Changing icon appearance

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Hello all,
I know that this is a minor problem, but it annoys me to no end. I keep several Icons on my desktop and the “Control Panel” is one of them …. to me it looks like some 3rd grader made this one, and can’t imagine how the powers that be in Microsoft let this in “7” 64 Home (other than it was some employee’s child who did the design on this) “Oh how cute”… looks like some kind of cartoon character “bob the control panel” So.. has anyone figured how to get the old “Control Panel” icon from Vista back ? Regards Fred

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Hello all,
I know that this is a minor problem, but it annoys me to no end. I keep several Icons on my desktop and the “Control Panel” is one of them …. to me it looks like some 3rd grader made this one, and can’t imagine how the powers that be in Microsoft let this in “7” 64 Home (other than it was some employee’s child who did the design on this) “Oh how cute”… looks like some kind of cartoon character “bob the control panel” So.. has anyone figured how to get the old “Control Panel” icon from Vista back ? Regards Fred

Fred,

Right click on the icon on your desktop and choose Properties, Select the Shortcut tab and choose Change icon. You will be given a large selection to choose from, but these are all from those same guys you mentioned in your post. I would go To Googleand download as many icons as you want, or create your own. I store icons in a folder I label Icons (very creative I know). When you choose Change Icon, browse to the folder you created with the Icon files and choose away to your hearts content. Quite some time ago I found some Celtic Icons I will e-mail to you for your consideration if I can find them. Ted

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If you could find out the name of the DLL that contains the icon in Vista, you could copy that file from Vista to some location, such as your home folder, and then use it’s icon (using the method Ted described). Unfortunately I don’t have ready access to Vista (I run 7 and XP) or I would tell you the name of the file (it’s c:windowssystem32imageres.dll in Win 7)

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If you could find out the name of the DLL that contains the icon in Vista, you could copy that file from Vista to some location, such as your home folder, and then use it’s icon (using the method Ted described). Unfortunately I don’t have ready access to Vista (I run 7 and XP) or I would tell you the name of the file (it’s c:windowssystem32imageres.dll in Win 7)

C:Windowssystem32imageres.dll This is the path to the icon files in Win 7. I believe it’s the same for Vista. Ted

When you click on Change icons, the path to the icon files is listed at the top of the window.

oops, sorry, I see you put in the path. Sorry for the duplication.

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C:Windowssystem32imageres.dll This is the path to the icon files in Win 7. I believe it’s the same for Vista. Ted

When you click on Change icons, the path to the icon files is listed at the top of the window.

oops, sorry, I see you put in the path. Sorry for the duplication.

Ted, Peter,
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction…. here’s what i found and did.
1. First if you right click on Control panel you only get three choices… open, delete, create shortcut
2. created shortcut ..then right clicked, selected properties.. change icon
3. shows path: C: windows system32 imageres.dll (same for Vista)
4. copied folder from vista and installed in “7” imageres2.dll
5. right clicked on the shortcut icon propertieschange icon browse
6. could then select the new imageres2.dll and choose the old icon….. joy…. Thanks “guys”
Regards Fred

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Fred,

Glad it worked for you. I thought the path was the same in Vista, but I also do not have a vista available to check. Take a few minutes to check out some other icons. There is a wealth of them available out there. Have a great day. Ted

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You can also get icons by browsing to:- C:Windowssystem32SHELL32.dll it gives a more varied selection.

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You can also get icons by browsing to:- C:Windowssystem32SHELL32.dll it gives a more varied selection.

Roderunner,
Hello and thank you for the reply, do you mean Vista or Windows “7” ? as “7” seems to have the same icon’s as I’m trying to rid myself of.Or am i missing something (as usual) Regards Fred

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Roderunner,
Hello and thank you for the reply, do you mean Vista or Windows “7”

Sorry I cant remember as I have both systems. Will re check both later.

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Fred, W7 and Vista both use the same icons.

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Fred, W7 and Vista both use the same icons.

Roderunner,
Hello , and thanks for you response this is what i have found on Windows 7 64. “7” only has that “goofy” cartoon control panel icon on my OS, had to use the one from Vista. I will have to investigate this further. Regards Fred

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Fred, have you been here? http://www.vistaicons.com/download/i143/ivista_icon_pack_2.htm

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Fred, have you been here? http://www.vistaicons.com/download/i143/ivista_icon_pack_2.htm

Roderunner,
Thanks for the link… Looks like there are some useful ones in that mix Regards Fred

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IrfanView can create icons from a huge variety of images and graphics. If you want custom icons, this is a great tool for creating and saving them. I created a whole Windows folder full of custom icons so that I can distinguish important folders and different USB drive partitions from one another, as well as improve upon shortcut icons such as the one you are unhappy with.

