How to Change Icons on Windows 11

Then, learn how to change the icon for Apps; Folders; and Shortcuts on Windows 11. You don't need a third-party tool.

The best way to make Windows 11 your own is to change the icons for individual apps, folders, or shortcuts. If you want to look around even more, there are a lot of free icons available on a lot of different websites.

If you don't like the icons that come with your computer, you might want to change them. The icons can be changed to do that. Icons can be changed with built-in options and by downloading icons from the web, so let's see how you can do this.

Change icons with the built-in options.

For example, Windows has a lot of options for Desktop icons, folders, and shortcuts for each of the three types.

Change the icons for the folders that you have.

If you want to change the icons for folders, you can right-click on the folder and choose "Properties." You can also choose the folder and press ALT + ENTER to open its properties.

Choose "Change Icon" from under "Folder icons." Then choose a new icon for your folder in the "Customize" tab.

Find a list of icons that can be used for the folder now, and click on one. To see more options on the list, move your mouse to the right and scroll down. Once you have chosen the option you want, click on "OK" at the bottom.

This is the last step. To save your changes, click on "OK" in the Properties.

A new folder icon is now going to be shown. A refresh will help if the changes don't show right away. The changes will show up after that.

Change Icon for Desktop Icons

Changing the icons for the desktop icons is not as simple as the others, and would require a little more time on your part.

To change the icon for Dekstop icons, either right-click on the ‘Start’ icon in the Taskbar or press WINDOWS + X to launch the Quick Access menu, and select ‘Settings’. Alternatively, you can press WINDOWS + I to directly launch the Settings app.

In Settings, navigate to the ‘Personalization’ tab from the navigation pane on the left, and select ‘Themes’ from the list of options on the right.

Next, select ‘Desktop icon settings’ under ‘Related settings’.

The ‘Desktop Icon Settings’ window will now open. Select the desired Desktop icon, and then click on ‘Change Icon’ under them.

Now select an icon from the ones listed on the box that appears, and click on ‘OK’.

Finally, click on ‘OK’ at the bottom of the ‘Desktop Icon Settings’ to apply the changes and close the window.

The icon for the Desktop icon you selected earlier will be changed.

Change Icon for Shortcuts

You can also change the icon for any of the shortcuts, be it an app shortcut, one for a folder, or a Command Prompt command. The steps remain the same for all. Also, the icon selected for a specific shortcut will only apply to that and not affect the other shortcuts for the same app.

To change the icon for shortcuts, right-click on the shortcut, and select ‘Properties’ from the context menu. Alternatively, you can press ALT+ ENTER to directly launch the ‘Properties’ window.

In the Properties, navigate to the ‘Shortcut’ tab and click on the ‘Change icon’ option.

Now, select an icon of your choice from the ones listed in the box that appears, and click on ‘OK’ at the bottom.

Finally, click on ‘OK’ at the bottom of the ‘Properties’ window to apply the changes.

The icon you selected earlier will now appear for the shortcut.

Change Icon for Programs Pinned to Taskbar

You can also change the icons for programs pinned to the Taskbar and the process is similar to the one for ‘Shortcuts’.

To change the icon for programs/apps pinned to the Taskbar, right-click on the pinned item, again right-click on the app name in the menu, and then select ‘Properties’ from the list of options that appear.

Here onwards, the process is similar to that for ‘Shortcuts’ and you can refer to the previous section.

That’s all there’s to changing folder icons on Windows 11. 

In order to change the icon for a certain type of file, you'd have to use a third-party app, like FileTypesManager, to do it.

Change the icons with your own pictures.

Many of you may want to make your own icons for your computer. There are only a few options for icons on the computer. It's pretty easy: You just have to get the icons from the web, and then convert them to ICO format. Flaticon.com has a lot of unique icons that you can download. You can also convert any high-quality picture into the ICO format and set it as the icon.

In the next step, you'll need to change the PNG icon files into an ICO format that Windows can use for icons. To do this, go to cloudconvert.com, upload the PNG files, convert them to ICO, and then download them to your PC.

Now, move the ICO files to a new folder. Make sure you don't move them around, because that would make it hard for Windows to find them.

To change the icons, you need to have all the images you need in ICO format. Once that's done, you can start. Before, you would have chosen one of the options from the list. Instead of that, you would have to look for and choose the ICO file.

We'll show you how to change the icons for folders, and with the same method, you can also change the icons for other things.

To change the icon to a custom one, right-click on the folder and select ‘Properties’ from the context menu. Alternatively, you can select the folder and press ALT + ENTER to launch the Properties.

Just as we did for the built-in icons, navigate to the ‘Customize’ tab and select ‘Change Icon’ under the ‘Folder icons’.

Here is the part that’s different from earlier. Instead of selecting an icon from the list, click on ‘Browse’ to select the one you downloaded earlier.

Now, navigate to the folder where you stored the ICO files for icons, select the one you want to set, and click on ‘Open’.

Now, click on ‘OK’ to confirm the icon selection.

Finally, click on ‘OK’ at the bottom of the ‘Properties’ to apply the changes and close the window.

The icon you selected earlier will now be applied to the folder. In case the changes don’t reflect instantly, a simple refresh would do the job.

By clicking on "Browse," you can also change the icons for shortcuts and apps that are pinned to the Taskbar and Desktop icons. Instead of picking one from a list that Windows gives you, you can choose the file you want by clicking on "Browse."

Change the icon for drives

This has been put on its own list and not with the other options because the process for it is completely different from the other options. You can use a third-party app to change the icon for the drive, or you can change the registry. As you can see, this is how you can do it through the Registry.

Move the ICO image you want to use to a designated folder. Make sure you don't move the folder or the file, because you'll need the path for the ICO image file. Go to where the file is stored, choose it and click on "See more." Then click the "Copy path," which is at the top.

It's done when you copy the path. The next step is to move on to the next step.

To change the icon for a Drive, press WINDOWS + R to launch the Run command, enter ‘regedit’ in the text field, and either click ‘OK’ or press ENTER to launch the Registry Editor. Click ‘Yes’ on the confirmation box that appears.

In the ‘Registry Editor’ either navigate to the following path or paste it in the address bar and press ENTER.

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\DriveIcons"

You are now required to create a couple of new keys. Right-click on ‘DriverIcons’ in the navigation pane on the left, hover the cursor over ‘New’, and select ‘Key’ from the list of options. Use the ‘Drive letter’ for the drive for which you want to change the icon as the name of the key. For instance, we are changing the icon for the ‘D’ drive and have thus used the same name for the key.

Next, right-click on the key you just created, hover the cursor over ‘New’, and again select ‘Key’ from the menu. Name this key as ‘DefaultIcon’.

In the ‘DefaultIcon’ key, you just created, double-click on the ‘Default’ string at the left to change its value.

Finally, paste the path of the ICO file you earlier copied in the text field under ‘Value data’, and click on ‘OK’ at the bottom to save the changes. Make sure you add the path between double quotes (“). You can now close the ‘Registry Editor’ window.

The modifications would appear in the File Explorer automatically, and the new icon would be displayed.

You may easily replace the icons and customise your computer using the methods shown above. If the options provided by Windows do not pique your interest, you may always replace the icon with a custom image.