How to Customize the Library Icons in Windows 7

Windows 7 does not provide a GUI to change the icons shown for Libraries, and the Libraries don’t use the icon references provided in the desktop.ini file. Here is a nice way to customize the Library icons in Windows 7.

Thanks to Bogo for this excellent tip!

Changing the Library icon in Windows 7

1. Start Notepad

2. Click Start, type the following path and press ENTER:

%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries

3. Drag the library (for which you want to change the icon) into the Notepad window.

4. Add the following entry after the line <isLibraryPinned>

<iconReference>Path-to-Icon</iconReference>

For example, to assign the 84th icon (index starts from 0) from Shell32.dll, type the following line:

<iconReference>SHELL32.DLL,84</iconReference>

Note: The <iconReference> line may already exist for the default Libraries. For custom Libraries, you need to add it manually.

5. Save the file and close Notepad. Press F5 to refresh the Libraries window to see if the Library icon has changed.

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4 Responses to “How to Customize the Library Icons in Windows 7” Subscribe to comments!

  1. said this on Wednesday, November 11th 2009 6:30 am

    You can use this free utility to change library icons, and also add network locations and a few other things:

    http://zornsoftware.talsit.info/?p=3

  2. said this on Tuesday, November 10th 2009 9:09 am

    [...] is not easy. So yes, I found how I can customize the library icons using NOTEPAD.  For example, this article on how to do it. But it is a hack. Plus, I looked at my icon options. Nothing there I really [...]

  3. said this on Tuesday, November 3rd 2009 5:54 am

    [...] is not easy. So yes, I found how I can customize the library icons using NOTEPAD.  For example, this article on how to do it. But it is a hack. Plus, I looked at my icon options. Nothing there I really [...]

  4. Kai Sellgren
    said this on Sunday, May 31st 2009 9:27 pm

    I made an application to do this automatically, download it here: http://rapidshare.com/files/239282431/Library_Icon_Changer.zip.html

    :)

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