Customize folder background in Windows XP and Windows Vista
Published: Jan 2004Updated : Jun 2008
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Introduction
Windows 98 comes with a utility named Customize Folder Wizard (ieshwiz.exe) using which you can customize folders easily. The Customize Folder Wizard automates the Desktop.ini and Folder.htt editing process. This utility works fine in Windows XP as well.
For Windows Vista, see note at the end of this article.
Windows XP
Download ieshwiz.zip and save it to the Desktop
Extract ieshwiz.exe to the C:\Windows\System32 folder
Open a Command Prompt window (cmd.exe) and type:
IESHWIZ <path:\foldername>
For example, to customize the folder D:\Tools, replace <path:foldername> placeholder with D:\Tools
Select the background image for that folder, and click Next
Close and re-open the folder.
Note that the text color in a folder can be customized using the wizard. All of the these settings are stored in a file named Desktop.ini within that folder.
The changes are stored in the desktop.ini file. Here are the sample contents:
[ExtShellFolderViews]
{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}={BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}
[{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}]
Attributes=1
IconArea_Image=C:\WINDOWS\winnt.bmp
[.ShellClassInfo]
ConfirmFileOp=0
For more information on Desktop.ini files, see MSDN article Customizing Folders with Desktop.ini.
Windows Vista
Note that the folder background feature is removed in Windows Vista. If you need to customize the folder background in Windows Vista, you may use the freeware utility Vista Folder Background from Ave's Vista Apps Website. This uses a a shell extension module named VistaFolderBackground.dll that integrates with Windows.
