How to change or restore default icon for a Folder in Windows 10

By default, your personal Documents, Desktop, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos folder are located in your account’s %UserProfile% location – for example in the C:\Users\Chidum.Osobalu folder. In this post, we will show you how to change or restore the default icons for any of the aforementioned personal folders in Windows 10.

How to change or restore default icon for a Folder

You can change or restore Folder default icon in Windows 10 using any of the following methods:

• Change Folder default icon in Properties
• Change Folder default icon in desktop.ini file
• Restore Folder default icon in Properties
• Restore Folder default icon in desktop.ini file

In this post, we will be putting the focus on the Documents folder. But the procedure applies to any other personal folder.

Now, let’s take a look at the description of the process involved in changing or restoring Folder default icon, as it concerns each of the methods.

1] Change Documents Folder default icon in Properties

To change the Documents folder default icon, do the following:

• Press Windows key + E to open File Explorer.
• Open your Documents folder’s current location (in this case C:\Users\Chidum.Osobalu) in File Explorer.
• Next, right-click the Documents folder, and click Properties.
• Click the Customize tab.
• Click the Change Icon button.
• Click the Browse button.
• Navigate to and select the icon library .dll or .ico file you want to use.

The %SystemRoot\System32\shell32.dll and %SystemRoot\System32\imageres.dll files contain most of Windows default icons.

• Click Open.
• Select the icon you want to use
• Click OK.
• Click OK to apply changes.

2] Change Documents Folder default icon in desktop.ini file

To change the Documents Folder default icon in desktop.ini, do the following:

• Press Windows key + R to invoke the Run dialog.
• In the Run dialog box, copy and paste the environment variable below and hit Enter.

If you changed the default location of your Documents folder, then you will need to substitute %UserProfile%\Documents in the path above with the actual full path of your Documents folder’s current location instead.

• In the text file that opens up, on the IconResource= line in the desktop.ini window, change the full path to the full path of the icon you want to use.

If you do not have the IconResource= line, then you will need to add it.

• Next, press CTRL + S to save changes.
• Exit the text file.
• Restart the explorer process or sign out from your profile current session and sign back in to apply.

3] Restore Documents Folder default icon in Properties

To restore the Documents Folder default icon in Properties, do the following:

• Open File Explorer.
• Open your Documents folder’s current location (in this case C:\Users\Chidum.Osobalu) in File Explorer.
• Next, right-click the Documents folder, and click Properties.
• Click the Customize tab.
• Click the Change Icon button.
• Click the Restore Defaults button.

4] Restore Documents Folder default icon in desktop.ini file

To restore Documents Folder default icon in desktop.ini file, do the following:

• Invoke the Run dialog.
• In the Run dialog box, copy and paste the environment variable below and hit Enter.

• In the text file that opens up, on the IconResource= line in the desktop.ini window, change the full path to the following:

• Next, press CTRL + S to save changes.
• Exit the text file.
• Restart the explorer process or sign out from your profile current session and sign back in to apply.

TIP: These free software to change Folder icon color in Windows 10 are sure to interest you.

Download icons from Windows 10 build 10125

There are new icons in the latest Windows 10 build 10125. Microsoft is listening to feedback and has replaced lots of icons . Many users did not like the bright yellow folders which have a strange shape and no gradients. These new icons have a more traditional look compared to the previous icon set.

These icons are extracted from actual Windows 10 system files. If you are interested in having them in ICO format, you can download them here:

There are 250 new icons in the archive.

That’s it. Do you like these new icons?

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About Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer from Russia who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

16 thoughts on “ Download icons from Windows 10 build 10125 ”

Не хватает некоторых значимых иконок, таких как корзина, например.
It lacks some important icons, such as recycle bin, for example.

Oh really. Thankfully we have it separately here 🙂
I will add.

Try now. Should include the full icon set.

Microsoft doing an amazing job on these icons. They look classic yet have a modern twist. Love it!

Hmm, my favirote icons are from Windows XP anyway.

You can’t expect Microsoft to keep the same style of icons from 13 years ago! You should be glad they look similar and not some other random style

I do not expect that from them.
I just said that I like those icons more than any other default Windows icons.

There’s a icon set of flat Windows XP icons, maybe you’d like those.
dtafalonso. deviantart. com/art/Modern-XP-icons-449891585

I like them! They are the best out of all the builds. I am going to add these to my Windows 8 machines.

Very amazing! Modern more better more a lot than the metro one!

Hmm, ok. Everyone has his own unique taste

It occurs to me that I don’t know how to extract icons from an OS build and use them in another. I suspect I’m not alone, so If that is something you could explain to us at some point, it might be fun to play around with some of the Longhorn ones that I vaguely remember liking or maybe a personal favorite from a Win 10 build. To be honest, I rather like some of the 10122 icons! 🙂

Thank you so much for this! Latest Windows 10 update (1809) seems to have removed the game/chess icon from default imageres.dll .. urgh.

I have downloaded the icons, where should I save them ? so that they can be used to change folder images.
I tried, system32.dll , but I couldn’t open it? Will appreciate your support – thanks

How to change File and Folder Icons in Windows 10

What do you think about the default icons on Windows 10? Well, they look great, but with time appear boring, isn’t it? You would have tried to cut the boredom by customizing your device by changing the themes and fonts. But you can take this customization to a whole new level by changing the default Windows icons and make your PC look unique and better sorted. In this Windows guide, we take you through the different ways to change any icons on Windows 10.

Why customize Windows 10 icons?

