I love making custom icons for folders, apps and games. I used to drive a Mac at work and picked up the habit of organizing folders by color. I liked the standard Windows DVD icon, but wished the other boring slab drive icons were more descriptive. Normally one can change any file or folder's ICOn properties, but I discovered one needs a special app for changing the Windows Explorer drive icons.
I only finished the ICOn files I intended to use, but then I made PNG graphics for every conceivable drive icon that an average Tek Syndicate member could use. Or at least use as a start to make their own set of icons. I made sure to use very hi-res drive images but then shrunk them to icon size. The DVD measures 5" and I used that to scale all of the drives to be accurate sizes (3.5", 2.5", M.2).
To make your own drive icons, I found dimensions are very important to make them the same as the Windows icons. I had to do a bit of trial and error until I got them all to line up. Crop {DO NOT SCALE} each PNG to 256x190, with white margins at 10px from left & 5px from bottom.
Import the PNG into Junior Icon Editor as 256x256, Resample filter = none and constrain proportions. The top and bottom margins will be transparent grey. Save as an ICO file.
One can now use the Drive Icon Changer app. Run the app as an administrator, browse to the .ico file, enter the drive letter & hit apply. Usually I had to exit Windows File Explorer to refresh and the next time you open My Computer you should see new icons. Of course you can use any icon you like, not just my normal ones.
Wow very cool yet very simple. I will try it after format work PC to Windows 10, is a pain to reinstall and setup all the edit software again, but have to do it.
As I have 6 drive plus 2 on NAS and two of webdisk minimum on, it will help a lot keeping mine Computer clean looking.
It helps a lot with multiple drives, that is why I did it. In addition to my always on backup drive I have a hot-swap bay where I use old drives as a secondary backup.
One day I got confused and formatted my Games SSD instead of my Games backup. D'oh! If these icons help others from making that same stupid mistake, my work here is done.
With the Windows 10 Anniversary update I lost all of my custom drive icons, they were blank white! The Drive Icon app no longer worked in Windows 10. I had to learn how to change the Windows drive icons manually in RegEdit. It took me a few tries but I think you can do it easily. . . First make your Drive Icons. I always make 256 pixel icons. Mine are based on the real drives inside, but many people use icons that denote the data they contain. Make a folder on C:\ for your icons. Icons or Temp is a good name and copy all the icons you intend to use to your C:\Icons folder.
Open RegEdit. I click on the Search/Cortana circle button near the Windows button. Regedit has an icon that looks like a blue Rubiks Cube.
Click on Computer at the top of the list on the left and Hold CTRL & press F.
Type in 'Explorer' and press enter. The registry key you are trying to find is:
If DriveIcons does not exist, Right click on the Explorer folder > New > Key > DriveIcons
Under DriveIcons, right click and make a new key for C. That is the place for your C icon.
Under C, Right click and make a new key for DefaultIcon.
In the main window on the right edit the DefaultIcon key by double clicking it. Enter the file path in the value, followed by (,0) with no space. C:\Icons\SSD750-Windows.ico,0
That's it. . . To add more drives. just repeat the process by adding a new registry key for the drive letter under DriveIcons.
Thanks for the awesome update. I'm gathering energy to format PC to Windows 10 and make this, awesome you already make a guide on how to do it for the Anniversary update. PC grow to 9 disks, so gotta use Icons to avoid mistakes.
