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Icon Folders (The Hard Way)

Posted August 2002 by Steve Sinchak

This tip is to change the icon of folders, especially if there is no "Customize" tab on the folder properties. Here's how:

  1. Open Windows Explorer, and open the folder you want to change the icon.

  2. Right click the right pane, point to new and click on "Text Document"

  3. type "desktop.ini" as the file name. Make sure that you have unchecked "Hide file extension for know file types" under "Folder Options" --> "View" tab.

  4. open desktop.ini

  5. Under the section "[.shellClassInfo]", find the attributes "IconFile" and "IconIndex". If you don't find the section name and the attributes, go on, type it. Don't forget to put the "=" sign after the attributes' name.

  6. Change the value of "IconFile" to the icon file you want to use and it's path. For Example:
    C:\WINDOWS\system32\SHELL32.dll

  7. Change the value of "IconIndex" to the index number of the icon you want to use.

This is an example desktop.ini file that will change the folder icon to a windows update picture:

[.ShellClassInfo]
IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll
IconIndex=46

Well, that's it! Happy Tweaking... and rearranging your computer with icons!

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