Can I move shell32.ddl from Vista to Win7?

I have XP x86, Vista x86, and W7 x64 systems on different PCs. I use the icons frequently to customize folder icons; and I noticed that the SHELL32.dll and imageres.dll in Win7 have less a variety of icons (that I like personally) than does the Vista and XP O/Ss. Hence my question.

Can I copy the Vista file: C:\Windows\system32\SHELL32.dll to a scratchpad, change the name to SHELL32-V.dll and then copy it into the Windows 7 system32 folder as: C:\Windows\system32\SHELL32-V.dll ?

Since I predominantly use my Win7 machines, I can then utilize more folder icons from the Vista/XP platforms on my Win7 computer folders when I go to the folder properties/customize panel tab. Will it work? I’m NOT a techie.
Thanks!

garuda said:

I have XP x86, Vista x86, and W7 x64 systems on different PCs. I use the icons frequently to customize folder icons; and I noticed that the SHELL32.dll and imageres.dll in Win7 have less a variety of icons (that I like personally) than does the Vista and XP O/Ss. Hence my question.

Can I copy the Vista file: C:\Windows\system32\SHELL32.dll to a scratchpad, change the name to SHELL32-V.dll and then copy it into the Windows 7 system32 folder as: C:\Windows\system32\SHELL32-V.dll ?

Since I predominantly use my Win7 machines, I can then utilize more folder icons from the Vista/XP platforms on my Win7 computer folders when I go to the folder properties/customize panel tab. Will it work? I’m NOT a techie.
Thanks!

Hi Garuda and welcome

While not sure, I seriously doubt it. They are different architecture, different size and date, not digitally signed for that system, etc.

Cant you modify the 64 bit files the way you did the 32 bit?

You may want to check the tutorials here at seven forums as I seem to recall one on this very subject


Let us know if you need further assistance with that

Yes. The DLL won't be loaded into RAM. You can easily use it as an icon library. You don't have to put it in the System32 folder, either.

Also, to the above poster: Windows 7 is actually quite similar to Windows Vista.

JMH said:

Can’t you modify the 64 bit files the way you did the 32 bit?

Not sure what you mean. However, I'll describe what I do. I find the folder I want. Then PROPERTIES > CUSTOMIZE tab > “Change Icon” button. Then in the “Change Icon for….” window panel, where it says: “Look for icons in this file” , the system defaults to this file: %SystemRoot%\system32\SHELL32.dll. Then you can change the “SHELL32” node to whatever file you want.
But when you substitute the “system32” node with “systemWOW64” node --- the O/S says “NO CAN DO”. So I just assumed that the icon selection files all reside in the sys32 folder, regardless of the O/S platform. Hence I asked the question the way I did.

Ztruker said:

Similar yes to JMH..... but is x86 the same as x64? Garuda said he wants to use dlls from Vista X86 on his Win 7 x64 system.

Ztruker, from prowling around the SYS folders, I think you are correct. I assumed that all icon changes are retrieved from the “system32” folder regardless of O/S platform. So I thought by just changing the .dll file name from Vista’s system32 folder and copying it to W7’s system32 folder would then give me the option to open that file for (Vista) icons. Remember JMH, all you must do is change the node name in the selection window of the Properties panel.
But my real concern was whether the vista icons are coded different and therefore would confuse the W7 O/S.

pantsaregood said:

Yes. The DLL won't be loaded into RAM. You can easily use it as an icon library. You don't have to put it in the System32 folder, either.

Pants….. Not sure what you mean by your last statement. Vista is on my Sony PC. The W7 is on my Sager notebook. Where would I copy the vista dll file to the Sager PC if not in the system32 folder?

And thanks to all three of you for your replies. I'm going to wait a few days; if no more comments are posted, then I'm going to try it as pantsaregood suggested. And I'll post the outcome here later.... that is, assuming I survive the explosion in the event W7 recoils.

You could put it anywhere, really. You're not going to be able to replace the Windows 7 shell32.dll with the Vista shell32.dll. The DLL can go anywhere. You can put in a USB drive and label it "SEXYBEAST (J:)" and load the icons from it.

An icon is an icon. You could load an icon from Windows 7 into Windows 95.

Thanks pantsaregood, Zt, and JMH.