4. In the left pane of regedit, right click on the
DefaultIcon key, and click/tap on
Permissions. (see screenshot below)
5. In
Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows 8.1, or Windows RT 8.1, you will need to
take ownership (step 3 of Option Three at link) of the
DefaultIcon key before being able to do step 6 below.
6. At the top, select the
Administrators group. At the bottom, check the
Allow box to the right of
Full Control, and click/tap on
OK. (see screenshot below)
7. In the right pane of regedit, double click/tap on
(Default) to modify it, and do
step 8, 9, or 10 below for what you would like to do. (See screenshot below)
8. To Restore the Default Favorites Icon A) In the
Modify window from regedit, copy and paste the path below, click/tap on
OK, and go to
step 11 below.
%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-1024
9. To Use a Custom Icon of Your Own A) In the
Modify window from regedit, type in the full path in quotes of where you have your custom icon (.ico file) saved at, click/tap on
OK, and go to
step 11 below. (see screenshot below)
WARNING: You will need to use a 256x256 pixel icon for them to display properly at all of the available icon view sizes in Windows. You will also need to leave the icon (.ico file) saved at the exact location you typed below for it to continue to work. If you delete or move this icon, then it will no longer be displayed.
10. To Use another Windows Icon A) If you have not already, download and install the free program
IconViewer to add the
Icons tab in the screenshot below step 10B.
NOTE: Be sure to download the correct 32-bit or 64-bit version for your Windows.
B) In Windows Explorer navigate to the
.exe (ex: for program icons) or
.dll (ex: Windows icons) file that contains the icon that you want to use for the default Favorites icon, then right click on the file, click on
Properties, and the
Icons tab. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: The most common Windows icons come from the C:\Windows\System32\imageres.dll file. C) Make note of the icon number for the icon that you want to use instead. (see screenshot above)
NOTE: For example, the default Favorites icon number is 1024. I'm going to change it to the 1029 icon number just as an example.
D) In the
Modify window from regedit, type in the full path of the .exe or .dll file followed by
,-icon# (fullpath,-####), click/tap on
OK, and go to
step 11 below. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: For example, if I want to use the path (step 9B) and the 1029 icon (step 9C), I would type: %SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-1029
OR
C:\Windows\System32\imageres.dll,-1029
11. If you have a 64-bit Windows Installed
Note
To also change the Favorites icon in the "Open" and "Save as" type windows as well in
64-bit Windows, you will also
need to do this step.
If you have a
32-bit Windows installed, then
skip this step since doing steps 1 to 8/9/10 will change the Favorites icon in the "Open" and "Save as" type windows as well.
A) In regedit, go to the location below: