How to Change Icons on Windows 11 and Windows 10

While Windows has some icons for you to choose from already, the selection is generally quite limited. As a result, you’ll probably want to download some icons from the web. Our site of choice is IconArchive, which has gathered over 600,000 icons in its 15 years of operation. Some other sites you can try include:

• DeviantArt
• FindIcons
• Flaticon
• Iconfinder
• Icons8
• Freepik
• Freeicons

The process to download the icons should be roughly the same whatever you choose:

1. Search for your application in the search bar and download an icon you like
   
   

   To download an icon on IconArchive, hover over it and press the “ICO” button in the top-right. The icon file should download straight away with no additional hassle.

   

If you’re wondering how to change the icon of a program when it’s on your Start menu, taskbar, or desktop, the answer is by changing its shortcut properties. All you need to do is restart the app after your changes and it’ll show up on your taskbar with its shiny new coat of paint.

1. Right-click your app shortcut and choose “Properties”
   
   

   This shortcut can be the one on your desktop or the one on your start menu, which you’ll find in C:\Users\%UserName%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs. Just bear in mind that when you change an icon on the desktop it won’t affect the Start Menu/Taskbar and vice versa.

   

2. Open the “Shortcut” tab and press “Change Icon…”
   
   

   

3. Click “Browse…” next to “Look for icons in this file”
   
   

   

4. Navigate to your downloaded icon or open “shell32.dll” in System32
   
   

   shell32.dll has a number of in-built icons for Windows which may be useful to you for some applications. A lot of them are a bit outdated, but they should do the job.

   You can find shell32.dll in C:/Windows/System32.

   

5. Select an icon and press “OK”
   
   

   

6. Press “OK” in the properties menu
   
   

   The change will immediately apply to your shortcut, but you may have to restart the app before the changes reflect in your taskbar.

   

You may have noticed that, try as you might, there are some desktop icons that you cannot change by modifying their shortcut. This is because they’re default system icons such as the recycle bin, user folder, network, etc.

You can still change them, however, you just need to follow a slightly different process. Here’s one way to change those desktop icons:

1. Press the Start button and click the settings cog
   
   

   On Windows 10, this will be just above the power button. If you’re on Windows 11, it should be in your pinned apps.

   

2. Open “Personalization” settings
   
   

   In Windows 10 you can get there by clicking on the personalization heading in the grid. In Windows 11, you’ll have to press “Personalization” on the sidebar instead.

   

3. Open the Themes section and press “Desktop icon settings”
   
   

   In Windows 10 you can press “Themes” in the right sidebar and then “Desktop icon settings” in the “Related settings” section on the right.

   If you’re using Windows 11, instead press the “Themes” button in the main pane and then scroll down until you see the “Desktop icon settings” button and click it.

   

4. Select the icon you want to change and press “Change Icon…”
   
   

   

5. Select and icon from the list or browse to a downloaded one and press “OK”
   
   

   

6. Press “OK” in the “Desktop Icon Settings” window
   
   

   You can repeat this process to change any other system icon on the desktop.

   

If you previously changed your system desktop icons but no longer like how they look, there’s a quick way to restore them. Just follow the steps below:

1. Press Start, followed by the settings cog
   
   

   If you’re on Windows 10, the cog will be above the power button. Windows 11 users will find it pinned to their start menu.

   

2. Open personalization settings
   
   

   Windows 10 users can get to personalization settings by pressing the “Personalization” heading in their settings grid. Windows 11 users will access it via the sidebar.

   

3. Click on “Themes” and then “Desktop icon settings”
   
   

   For Windows 11 users, both the “Themes” and “Desktop icon settings” sections will be found in the main pane rather than in sidebars like Windows 10.

   

4. Press “Restore Default”
   
   

   

5. Click “OK”
   
   

   Your Windows 10 or Windows 11 desktop icons will instantly return to their defaults.

   

If you’re having trouble changing your user files icon through the settings UI, you can try the Registry Editor instead. This is a bit more complex, but you’ll be fine so long as you read our safe registry editing guide and follow our instructions carefully.

1. Open Registry Editor
   
   

   Press Start and type “Regedit”, then click the top result.

   

2. Go to the DefaultIcon registry key and edit the “Default” string
   
   

   To change the default icon for the user folder in Windows 10 or Windows 11, paste the following into your RegistryEditor address bar and press Enter:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID\{59031A47-3F72-44A7-89C5-5595FE6B30EE}\DefaultIcon

   Double-click the “(Default)” string and change the “Value data:” to point to the file path of your new icon. Press “OK” to apply the change. You may have to sign in and out of your account before you see any changes.

   

3. Restore the default user’s files icon
   
   

   If you don’t like the change, replace the value data in the (Default) string with:

   C:\Windows\System32\imageres.dll,-123

   After you log in and out, the default user files icon will be restored.

   

As well as the default desktop icons, Windows has system icons for the “This PC” section of your File Explorer. These can be changed on a per-user or per-system basis using Regedit. Here’s how to do it per user:

1. Open Registry Editor
   
   

   Press Start and type “regedit”, then click the top result.

   

2. Navigate to the CLSID key and create a new key
   
   

   To get to the CLSID key, past the following in your Registry Editor address bar:

   Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\CLSID

   Once there, right-click the CLSID folder in the sidebar and select “New > Key“.

