would you have a shortcut to something that is already right there on your desktop.
