Windows has always had plenty of customisation options for its users to change just about everything to their preferences. These include wallpapers, lock screens, cursors and even icons.
In this article, we’re taking a look at how you can change desktop, program and drive icons in Windows 11.
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Changing Desktop and Taskbar icons
For changing the icons of the Desktop and Taskbar apps, follow these steps.
Step 1: Press Windows key + I to open Windows settings. Head over to the Personalisation tab followed by Themes.
Step 2: Scroll down and select Desktop icon settings under Related settings.
Step 3: Select the icon you want to change and click Change icon…
Step 4: Select the icon you want. You can also press the Browse button to look for custom icons that you may have saved somewhere on your computer. Once done, click the OK button.
Step 5: Click Apply followed by OK and you’re good to go.
You’ll instantly see that all the desktop and taskbar icons that you selected have changed their icons.
Changing Desktop shortcut icons
For any programs that may have a desktop shortcut, here’s how you can change the icons.
Step 1: Right-click the icon and select Properties.
Step 2: Head over to the Shortcut tab and click Change Icon…
Step 3: Select the icon you want. You can also press the Browse button to look for custom icons that you may have saved somewhere on your computer. Once done, click the OK button.
Step 4: Click Apply followed by OK and you’re good to go.
The same steps apply if you want to change the icon of a program pinned to the taskbar.
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Changing Folder icons
If you want to change folder icons inside of Windows Explorer, here’s how.
Step 1: Open Windows Explorer, right-click the folder you want to change the icon of and select Properties.
Step 2: Head over to the Customise tab and click Change icon…
Step 3: Select the icon you want. You can also press the Browse button to look for custom icons that you may have saved somewhere on your computer. Once done, click the OK button.
Step 4: Click Apply followed by OK and you’re good to go.
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Changing Drive icons
While changing just about any icon in Windows is easy, Drive icons require a registry tweak. You’ll also need a custom icon in place before you get started.
Step 1: Press Windows key + R to open the Run prompt. Type regedit and hit enter.
Step 2: Navigate to the following path.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\DriveIcons
Step 3: Right-click the DriveIcons folder and select New followed by Key. Name the new key the same as the drive whose icon you want to change. For example, if you want to change the E:\ drive’s icon, name the key E.
Step 4: Once again, right-click the new key that we made in the aforementioned step, select New followed by Key, and name the new key DefaultIcon.
Step 5: Inside this new key, you’ll see a Default value. Double-click it to open the value prompt and paste the path of your custom icon under Value data. Click OK when you’re done.
And that’s how you change drive icons in Windows 11.
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