Open Folder Icon - Change

How to Change Open Folder Icon in Windows 7 and Windows 8​

   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 and Windows 8.

   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.

EXAMPLE: Active Open Folder
NOTE: This is the Windows Explorer navigation with the default open folder icon (left screenshot) and a custom open folder icon (right screenshot).

OPTION ONE

To Change Default Open Folder Icon

1. Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog, type regedit, and press click/tap on OK.

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

3. In regedit, navigate to the location below. (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 an empty space, and click on New and String Value. Type 4, and press Enter. (see screen shot below)

7. Double click/tap on 4 to modify it. (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 open folder icon.

OPTION TWO

To Restore Default Open Folder Icon

NOTE: This option assumes that you did OPTION ONE above to change the default folder icon.
1. Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog, type regedit, and press click/tap on OK.

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

3. In regedit, navigate to the location below. (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/tap on Delete. (See screenshot below)

5. Click/tap 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.
That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Change the Windows 7 Default Folder Icon
• How to Change Windows 7 Default Folder Icons using Resource Hacker
• How to Change the Windows 7 Default User Folder Icons
• How to Change Windows 7 Default Control Panel Icons
• How to Change a Library Icon in Windows 7
• How to Change the Default Libraries Icon in Windows 7
• How to Change a Drive Icon in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8
• How to Change Windows 7 System Icons Using Resource Hacker
• How to Change a Folder Icon in Vista and Windows 7
• How to Remove the Lock Icon from Files and Folders in Windows 7
• How to Change, Remove, or Restore the Shortcut Arrow Overlay Icon in Windows

 

[mavericks]

Hi brink,

Can you tell me about description of number 4 (new string value)?
Did you mean this only for open folder icon ?

 

[Brink]

Hello Mavericks,

Yes, the 4 value is the indicator for "Open Folder" icons only.

 

[1992Sara]

Doesn't .ico files work to change all the icons at once when putting it in the windows folder? Or does it have to be a .dll?

 

[Brink]

Hello Sara,

Yes, you sure can type in the full path to a ICO file of your own in quotes if you like.

 

[yadayada]

Windows Folder Icons

Brink - Is there anyway to get the folder icon with the four preview files from Windows XP? This was a great way to preview files in a directory. I see a number of people looking for the same thing but no answers.

Thanks. Slag

 

[Brink]

Hello Slag, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Could you post a screenshot of it?

 

[IMAyNeed]

For 64 bit Systems, do I need to go to Wow6432Node?
And for custom icons, I have to put the address in quotes, right?

 

[Brink]

Hello Andre,

Answers inline.

For 64 bit Systems, do I need to go to Wow6432Node?

No. You would only need to do what is in the tutorial.

And for custom icons, I have to put the address in quotes, right?

Only if there are spaces in the full path names.

 

[LainQe]

Hello, I have a problem with this. So i've used your tutorial for making closed folder, and i want to have both folders the same(opened and closed), but when i put string value 3 and 4 only one of them works(the first one i've put in). That happens if i have disabled "show icons, never pictures" at folder options. So i'm asking if there is a way to have both closed and opened folder the same and if there is the way to still have enabled showing pictures and not just icons.
I'm sorry of wrote anything wrong i'm still learning english. Thank you.

 

[Brink]

Hello, I have a problem with this. So i've used your tutorial for making closed folder, and i want to have both folders the same(opened and closed), but when i put string value 3 and 4 only one of them works(the first one i've put in). That happens if i have disabled "show icons, never pictures" at folder options. So i'm asking if there is a way to have both closed and opened folder the same and if there is the way to still have enabled showing pictures and not just icons.
I'm sorry of wrote anything wrong i'm still learning english. Thank you.

Hello LainQe, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You're only suppose to use the string value 4 in this tutorial for this, and not 3.

Having thumbnail previews turned on or off has no affect on what his tutorial does to change the "open folder" icon in the navigation pane.

 

[LainQe]

I just found out that i'm a bit stuped beacuse I messed thinks up pretty hard i've just found out that i need to change live folder... Sorry for posting this here. Have a nice day.

 

[Brink]

No worries. I'm just happy to hear that you got it sorted.

 

[TomHartwald]

This patch worked much better than the one I had for Windows XP,
seeing my folder icon everywhere and getting rid of the pesky yellow ones.

... except for "Start-Menu > Programs", still showing Windows yellow style.
Rebuilding the Icon Cache didn't fix it, well, all right, something I can live with.

Then I installed a new program, and that "Start-Menu > Programs" folder shows
my icon. Seems Windows needs a little help in that location to notice that
something like the folder icon has changed ...

So I used this boring dirty trick :

• Make a new text file (can be empty) on the Desktop.
• Open every Start-Menu folder in the explorer which shows the old, wrong icon
• ("Start-Menu" > Programs > rigth-click on "folder-with-old-icon" > Open).
• Move (Drag'n'Drop) the text file in there.
• Move it back (you can use [Ctrl-Z] to do it).

Hours later, all ok now ... :sarc:

Regards,
Tom

 

[Brink]

Hello Tom,

Did you restart the PC to fully apply the open folder icon?

 

[TomHartwald]

Hi Shawn,

yes, I restarted even twice, first time after the patch and second time
after rebuilding the icon cache. And meanwhile there were some more
restarts including shutdown and and power up again.

I left some folders unchanged, they still have the original yellow icon ...

I'm using "Classic Shell 4.0.2", but I don't think, that it caused that problem.
You can switch to the original Start-Menu via shift-clicking the Start button,
and the original menu also had/has the yellow icon.

The behaviour was like a web browser which shows his cached version
of a web page instead of refreshing it. Changing something inside the
folder like my moving of the text file seems to trigger a refresh.

I rate it as a side effect of something installed in my system, or maybe
it's caused from the localization to the German language, who knows ...

I always like to know what caused a problem (sometimes I'm more
interested in the reason than in the solution ), but to solve it was
just a little juggling with that text file, no "collateral damage" was
detected, so I'm still very happy with my new folder icon !


Regards,
Tom

 

[Brink]

As long as you got it sorted, then I'm happy.

 

[lulaa]

Hello,
I did the tutorial for the Folder Icon (the closed one) and it worked.
I did this tutorial for the open folder but it didn't work.
I rebooted my computer and nothing happened. I have the customized icon but the open folders have the Windows yellow default folders.
I created the string value on the Shell Icons key that was already created (as I did the other tutorial for closed folder) or was I supposed to create a new Shell Icons key?
Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advanced!

 

[Brink]

Hello Lulaa, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Please go ahead and post screenshots showing you registry settings for this and what you are seeing in the navigation pane of Windows Explorer.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

 

[ronthai]

Can't get this working

Hi,

For some to me unknown reason I can not get this part working.
The closed (empty) folders icon went perfect.

This open folder option, seems to have a mind of it's own on my computer.
I have added 3 images to also make it clearer.

You will see in the regedit list the "Shell Icons" folder is open and has the correct icon.
With the option to change icons per folder (Customize tab), it also shows the changed icon (blue). This image is from the folders cats customize tab (see images)

How ever in Explorer the folder icons stay the same yellow ones.

So, what do I need to do extra, since something I am missing here.

In regedit I set the path to the icon, like:
c:\Users\Ronald\Downloads\Documents\Folder Icons\Electric Grid\Folder Open.ico
I tried with quotes and without quotes, both give the same results.

Windows 8.1

Thanks, Ron