Devices and Printers - Change Device Icons with Custom Icons

FantomAU said:

Is there a way to go back to the default icons if you decide to go back?

I had asked this same question. Any replies? I don't seem to see any--except that the answer seems to be 'NO"

I found this thread last night. I've followed all of the instructions exactly as they were spelled out. However whenever I click on the finish button, nothing happens. No metadata package is created (Regardless if I choose to go directly to the metadata store folder, or my documents. I'm running 7 64bit ultimate. Can anyone help me out? I really would like to get this done. Thanks!

That's really cool but how do I change the icon on the Adobe PDF creator? There is no hardware to link to...

darklevy said:

I found this thread last night. I've followed all of the instructions exactly as they were spelled out. However whenever I click on the finish button, nothing happens. No metadata package is created (Regardless if I choose to go directly to the metadata store folder, or my documents. I'm running 7 64bit ultimate. Can anyone help me out? I really would like to get this done. Thanks!

If you read all the comments, you would see that some of us had problems.. For ex. I ended up having 3 things with all the same icon and same name, definitely not something I wanted, seeing that in a way, it means it made things worse. And since no one replied as to how to revert anything you make I assumed it was not doable--revertible. Hence, I would be careful if I were you if things are not working out. Good luck

pintree3 said:

darklevy said:

I found this thread last night. I've followed all of the instructions exactly as they were spelled out. However whenever I click on the finish button, nothing happens. No metadata package is created (Regardless if I choose to go directly to the metadata store folder, or my documents. I'm running 7 64bit ultimate. Can anyone help me out? I really would like to get this done. Thanks!

If you read all the comments, you would see that some of us had problems.. For ex. I ended up having 3 things with all the same icon and same name, definitely not something I wanted, seeing that in a way, it means it made things worse. And since no one replied as to how to revert anything you make I assumed it was not doable--revertible. Hence, I would be careful if I were you if things are not working out. Good luck

you have to delete all the metadata files in your system disk... just search for any file with .devicemetadata-ms extension and move them to the recicle bin... the custom ones will be removed and windows will redownload any oem metadata dile from the server... don't go crazy with the id... just select the first one to be sure it'll only affect that particular device

too bad the tool doesn't work in windows 10, and it doesn't work in ALL the windows 8 versions... microsoft doesn't update the tool and we now have to download 10 gb of devkits and visualstudio installers just to change the metadata

it may be that the icons are not packaged correctly, that's usually what ends up killing it. Its been a while since I toyed with this stuff as even the slightest mistake can end up killing or negatively impacting an entire device line, say USB sticks, etc. But it was fun and GIMP was the best editor to use- you have to make the Icons contain all the different sizes required by the OS for each use it might have for each.

You probably forgot 48x48 or some other size and that can very often lead to no error and nothing much else. This is a process that MS assumed would be undertaken by engineers and then only by a few specialized folks. It is tedious and can get you into reloading the OS. I would suggest you load a VM, snapshot and play till your hearts content, then revert and make the best of the default icons. This isn't something that will yield a lot of success or satisfaction.

NOTE: The error where "Nothing Happens" is likely due to access issue with the directory selected in "Folder Location:" i.e c:\Users\<name>\Documents.

The application may not have access to create the device meta file.

The quick work around is to use
"C:\usr\temp" as the location where the file can be created and copied to

the location -
%PROGRAMDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\DeviceMetadataStore

Hello,

I have followed this tutorial and have made great icons (as you can see below), thank you very much!!!
However, I want to change icons of the virtual system printers, like PDF Creator. But they don't have anything under "Properties/Hardware". How can I identify them?

I appreciate the tutorials on this subject.

I was struggling with this and found the Icon Creation tutorial somewhat confusing as some things were left out or perhaps missed the 'cut & paste' when being posted. I added some updated/corrected instructions on that thread which included some details that us non-tech folk don't intuitively grasp. (Hopefully that will help the next bonehead like me who stumbles along!

THANKS SevenForums! My custom printer icon is now on the home network!

The shortcut to the icon tutorial is broken, could you point to a icon software that can make what the app is asking for. Also would you upload the one you show on your post. the one of the pc would be very usefull for Assemblers.

Thanks