-- rc primak

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IrfanView can create icons from a huge variety of images and graphics. If you want custom icons, this is a great tool for creating and saving them. I created a whole Windows folder full of custom icons so that I can distinguish important folders and different USB drive partitions from one another, as well as improve upon shortcut icons such as the one you are unhappy with.

Bob,
Hello, and thank you for the idea ! As i have IrfanView …. for photo manipulation , could you please explain the basic’s of using IrfanView to do this . I’m sure that there are many of us (me) who have no idea. Regards fred

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Bob,
Hello, and thank you for the idea ! As i have IrfanView …. for photo manipulation , could you please explain the basic’s of using IrfanView to do this . I’m sure that there are many of us (me) who have no idea. Regards fred

It’s really quite simple.

Load any suitable graphic or image file (I prefer jpeg or GIF formats) into Irfanview. It’s as simple as right-clicking the image file, and choosing Open With… and selecting Irfanview as the application. Then, once the image is loaded, I sometimes remove unnecessary details, but the end result can be saved as an Icon File Type (.ico). Irfanview does the rest, once you select a location in which to save the resulting icon file.

What Irfanview has done is just to convert the image file to a .ico file type. Irfanview will pop up a dialog box and ask a few questions about the icon size and resolution, but I usually choose the defaults. This produces good results as long as there isn’t too much detail in the original image, and there is good contrast between the background color and the colors of the subject of the image. The background color will usually become the “transparent color” which you select for your icon.

This trechnique even works for converting Clip Art (bitmap) images into icons. I find an endless supply of icon ideas just by using Google Image Search. I definitely feel no need to limit my icons to whatever Microsoft or some freeware programmer provide with their products. No ugly or obscure icons for me!

By the way, I even changed the icon for the Irfanview desktop shortcut, because the author thinks Pandas are cute. But they also bring to mind Panda Antivirus, which I do not want to think I have (no offense intended towards that Company). Instead, I replaced the Panda icon with a little “Irfan” (those crazy little winged things that used to be the Irfanview icon). Same thing for the Thumbnail Viewer, for which I have created a separate desktop shortcut. (I use Folders to classify my desktop icons, but in Windows 7 you could use Libraries. For Windows XP, there are several free programs which help corral those icons, one of which is Fences . Check out the screenshots there, then decide about downloading the program. )

-- rc primak

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Bob,

Very useful info and a Thumbs Up. I also get bored with the icons the designers have created. I’m wondering if there are other photo manipulating Apps that will do the same thing. Hmmm, more time spent on the PC fooling around. Thanks again.

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Bob ,
Yes, I also agree thank you for the tutorial ! much appreciated ! Regards Fred

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I’ve already changed a few icons. The system icons had to be changed through Personalize, Change Desktop Icons. This is very cool. I can create all my own customized icons with very little effort. This is going to be fun!

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In answer to the question about stand-alone icon editors, yes, there are many of these. I don’t like most of them because they crash a lot, or produce poor results, or are not intuitive to use. The IrfanView method seems to me to pass the KISS test (Keep It Simple, Stupid).

Greenfish Editor (stand-alone, not an installed program) is one which works better than most. (Unfortunately, the program’s Home Page is in Hungarian.) Paint .NET can also save images as icon files, but it is not as simple to use as IrfanView, and it needs .NET Framework.

-- rc primak

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Nice brain-teaser: change every shortcut icon + its name. Next day try to remember which is which —

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Nice brain-teaser: change every shortcut icon + its name. Next day try to remember which is which —

ripley,
True enough….. i find it hard to remember on the same day ! Regards fred

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Nice brain-teaser: change every shortcut icon + its name. Next day try to remember which is which —

When an icon shows up with the description “Shortcut to 012abd23_2001.exe” with the generic Windows “.exe” default icon, you’d better believe I’m going to change the name and the icon to something I can rremember MORE easily! That’s how my shortcuts often start out, especially if they are to downloaded plug-ins or installers. Downloaded PDF manuals for free programs also often have carzy names and generic icons. I don’t change icons or captions just for fun.

-- rc primak

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