How to Customize Your Windows Folder & Program Icons

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Customize your Windows icons for a personalized touch
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Want to customize the icons of your Windows folders and programs? It's faster and easier than you might think! In this article, we explain how to create your own icons using Paint (or any other image editing software) and how to change a folder or program's default icon to your custom one. Read on to learn more.

Quick Steps

  1. Create a square icon in Paint, either by drawing or cropping an image.
  2. Save your custom icon as a PNG or JPG/JPEG.
  3. Go to the ICO Convert website.
  4. Upload your image and convert it to the ICO format.
  5. Right-click the folder or program you want to edit.
  6. Go to Properties > Customize or Shortcut > Change Icon… .
  7. Click Browse… and choose your custom icon.
Section 1 of 4:

Drawing a Custom Icon

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  1. Paint is a free drawing and image editing software that comes pre-installed on all Windows computers. If you prefer, you can use any image editor or drawing program that you like. However, the steps in this article will be for Microsoft Paint, so if you use a different program, the steps may not line up exactly.
    • This section of the article teaches you how to draw a custom icon. If you want to use a photo or image you already have as an icon, jump to the next part .
  2. Icons are always square. If you use a rectangular canvas, the final icon will be squished. Size doesn't matter at this point, but make sure the canvas is bigger than 100 pixels on each side. To change your canvas size, follow these steps:
    • Windows 10: Click on the Home tab, then click Resize . Change the vertical and horizontal to the same number (any number is okay, as long as it's bigger than 100).
    • Windows 11: Click File > Image properties and change the width and height to the same number (any number is okay, as long as it's bigger than 100).
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  3. Use the tools at the top of the window to draw your icon. You can change your brush size, shape, and color. You can also add shapes like squares, circles, triangles, arrows, and more.
    • If you want, you can turn on gridlines to make it easier to create a symmetrical icon. To do this, follow these steps:
      • Windows 10: Go to the View tab and check Gridlines .
      • Windows 11: Click View and choose Gridlines .
  4. In the Windows 11 version of Paint, you can now add layers to create transparent backgrounds. On Windows 10, you cannot do this, so your icon must always have a solid background color.
    • Click Layers in the top bar. A sidebar will appear showing the layers in your image. You automatically start with one layer, as well as a background layer (which is at the bottom of the sidebar).
    • Hover the background layer and click the eye icon to disable the background. You will see that your canvas is now a gray checkerboard. When you save the image, any part of the canvas that shows the gray checkerboard will be transparent.
  5. Once you're finished, click File > Save as and save your image as either a JPG/JPEG or PNG. If part of your image is transparent, you must save it as a PNG. If you save it as a JPG/JPEG, the transparent parts will turn white.
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Section 2 of 4:

Creating a Custom Icon from a Photo

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  1. Paint is a free drawing and image editing software that comes pre-installed on all Windows computers. If you prefer, you can use any image editor or drawing program that you like. However, the steps in this article will be for Microsoft Paint, so if you use a different program, the steps may not line up exactly.
    • This section of the article teaches you how to use a photo or image as an icon. If you want to draw your own icon, jump back up to the first part .
  2. Choose the image or photo you want to turn into an icon and open it in Paint.
  3. You can crop the image into any size square, as long as it's bigger than 100 pixels on each side. To do this, follow these steps:
    • Click the selection button in the upper-left corner of the screen. It looks like a box with a dashed line.
    • Press and hold ⇧ Shift while clicking and dragging your mouse over the part of the image you want in the icon. This will ensure the selection box stays a square.
    • Release your mouse button and then ⇧ Shift to finish making your selection.
    • Click the crop button in the top bar. It's just to the right of the Selection button, and it looks like two intersecting right angles.
      • If you don't like how the crop looks, press Ctrl + Z to go back one step, then repeat the steps above until you have a crop that you like.
  4. Once you're finished, click File > Save as and save your image as either a JPG/JPEG or PNG.
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Section 3 of 4:

Converting the Icon to the ICO Format

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  1. Go to https://icoconvert.com in a web browser. In order for your computer to use your custom icon as an icon, it must be in the ICO image format. ICO Convert is a website that will convert PNG and JPG/JPEG images to ICO format for free. [1]
  2. When the dialog box pops up, navigate to the icon you just created and click Open .
  3. Your image will now appear on the page under the "Step 2" heading.
    • If you want, you can crop your icon further on the ICO Convert site under "Step 2."
    • You can also choose an icon style under "Step 3" to change the icon's shape and add a border and/or drop shadow.
    • These two steps are optional, however, and you can skip them if you want to just convert your icon as-is.
  4. Make sure the circle next to "ICO for Windows 10, Windows 11, 7 and 8" is selected under the "Step 4" heading.
  5. ICO Convert will automatically convert your image to the ICO format.
  6. Your new ICO file will be downloaded. If your browser doesn't ask where to save the file, it will most likely be saved to your Downloads folder.
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Section 4 of 4:

Changing to Your Custom Icon

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  1. Alternatively, if the folder or program that you want to change the icon of is on your desktop, you can minimize all open windows to view your desktop instead.
  2. In Windows 10, this option is near the bottom of the contextual menu. In Windows 11, it's near the middle of the contextual menu.
  3. If you're changing a folder's icon, choose Customize . If you're changing the icon of a program, click Shortcut (but this tab will likely be open by default when you go to Properties ).
  4. For both folders and programs, this button is at the bottom of their respective tabs.
  5. Navigate to the location where your ICO file was saved.
  6. It will now appear as an option you can select for your folder or program's icon.
  7. The folder or program's icon will automatically be changed to your custom icon.
    • If you ever want to go back to the old icon, simply go back to Properties > Customize or Shortcut > Change Icon… and click Restore Defaults at the bottom of the pop-up window.
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Community Q&A

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  • Question
    How do I make it transparent?
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    Community Answer
    Use an online File Converter to convert a picture without a background to a .ico file first. Then, repeat steps 8 and 9.
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      Tips

      • You can't customize the icon of an individual file as this denotes what type of file it is (i.e., a .txt file will always have an icon that looks like a notepad).
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      References

      1. ↑ https://icoconvert.com

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