File Extension Icon - Change Default Icon

Brink said:

Hello MS,

You might see if setting Adobe as the default program again, or reinstalling it may set the icon back to using it's default.

I did a 'repair' to the program and, yes, it is now the Adobe standard white/red-A default icon. Went thru these steps again and the default icon remains. So this works only for people who live right?

Great write up... This program has eluded me for years and finally discovered it again!

Brink said:

Some programs will not let you change the default icon since they override it with their icon instead.

Yeah, it's a pain, but you can always use a Resource Editor (IE: ResEdit, Resource Tuner, Restorator, ResHack, etc.) to modify the executable, this doesn't always work either.



P.S.
Shawn, I would like to contact you, privately, regarding an issue.

I followed the guide, but the changes don't last. The icon keeps reverting back to the original icon (Foobar version). I've tried using the downloaded program and manually editing it. I'm trying to change to the Windows 7 default icon.

Thanks Brian

I registered in this forum only to thank you. The regedit method works perfectly

After I tried the regedit method and saw it works, I downloaded the program, and it is fantastic.
It is really free, no advertising, no toolbar. Free.

Thanks again.

Brink said:

Some programs will not let you change the default icon since they override it with their icon instead.

This was my impression too and I hated Notepad++ default icon which applied to all txt, ini, xml, etc, files associated with it. But found a way here to over-ride the programs icon (which should work for other programs too):

File association default icon

You can override the icon for example by adding this registry key:

HKCU\Software\Classes\Applications\notepad++\DefaultIcon

Then add an expandable string value (REG_EXPAND_SZ) with the desired icons address. In my case, I used %SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-102 which is the default notepad icon. Worked fine.