While the default Windows icons get the task done, they aren't peculiarly exciting. If you lot desire to put a personal spin on your figurer, changing Windows 10 icons is a great style to do this.

We'll show you how to change icons on Windows x, including programme and binder icons. With a bit of piece of work, you'll accept an all-new interface!

Where to Find Custom Icons for Windows x

Before you start changing Windows x icons, y'all need some new icons to supersede them with. The OS has a few additional icons built-in, but they're non that smashing.

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

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

If you don't observe what you lot're looking for here, attempt Findicons, IconArchive, or GraphicBurger. We've also looked at some peachy Windows icon packs in the past.

Converting PNG Images to ICO Icons

Windows uses ICO files for its icons. Thus, yous'll need to convert images from PNG (or other formats) before you use them every bit icons.

ConvertICO offers an piece of cake way to do this. You tin can upload up to l PNG images at once to catechumen them into the ICO format. If you adopt, y'all tin can besides enter the URL of an image y'all want to convert, cutting out the eye step of downloading the PNG.

Keep all your ICO files in their own folder. Brand sure you put this somewhere permanent, as moving icon files afterward you lot have assigned them will cause bug.

How to Change Program Icons in Windows 10

Windows 10 makes it easy to change the programme icon for a shortcut, but not the principal 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 correct-click its name and choose Open file location. In the resulting binder, correct-click the plan proper noun and choose Ship to > Desktop (create shortcut).

Now yous can change the new shortcut on your desktop. Right-click information technology and choose Backdrop to open up a new window. Here, switch to the Shortcut tab and click the Change Icon button at the bottom.

Y'all'll see a list of alternative icons included in the app, if there are whatever. To set your own icon, click Browse and navigate to the place where you saved your ICO files.

Double-click ane to select information technology, so choose OK on both open dialog boxes. That's all you have to do to change a plan icon in Windows 10.

Pinning Custom Icons to the Taskbar

Want to customize the icons on your Taskbar besides? The easiest mode to practise this is to follow the steps above to create custom desktop icons. After that, simply correct-click a shortcut and choose Pin to Taskbar.

If y'all'd rather, you can customize an icon already pinned to your Taskbar. While holding Shift, correct-click the app icon and cull Properties. From hither, you lot tin follow the same steps as above to set a new icon.

You may need to wait a few moments for changes y'all make in this manner to take issue.

How to Change Individual Binder Icons in Windows 10

Changing a binder icon is similar to the higher up process. Right-click the binder you'd like to change and cull Properties.

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

If yous ever change your heed, just open this window and choose Restore Defaults to get the original icon back.

How to Change All Windows Folder Icons at Once

Desire to modify all the standard folder icons on your computer with one activity? You'll have to dig into the Registry to do so. Remember that it's possible to harm your system by doing this, so take care if yous cull to practise so.

Kickoff, type regedit into the Start carte to open the utility. You lot'll need to provide administrator permissions to continue. Navigate to the following location:

          HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

Now, correct-click on the Explorer folder in the left navigation tree and select New > Key. Name the new key Shell Icons, then select it in the left console. In the blank space on the right, right-click and choose New > Expandable String Value. Set its name equally 3. Repeat this to create another cord chosen 4.

Now, double-click the 3 string you lot but fabricated. In the Value information field, enter the location of your folder icon in quotes. An piece of cake way to do this by belongings Shift while right-clicking your ICO file, then selecting the Copy as path option.

It should expect something like this:

          "C:\Users\User\Documents\ICO Icons\folder.ico"

Echo this for the 4 string, and so click OK and go out the Registry Editor.

If you don't come across the change take event upon opening a new File Explorer window, you'll need to restart File Explorer for your changes to take event. To do this, printing Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open the Task Managing director. Click More details to expand it if needed. On the Processes tab, discover Windows Explorer. Right-click this and choose Restart.

This should apply your new icon to all folders. To remove this in the future, merely delete the Shell Icons Registry key you created.

We tested this method as working in Windows x version 20H2, but other users accept reported that it has no effect. Your mileage may thus vary depending on your version of Windows 10.

How to Change File Icons by Type

Normally, for each file type, Windows shows an icon of the default program. If you'd like to alter this, yous can use a free utility chosen FileTypesMan to change the icon for whatever file type.

After downloading and running it, press Ctrl + F to locate the file type yous desire to change. Double-click it in the list to open a new window with many more options. Next to the Default Icon field, you'll meet a ... button.

