Windows 7: Open Folder Icon - Change

   Information

This will show you how to change the active icon used to indicate which folder is expanded or opened in the Windows Explorer Navigation Pane, Start Menu All Programs, and Registry folder tree to any custom icon that you want instead in Windows 7.

   Warning

• You can only do this while logged in to a administrator account.
• This will affect all user account's active open folder icons on the computer.

OPTION ONE

Change the Default Open Folder Icon

1. Open the Start Menu, then type regedit in the search line and press Enter.

2. If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes.

3. In regedit, navigate to: (See screenshot below)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

4. In the left pane, right click on the Explorer key and click on New and Key. (See screenshot above)

5. Type Shell Icons and press Enter. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: If Shell Icons is already here, then you can skip steps 4 and 5.

6. In the right pane of Shell Icons, right click on a empty space and click on New and String Value. Type 4 and press enter. (See screen shot below)

7. Right click on 4 and click on Modify. (See screenshot above)

8. Type in the full path of the icon that you want to use as the new open folder icon. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: If you change the icon's location (path), then you must also change the location here in step 8 as well for the folder to still display that icon in Windows Explorer.

   Tip

These are some good icon paths to use:

• C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll,-290
• C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll,-246

9. The registry will now look similar to this with your icon path under the Data column in the right pane instead. (See screenshot below)

10. Close Regedit.

11. Log off and Log on, or restart the computer to apply the new folder icon.

OPTION TWO

To Restore the Default Open Folder Icon

1. Open the Start Menu, then type regedit in the search line and press Enter.

2. If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes.

3. In regedit, navigate to: (See screenshot below)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons

4. In the right pane of Shell Icons, right click on 4 and click on Delete. (See screenshot below)

5. Click on Yes. (See screenshot below)

6. Close Regedit.

7. Log off and Log on, or restart the computer to restore the default yellow open folder icon.