Killing ennui is just one reason, customization can be done for many different purposes. Few of them include:

• Give your PC a personal spin
• Make your environment look catchy and trendy
• Make your system more user-friendly
• Highlight the importance of a particular icon by making it look unique
• To locate an important icon immediately from a huge crowd of icons

Along with the array of benefits listed above, there are many different types of icons that can be modified on Windows 10. These include desktop icons, taskbar icons, folder icons, and shortcut icons. To know how to customize these, let’s move on the method.

Where can you find new or custom icons for Windows 10?

Before we can start changing icons on Windows 10, we will need some icons to replace the existing ones. The Operating System has a collection of built-in icons, but they might not be that great. The good news is that there are many online resources offering millions of high-quality impressive icons. You can grab them in a pack at once, or download single icons based on your likings. Few popular icon repositories are FlatIcon, Findicons, IconArchive, DeviantArt, or GraphicBurger – all of these have loads of free icons.

In case you just can’t find the icon of your choice, you can even try making high-resolution icons out of any image.

How to change Icons in Windows 10

Now let’s look at the methods of changing different types of icons one after one-

1. Desktop icons
2. Shortcut icons
3. Taskbar icons
4. Folder icons
5. File icons
6. Drive icons.

1] Customize your Desktop Icons

What are ‘Desktop Icons’? The icons like This PC, Network, Recycle Bin, and your User folder all fall in this category. Even though modern versions of Windows do not show them all on the desktop, users can always restore these missing icons and have them appear on your system’s desktop or even change these icons even if they appear elsewhere on your system.

For customizing desktop icons follow the below-mentioned steps:

1] Go to ‘Settings’

2] Hit ‘Personalization’

3] Now click on ‘Themes’, and go to ‘Desktop Icon Settings’.

4] Once you click on ‘Desktop Icon Settings’ a separate ‘Desktop Icon Settings’ window will appear.

5] In the ‘Desktop Icons’ section, check the checkbox corresponding to the specific item whose icon you wish to customize.

6] Now hit the ‘Change Icon’ button.

7] Once you click the ‘Change Icon’ button, a list of different in-built icons will appear on the screen. To choose from these in-built Windows icons select one and hit the ‘OK’ button.

This will change the icon.

To select a custom icon hit the ‘Browse’ button to go to the folder having the icon of your choice and hit ‘Open’ to upload the icon on the Windows icon list; then select the uploaded icon. Also, if you browse for your own icons, you can select any EXE, DLL, or ICO file.

8] Finally, click the ‘Apply’ button and then hit on the ‘OK’ button to save your settings.

Now, your ‘Computer’ icon will look like the below image.

To reverse the change, go back to the ‘Desktop Icon Settings’ window, hit ‘Restore Default’ button and hit ‘Apply’ and then click ‘Ok’ to save settings.

2] Customize Shortcut Icons

Adding a shortcut for folders and applications makes things very easy and simple on any operating system. Users can alter the icon for a shortcut in Windows and this works for all sorts of shortcuts including a shortcut to an app, folder, or even Command Prompt command. Here are the steps to customize any shortcut icon:

1] Go to your ‘Desktop’ and select the shortcut you wish to change the icon for

2] Right-click the shortcut and select ‘Properties’.

3] On the ‘Shortcut’ tab, select the ‘Change Icon’ button.

4] This opens the standard ‘Change Icon’ window you saw above.

5] Now follow the same steps as listed in the above ‘Desktop Icon’ option to select the icon and apply settings.

3] Customize your Taskbar Icons

The icons pinned to your taskbar are also shortcuts; you can customize these in nearly the same way that you customize any shortcut icon. But there are a few things you would need to keep in mind here:

1. You can customize only those icons that are pinned to the taskbar and not the ones which are currently running and appearing there.
2. For an app that is pinned, but is currently running, you will need to close the app to begin customizing the shortcut icon.

Start by holding the ‘Shift’ key and right-click the app icon and choose ‘Properties’.

Now, follow the same steps as listed in the ‘Desktop Icon’ option above to set a new icon.

4] Customize Folder Icons

To customize the Folder icons in Windows 10, perform the following steps:

1] Right-click the folder and select ‘Properties’ in the context menu.

2] Select ‘Customize’ and hit ‘Change Icon’ in the Properties window.

3] You can replace the folder icon with a basic/personalized icon.

4] Now click ‘OK’ to save the changes.

5] Finally, hit ‘OK’ to finish changing the folder icon.

Done, this will change your specific folder icons.

You might want to also take a look at these Free software to change the Folder icon color.

5] Customize Specific File Types Icons

Personalizing the icon of a specific type of file demands third-party tools like File Types Manager. Follow these steps:

1] Get freeware FileTypesMan on your system

2] In the ‘Find Box’ locate the file type that you want to change its icon for.

3] Now close the Find box.

4] Right-click the file and choose ‘Edit Selected File Type’.

5] In Default Icon option, click the 3-dots button in the pop-out window.

6] Select one of the existing icons or input your own icon by clicking Browse > click OK.

7] Finally, hit ‘Ok’ to execute the changes.

7] Change Drive icons

You can change the Icons of your Windows Drives easily using freeware Drive Icon Changer or My Drive Icon.

In this way, you can customize different types of icons in Windows 10. So, keep customizing and add new and interesting icons to your applications or folders. And yes, if you wish to revert the changes, you will only need to hit the ‘Restore Defaults’ button in the corresponding Properties window and click on it.

Date: January 2, 2020 Tags: Features, Icons

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Ankit Gupta is a writer by profession and has more than 7 years of global writing experience on technology and other areas. He follows technological developments and likes to write about Windows & IT security. He has a deep liking for wild life and has written a book on Top Tiger Parks of India.