How to change a folder, shortcut or app icon in Windows 11

Updated: 2026-10-27 · AnyToolsKit

Windows 10 and 11 let you replace the icon of almost any folder, shortcut or drive with your own .ico file. Here is how to do it, how to make the change stick, and what to do when Windows keeps showing the old icon.

Prepare the icon

Windows only accepts .ico (or icons embedded in .exe/.dll files). Create one with Image to ICO using the Windows app preset (16, 24, 32, 48, 64, 256 px) so the icon is sharp in every Explorer view. Store the file somewhere permanent, such as C:\Users\You\Icons\ — if you move or delete it later, the folder will fall back to the default icon.

Change a folder icon

1. Right-click the folder and choose Properties.
2. Open the Customize tab and click Change Icon….
3. Click Browse…, pick your .ico file and confirm with OK, then Apply.

Windows stores the choice in a hidden desktop.ini file inside the folder. The Customize tab is missing for some special folders (such as Downloads on certain builds) and for folders inside libraries; open the folder via its real path instead.

Change a shortcut icon

1. Right-click the shortcut (on the desktop or in the Start menu folder) and choose Properties.
2. On the Shortcut tab click Change Icon… and browse to your .ico.
3. Click OK and Apply. Pinned taskbar items use the shortcut stored in %AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar.

Change a drive icon

For removable drives, copy the icon to the drive root and create an autorun.inf file containing:

[autorun]
icon=drive.ico

For internal drives, use the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\DriveIcons\<Letter>\DefaultIcon with the path to your .ico as the default value. Edit the registry only if you are comfortable doing so.

When the old icon will not go away

• Press F5 in Explorer, or sign out and back in.
• Rebuild the icon cache: close Explorer windows, run ie4uinit.exe -show from the Run dialog (Win+R).
• If that does not help, delete the files iconcache_*.db in %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer and restart Explorer from Task Manager.
• Make sure the .ico contains the size used by your view (e.g. 256 px for Extra large icons).