Click this and you'll open up the familiar Windows dialog box that lets you modify the icon.

Using this, you tin can set up separate icons to distinguish file types, even if they open in the aforementioned program. You might desire to make it easier to choice out JPG and HTML files at a glance, or spot old Md Word files not using the newer DOCX format, for instance.

How to Change Drive Icons in Windows

Want to alter the icons that you run into in This PC for your diverse computer drives? A gratis utility called Drive Icon Changer makes this easy.

It'due south similar to FileTypesMan mentioned to a higher place, only much more bones. Simply select a drive and the desired icon, and it will apply them for y'all after a restart. That's all information technology takes.

How to Create Blank Taskbar Icons

Usually, all of your Taskbar icons appear alongside each other. If you lot'd like to add together some infinite—maybe to split icons by type—you tin can accomplish this with a workaround.

Creating Dummy Batch Files

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

Inside the text file, enter the following. This will create a batch file that'due south a dummy; it immediately opens and closes a Control Prompt window if you click on it.

          @echo off
exit

After this, go to File > Save As. In the saving dialog box, give the file a name ending in .BAT. If you lot want to create multiple spaces, you should then copy, paste, and rename the file so yous have several named Space1.bat, Space2.bat, and then on.

Set up a Bare Icon

Windows has blank icons built-in. But in our testing, these tin appear every bit blackness squares on your Taskbar instead of transparent boxes, which is no skillful. This means y'all'll need to quickly make your own "blank" icon.

Open an image editor (we used Paint.NET) and create a sheet that'southward perfectly square: 256x256 volition piece of work. Press Ctrl + A to select the entire image, then press Del to erase it. This will create a transparent square when saved every bit a PNG.

However, if y'all leave information technology like this, you'll come across the same blackness cake problem. Thus, you demand to take the Pencil tool, zoom in, and utilize information technology to draw a single pixel in a corner of the image. This volition effectively be invisible when it sits on your Taskbar.

Salvage the file every bit a PNG, and then use an online converter as mentioned in a higher place to convert this into an ICO file.

Creating and Pinning Shortcuts

Now, correct-click each Space file yous made and cull Create shortcut, as you'll demand a shortcut, not the main BAT file, in gild to modify the icon. Then right-click each shortcut file, select Properties, and use the Modify Icon button to select your new blank icon.

Once this is washed, you'll demand to add ane more than chemical element in society 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 certain there'south a space before the opening quotes.

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

How to Change the Desktop Icon Size on Windows 10

Just want to adjust the size of Windows 10 icons on your desktop? That's an like shooting fish in a barrel 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 lot don't like i of those presets, agree the Ctrl key and scroll your mouse wheel. This gives you lot more than granular command over icon size.

In a File Explorer window, you'll find more than size options under theView menu. The method of scrolling your mouse wheel while belongings Ctrl works, too.

Windows 10 Desktop Icons Missing?

If yous don't see any icons on your desktop, chances are that you've subconscious them all. Getting them back takes simply a few clicks.

Right-click anywhere on your desktop, then select View > Show desktop icons if it's non already checked. With this enabled, you should see your desktop icons with no problem.

If this didn't set your trouble, your computer may be in tablet style, which prevents your desktop icons from showing. To disable tablet mode, visit Settings > Arrangement > Tablet.

Finally, if y'all're missing the default Windows 10 organisation icons, yous'll demand to restore them in some other carte du jour. Go to Settings > Personalization > Themes and on the right side of the window, select Desktop icon settings.

This will launch a new window where you can toggle the icons for This PC, your user folder, Network, Control Panel, and the Recycle Bin. While here, you can as well change the icons for these shortcuts.

Customize Every Icon in Windows

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

If you honey personalization, it thankfully doesn't terminate hither. In that location are many other means to customize the look and feel of your Windows surroundings.

How to Alter the Look and Feel of Your Windows x Desktop

Want to know how to make Windows x look ameliorate? Employ these simple customizations to make Windows 10 your ain.

Read Next

About The Author

Ben Stegner (1798 Articles Published)

Ben is the Editor in Chief at MakeUseOf. He left his IT job to write total-time in 2016 and has never looked dorsum. He's been roofing tech tutorials, video game recommendations, and more equally a professional writer for over seven years.

More From Ben Stegner