Many users pay special attention to personalizing their personal computer. Various interesting wallpapers are selected for the desktop, themes are installed that change the appearance of windows and panels. In Windows 7, it is possible to define custom icons for different folders and assign new icons to program shortcuts. This article describes how to change folder icons using ico files.
Folder properties
If you want to assign a special icon to a specific directory, in order to somehow highlight it, you need to go to the configuration menu.
To do this, you need to do the following:
Where to get ico files
Windows icons have their own extension - ".ico". The operating system has a basic set of pictures that can be used as shortcuts. In addition, the icons may change when you install a new theme for your Windows system.
If among the standard sets you could not find anything that suits you, you can download new ico icons. There are many sites on the network that offer their visitors to download a variety of thematic sets or certain pictures separately. 
On some resources, shortcuts are offered for download in png format. In this case, users will need to convert them to the desired format. To do this, you can use the special Avelcon program or any equivalent. In most cases, the websites themselves offer you to download all the software you need.
More than six years ago I will described one free program that helped us change boring monotonous folders for informative, cheerful or even funny colored folders in Windows Explorer.
Today I will give you a free set of colored folders and tell you how to replace the standard ones with them, without using any programs at all.
Colored folders for Windows Explorer
There are plenty to choose from, right? You can change the color of important folders (by making them red) or by giving one color to folders with certain contents (photo, video, audio ...).
Thus, these directories become immediately visually highlighted in the "gray" mass of the contents of windows explorer or other file manager.
How to change the folder icon
It’s very simple. For example, I will "repaint" my "Service" folder ...
In it I have all sorts of important files live and accumulate - from now on it will be red, amen, let's go ...
Click on the selected experimental folder with the RIGHT mouse button and go to its "Properties" ...
Here we need the "Settings" tab. We look into it and find, just below, the section "Folder icons" ...
What do we need here? That's right - change the icon. We poke on the corresponding single button and indicate the folder of the desired color from our free set. As I said above - I need a red one. Ignoring the contents of the line, I click on "Browse" ...
... and having indicated an aggressive color icon - press "Ok" ...
As you can see, there is also a rescue button "Restore defaults" right there - this is if you want to return the folder to a standard boring color.
It remains to apply the changes ...
... and enjoy your colored folder ...
Please note that after changing the color of the folder, the preview of its contents is no longer displayed ...
It will just be a solid color.
Many people know what icons are, because they appeared a long time ago, back in the distant 90s. Interestingly, the first to use icons were not Windows developers, but Mac OS programmers. But over time, the Windows operating system overtook its competitor and began to use and improve the graphic component of icons with might and main. With the development of the Windows operating system and the Internet, a huge number of all kinds of icons have appeared. Icons are used everywhere nowadays, without them, no one, probably, will be able to work in any system. You can download icons for free and without registration on your desktop or for Windows by going to our website.
On our site you can find and download many beautiful and unusual icons on various topics. By combining icons, Windows themes, desktop backgrounds, you can transform your interface quite a lot. Also, icons are now of great importance for web programmers, they use them to create various elements of the site. Web designers use icons and special programs to create stunning design projects. The collection of icons on the site will be constantly replenished and updated, I think everyone will find for themselves the type of icons that will be in demand.
All icons on the site are hand-selected and sorted, mostly icons have the PNG extension. In the future, icons of other extensions will appear on the site, which have their own specific application. Download icons can be absolutely free, without any SMS and file sharing, just click on the button or the archive with the file. Together with the selected icons, the corresponding
Those who are tired of looking at the same icons on their computer can easily replace them with others. It is not difficult to make your computer more expressive and interesting.
There are many thematic resources and additional programs for this.
How to choose a set of icons
To successfully change the appearance of icons, it is better to adhere to certain rules:
- New icons must match the OS theme.
- The information function of icons is more important than the decorative one; they should not be clumsy and difficult to read.
- When choosing a set of icons, you need to pay attention to their quality. Badly done icons will not only not decorate the system, but also spoil the appearance.
- In pursuit of style, practicality should not be forgotten.
Where to download icon sets
The network is replete with various resources with the "embellishments" of operating systems. Among them, there are many low-end craft sites that are being embedded in search results.
Here are some resources that provide quality free content:
7themes.su
A good thematic resource that allows you to download icons for free. In addition to icons, you can find many other free decorations for the operating system on it.
The collection of icons is constantly updated and undergoes a strict selection for quality.
Oformi.net
Another good dedicated resource. The selection is somewhat smaller, but there are unique options developed specifically for this site.
Along with icons, you can download cursors or even entire themes.
Westyle.ru
A relatively small collection of icons. But this is offset by the originality of the materials provided. More than 60% of the provided icons have not been found on other sites.
How to download icons for windows 7
Important! The system extension for icon files is ICO. Therefore, you need to download icons for windows 7 in ico format. To use PNG packages, you will need to convert them, which will take additional time.
Let's consider downloading on the example of 7themes.su. First, you need to find your favorite collection of icons in the catalog.
Then go to its page and click the "Yandex.Disk" button in the "Download file" block. To download from cloud storage, you will need to go through a simple registration process.
In terms of time, it is faster than waiting for a file hosting service.
Before downloading, you need to check the file format. In the "Info" block, in the "Format" column, ICO should be indicated.
Often, the bundle includes a set of PNG icons and a special IP file for the IconPackeger program, which is described in more detail below.
On the Yandex.Disk page, you will also need to click the Download button.
The archive with icons is now saved. It is enough to unpack its contents into a separate directory and you can proceed with the installation.
How to install icons
Icons can be assigned both separately for each object and for the entire OS. In the first case, system tools are used.
In the second - the IconPackeger software (a free thirty-day version is available).
Adding a pictogram to an individual object
Let's consider the application of an icon to one object using the example of the created folder. To do this, you need a right click on the required folder. Select "Properties" from the menu.
In the form of object parameters, you will need to select the "Settings" tab, in which there will be a button "Change icon ...".
The system icon explorer will open. In its window, you need the "Browse" button.
Clicking on it will open the standard explorer, where you need to set the path to the icons, and then select one of them and use the "Open" button.
The Icon Explorer will show the selected icon. In its window you will need to click "OK".
Then, in the parameters window, click "Apply" and the folder icon will be changed.
This method is applicable to other folders and any files.
Important! System icons (My Computer, Trash, etc.) cannot be changed this way. The program described below will help make them different.
Change all icons with IconPackeger
The downloaded program will need to be installed. Then start using the item in the "Start" menu. Before starting the program directly, a window with a proposal to purchase a subscription will appear.
In it you need to click the green "Continue" button.
After that, the program window will open. New icons can be selected from the carousel at the bottom of the window.
To use the downloaded icons (file with the .ip extension), you need to click "Add icon package". In the drop-down list, it is tedious to select the "Install from disk" item.
This will open a file explorer where you need to provide the path to the file and then click Open. After that, the program will load the collection and show a preview of the icons.
