Change the "Desktop" icon itself

Keida · 21 Mar 2012

Okay, hello, this is driving me crazy so I have finally decided to sign up to these forums and ask for some help. Hi everyone.

In the places bar, my Desktop icon used to look like this:

But for some reason, I changed it and it now looks like this:

Is there a way to change it back to the default or change it again to something else? I can't remember how I changed the places bar Desktop icon in the first place, and looking online didn't help since I only got tutorials on how to change the desktop icons, but not the "Desktop" icon itself.

If anyone could help, thanks a lot. Since I'm new to these forums, if I end up posting in the wrong place, I'm sorry for any trouble.

PS oh yeah, and another is the Desktop icon when using Alt+Tab

How did I even change these icons in the first place?

Arc · 21 Mar 2012

Hello and welcome, Kedia :)

Some third party apps do have easier ways to change that icons ... here is two examples of TuneUp Styler and IconPackager

But those programs damage windows 7's system, if used improperly ... So I dont recommend those ...

You can follow the tutorial Icons - Change Using Resource Hacker , and change icon group #110 ... it will do the same thing that you want.

If it troubles, let us know !

Keida · 22 Mar 2012

Thanks for your reply. I do have Iconpackager, however it only changed the Desktop icon in the Navigation Pane but not the one used in the Places Bar.

Opening up Resource Hacker, the Desktop icon seems to be the default windows desktop icon (image), but it's not the one shown in the Places Bar or ALT+TAB.

Is there possibly some other location that I have not checked? If you could think of any, please let me know.

I still have the funny cute House icon and the Plus icon. >^<

Arc · 22 Mar 2012

Keida said:

Is there possibly some other location that I have not checked? If you could think of any, please let me know.

Icon Group #35 in shell32.dll ?

Keida · 22 Mar 2012

Hmmm, nope. :[ Still don't know what's affecting the Desktop icon in the Places Bar.

I don't know why there are so many locations for each icon. Can't windows just have a single Desktop icon somewhere and that's it? *Clutches head after endless headdesks.*

More info: I'm wondering is it possibly a regedit thing? I know I mess around with it a lot, but I can't remember how to change the icons in the places bar. The tutorials only shows how to change the locations in the places bar, but not the icons themselves.

Trucidation · 22 Mar 2012

Keida said:

I don't know why there are so many locations for each icon. Can't windows just have a single Desktop icon somewhere and that's it? *Clutches head after endless headdesks.*

It seemed like this at first when I started messing around Win3.11 and Win95, but there's only a few dll files that Windows looks at. Unfortunately I stopped messing with icons some time ago so I forgot what files, sorry >_<

Would be nice if there was a single .\icons folder like there is for fonts.

Brink · 22 Mar 2012

Hello Keida, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You might see if running a sfc /scannow command may help if it's just a system file issue.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Arc · 22 Mar 2012

Brink said:

Hello Keida, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You might see if running a sfc /scannow command may help if it's just a system file issue.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Shawn,
If it is tried to be changed, is it possible to change the icon in the places dialog only, without affecting the others places ?

I tried, but it takes the effect of the change in all the locations.

Bongo · 22 Mar 2012

Arc said:

I tried, but it takes the effect of the change in all the locations.

Same here Arc icon #110 changed all locations for me, it may take a Repair Install or a Clean Install Windows 7 to get it fixed.
Jerry

Brink · 22 Mar 2012

Arc,

Yeah, a sfc /scannow command would restore all system files back to default.

Unless it's known exactly how the icons were changed to begin with, it's going to be hard to just change those specific ones back.