- How to Restore windows 10 system icons
- How to restore default Windows shortcuts and their icons
- How to restore and show default desktop icons in Windows 10
- How to restore the default icons for the standard shortcuts
- Bonus: Restore the classic name for This PC
- What other classic Windows elements do you miss?
- How do i restore all of Windows 8’s default icons?
- Replies (15)
- How to change or restore default icon for a Folder in Windows 10
- How to change or restore default icon for a Folder
- 1] Change Documents Folder default icon in Properties
- 2] Change Documents Folder default icon in desktop.ini file
- 3] Restore Documents Folder default icon in Properties
- 4] Restore Documents Folder default icon in desktop.ini file
- How to change File and Folder Icons in Windows 10
- Why customize Windows 10 icons?
- Where can you find new or custom icons for Windows 10?
- How to change Icons in Windows 10
- 1] Customize your Desktop Icons
- 2] Customize Shortcut Icons
- 3] Customize your Taskbar Icons
- 4] Customize Folder Icons
- 5] Customize Specific File Types Icons
- 7] Change Drive icons
- Related Posts
- How to Turn On or Off Use Speech Recognition in Windows Mixed Reality in Windows 10
- How to change Desktop and Windows Mixed Reality Input Switching in Windows 10
- How to disable Windows Mobility Centre in Windows 10
- [email protected]
How to Restore windows 10 system icons
How to restore my windows 10 system icon, i was trying restore using system restore but nothing change 🙁
Previously i modifying imageres.dll, imagesp1.dll, zipfidr.dll using ipack builder.
Let’s try rebuilding the icon cache on your computer. Some users were able to restore the default system icons by rebuilding the icon cache. Here are the steps:
- Open File Explorer.
- Navigate to the C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer folder.
- 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, iconcache_wide_alternate.db, etc.
- Delete them all to purge and rebuild the icon cache.
- Reboot your computer.
If the custom icons still appear after rebuilding the icon cache, we suggest that you perform a repair upgrade using a Creators Update ISO file. Performing this can repair broken operating system files while preserving your personal files, settings and installed applications. For more information and steps on how to perform a repair upgrade, kindly follow the wiki article created by Andre Da Costa on the following link: How to perform a repair upgrade using the Windows 10 ISO file.
If you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to post a reply.
How to restore default Windows shortcuts and their icons
In Windows 10, you can restore the operating system’s old default shortcuts to your desktop, which is helpful if you need faster access to certain locations and settings. This should also make you smile if you’re a fan of older versions of Windows. Furthermore, if the icons for these traditional shortcuts have been replaced, you can also restore them to their default look. This tutorial illustrates how to bring back default desktop icons, like Computer/This PC, Network, Control Panel, or your User’s Files and how to revert their icons to their originals:
NOTE: The features presented are available in Windows 10 November 2019 Update or newer. If you’re using an older version of Windows 10, you might not have access to all the features. Check your Windows 10 build and, if necessary, get the latest Windows 10 update available for you.
How to restore and show default desktop icons in Windows 10
Windows 10 comes with a default set of desktop icons that facilitate access to important locations and settings: This PC, Network, Control Panel, User’s Files, and Recycle Bin. While in some classic versions of Windows, these standard shortcuts were displayed by default, in Windows 10, only the Recycle Bin is shown by default on the desktop. To restore some or all of these default Windows shortcuts to your desktop, read How to add or remove desktop icons (shortcuts) in Windows 10.
If none of the standard shortcuts above are displayed on your desktop, they could be hidden from view. While we discussed How to view all hidden files and folders in Windows 10, things are different when it comes to desktop icons. Right-click or press-and-hold on an empty area of your desktop, and, then, in the contextual menu, access View. Click or tap on “Show desktop icons.“
All the desktop icons or shortcuts should become visible on your screen. To hide them again, follow the same steps, and then click or tap on the “Show desktop icons” option to uncheck it.
How to restore the default icons for the standard shortcuts
If the icons for your standard default shortcuts have been replaced, you can always restore them to default from the “Desktop Icon Settings.“
To begin, right-click or press-and-hold on an empty area on your desktop. Then click or tap on Personalize.
In the Personalization settings window, select the Themes tab from the column on the left.
Scroll to the bottom of the Themes tab, and then click or tap on “Desktop icon settings,“ under Related Settings.
TIP: You can access the same location by first opening Settings, and going to “Personalization -> Themes -> Desktop icon settings” afterward.
In the “Desktop Icon Settings” window, you see all the icons currently used by the default shortcuts. We illustrated how to customize them with icons of your choosing in How to change the icon of any shortcut in Windows 10, where we replaced the icon for This PC with our website’s logo. Now let’s see how to restore the default icon for that shortcut.
Start by selecting the icon you want to restore from the ones displayed in the “Desktop Icon Settings” window – in our case, This PC.
Click or tap the Restore Default button.
The icon instantly reverts to the default one. Once the default icon for the shortcut is restored, click or tap OK or Apply to save your changes.
To prevent Windows 10 themes from changing the icons shown for your default shortcuts in the future, uncheck the box next to the “Allow themes to change desktop icons” option by clicking or tapping on it.
TIP: The icon used by the Control Panel is not included in the “Desktop Icon Settings” window, because the process for changing it is a bit different, as illustrated in this tutorial. The easiest way to restore it to its default icon is to delete the Control Panel shortcut from your desktop and then add it again.
Bonus: Restore the classic name for This PC
If you are really into older versions of Windows, you might want to change the name of the standard desktop icon This PC to match the one in your favorite version. The process is simple. Right-click or press-and-hold on the shortcut to bring out a contextual menu, and then click or tap on Rename.
Insert the new name and press Enter on your keyboard. Windows 10 instantly displays the new name all throughout the system.
What other classic Windows elements do you miss?
We were thrilled to see the option to restore the default shortcuts in Windows 10, as we find them useful, and we missed having them around. We wish other classic elements, like the Homegroup, would also become available in Windows 10. What about you? Do you also get nostalgic about previous Windows versions? What elements do you miss in Windows 10? Leave us a comment below with the feature you miss the most.
How do i restore all of Windows 8’s default icons?
Replies (15)
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Welcome to Microsoft Community!
You want to revert the folder icons to regular Windows icons.
To work with the issue, I would suggest you to uninstall the program.
a. Press Windows key + W, click Apps
b. Type appwiz.cpl and hit enter
c. Right click the application and uninstall.
“For Windows related issue or anything related to Windows operating system” feel free to contact us.
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I installed the program that I changed the user folder icons with before I installed Windows 8 Pro. Before installing Windows 8 Pro I chose to keep personal files. I either simply deleted the program folder that contained that program’s uninstall executable, or uninstalled it using that file, I don’t remember. But I’m assuming I can somehow edit, restore or download iconcache.dll, or imageres.dll for Windows 8 Pro, maybe. I was attempting to fix it by following some instructions on articles around the web and messed up even more. Now my drive icons are not default.
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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.
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-
- Desktop icons
- Shortcut icons
- Taskbar icons
- Folder icons
- File icons
- 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:
- You can customize only those icons that are pinned to the taskbar and not the ones which are currently running and appearing there.
- 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.