Windows 7: Devices and Printers - Change Device Icons with Custom Icons

   Information

This tutorial will cover how to change the icons in Devices and Printers with a custom icon of your choosing and be device specific, eliminating resource hacking and/or overwriting Windows 7 default icons.

   Note

You'll need to be familiar with making multi-resolution icons to complete this tutorial. Many tutorials already exist, and one can be found at SevenForums here. Please take the time to familiarize yourself with the procedure before moving onto this tutorial.

   Tip

The icons used in this method must contain the following sizes:

256x256 32bit + Alpha

48x48: 32bit + Alpha
48x48: 8bit 256
48x48: 4bit 16

32x32: 32bit + Alpha
32x32: 8bit 256
32x32: 4bit 16

24x24: 32bit + Alpha
24x24: 8bit 256
24x24: 4bit 16

16x16: 32bit + Alpha
16x16: 8bit 256
16x16: 4bit 16

More information about icon design can be found on MSDN.

Create a multi-resolutioned icon, containing the appropriate sizes, using the tutorial mentioned in the Note pane above.

Download and install the Devices and Printers Metadata Authoring Wizard from MSDN.

Once installed, you'll have an added option called 'create metadata package' in your context menu for each device. Choose that option for the device icon you'd like to change.

Drag your created icon to the drop target area of the Icon Tab.

Choose Next.

   Information

If your icon doesn't meet the required criteria, you'll be met with the following window. Adjust your icon as necessary.

Fill out the fields in the Description Tab to your liking.

Choose Next.

Under the Categories Tab, select the category appropriate for your device. In this example, we're replacing the Desktop Computer icon.

Choose Next.

Under the Associations Tab, choose the proper association(s). For this example, the Computer icon, choose the 7 ComputerMetadata strings at the top of the Hardware ID list.

Choose Next.

Other Devices
To determine the Hardware ID string for devices other than the Computer, use the following method to locate it.

A. From the Devices and Printers window, Right-Click your device and choose properties.

B. From the Properties window, seclect the Hardware Tab at the top, and choose the Properties Button at the bottom.

C. In the Properties Window, select the Details Tab at the top, and from the Property Pulldown menu, select Hardware Ids.

D. Using the Id from the previous step, you can verify the proper strings in the tool if multiple's are listed.

You can select your locale from Options Tab. If you prefer USB, hot-swappable, etc. devices to be shown while disconnected, tick the Show device in disconnected state. For our example we'll leave it unchecked.

Choose Next.

From the Finish Tab, make sure to tick the Copy package to your system's local metadata store if you would like this to take immediate effect upon a refresh of your Devices and Printers window.

   Tip

A backup of the package will be copied to your Documents folder for later use, i.e. after clean install. Copy the package to the following directory to install it if you didn't choose to tick Copy package to your system's local metadata store.

Code:

%PROGRAMDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\DeviceMetadataStore