   

3. Rename the key to reference the 3D objects icon
   
   

   The name you’ll want to paste into the key is:

   {0DB7E03F-FC29-4DC6-9020-FF41B59E513A}

   If you already have a key named {0DB7E03F-FC29-4DC6-9020-FF41B59E513A}, you do not need to create another one.

   

4. Create a new key inside the “{0DB7E03F…}” key 
   
   

   To do so right-click on your newly created key and press “New > Key”.

   

5. Name the new key “DefaultIcon”
   
   

   If you already have a DefaultIcon key, you do not need to create the folder.

   

6. Double-click the “(Default)” string in the main pane and set the value data to your icon path
   
   

   Make sure you are inside of the “Default” icon key before you do so. Press “OK” once you have specified the path to your .ico file in quotation marks.

   

7. Repeat the process for the icon of the Desktop folder
   
   

   For the Desktop folder, you’ll want to use/search for the key name {B4BFCC3A-DB2C-424C-B029-7FE99A87C641} in your CLSID key instead. You’ll need to create a “DefaultIcon” folder and point the “(Default)” string to your icon file like in the previous steps.

   

8. Repeat the process for the Documents folder
   
   

   For the documents folder, you should name the key {d3162b92-9365-467a-956b-92703aca08af}.

   

9. Repeat the process for the Downloads folder icon
   
   

   The key name for the Downloads folder is {088e3905-0323-4b02-9826-5d99428e115f}.

   

10. Repeat the process for the Music Folder icon
    
    

    The key name for the music folder is {3dfdf296-dbec-4fb4-81d1-6a3438bcf4de}.

    

11. Repeat the process for the Pictures folder icon
    
    

    The key name for the Pictures folder is {24ad3ad4-a569-4530-98e1-ab02f9417aa8}.

    

12. Repeat the process for the Videos folder icon
    
    

    The name of the Videos icon key is {f86fa3ab-70d2-4fc7-9c99-fcbf05467f3a}.

    You have now changed the icon of every folder in the the “This PC” section. If you’d like to restore them to their defaults, you should use the following file paths in the default string:

    Folder	Default Icon
    3D Objects	%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-198
    Desktop	%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-183
    Documents	%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-112
    Downloads	%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-184
    Music	%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-108
    Pictures	%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-113
    Videos	%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll,-189

    Refresh your File Explorer window to apply any changes.

    

If you have multiple users on the same PC and wish to add custom folder icons for the This PC section for all of them, there’s no need to repeat the above process multiple times. Instead, you can change the keys in the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT section of Registry editor. Here’s how:

1. Open Registry Editor

   Press Start and type “regedit”, then click the top result.

   

2. Navigate to the root 3D objects folder icon key, right-click it, and press “Permissions…”

   To get to the 3D objects key, paste the following in your Regedit address bar:

   Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Software\Classes\CLSID\{0DB7E03F-FC29-4DC6-9020-FF41B59E513A}\DefaultIcon

   You can right-click the folder in the left sidebar to bring up the permissions menu.

   

3. Click “Advanced”
   
   

   

4. Press “Change” next to the owner field
   
   

   

5. Click “Advanced…” in the “Select User or Group” menu
   
   

   

6. Press the “Find Now” button, select your admin account, and press “OK” 
   
   

   

7. Press “OK”
   
   

   

8. Tick “Replace owner on subcontainers and objects” and press “OK” again
   
   

   

9. Right-click the DefaultIcon folder and press “Permissions…” again
   
   

   

10. Press “Add…” in the permissions window
    
    

    

11. Click “Advanced…”
    
    

    

12. Press “Find Now”, select your user, and press “OK”
    
    

    

13. Press “OK” again
    
    

    

14. Select the user from the “Security” list and tick “Allow” next to “Full Control”
    
    

    Press “OK” to apply the changes.

    You’ll have to repeat steps 1 – 14 for each icon you change.

    

15. Double click the “(Default)” string the 3D object’s “DefaultIcon” folder and enter your icon path in the “Value data” field
    
    

    Press “OK” to apply the changes.

    

16. Repeat the process for the Desktop folder icon
    

    For the Desktop folder, you’ll want to use/search for the key name {B4BFCC3A-DB2C-424C-B029-7FE99A87C641} in your CLSID key instead. Remember that you should be changing the “(Default)” string in the “DefaultIcon” folder, not in the main one. Press “OK” to apply the changes.

    

17. Change the Documents folder icon
    
    

    To change the Documents folder icon, you should navigate to the {d3162b92-9365-467a-956b-92703aca08af} key and change the value data of the “(Default)” string in its “DefaultIcon” subkey.

    

18. Change the Downloads folder icon
    
    

    To change the Downloads folder icon, you should navigate to the {088e3905-0323-4b02-9826-5d99428e115f} key and change the value data of the “(Default)” string in its “DefaultIcon” subkey.

    

19. Change the Music folder icon
    
    

    To change the Music folder icon, you should navigate to the {3dfdf296-dbec-4fb4-81d1-6a3438bcf4de} key and change the value data of the “(Default)” string in its “DefaultIcon” subkey.

    

20. Change the Pictures folder icon
    
    

    To change the Pictures folder icon, you should navigate to the {24ad3ad4-a569-4530-98e1-ab02f9417aa8} key and change the value data of the “(Default)” string in its “DefaultIcon” subkey.

    

21. Change the Videos folder icon
    
    

    To change the Videos folder icon, you should navigate to the {f86fa3ab-70d2-4fc7-9c99-fcbf05467f3a} key and change the value data of the “(Default)” string in its “DefaultIcon” subkey.