Customize Your Icons in Windows 7 and Vista

If we want to change out the icons on our desktop, then we’d have to personalizing our icons which is a great way to make our PC uniquely ours.
First we are going to change the icon for Computer, Recycle Bin, Network, and your User folder. So we’ll right-click on the desktop, and select Personalize and click the “Change desktop icons” link on the left sidebar in the Personalization pane.

This window is slightly different in Vista but all other things like links are same. So, select the icon you wish to change, and click the Change Icon button. You can select one of the other included icons, or click browse to find the icon you want if you have downloaded any newer one. Click Ok when you are finished.
If we want to change Folder icons, we can easily change the icon on most folders in Windows Vista and 7 by simply right-clicking on the folder and select properties and then clicking the Customize tab, and then click the Change Icon button.  This will open the standard dialog to change your icon, so proceed as we’ve done before.

We can also change the icon of any Application Shortcut, to change the icon of a shortcut on your desktop, start menu, or in Explorer, simply right-click on the icon and select Properties and in the Shortcut tab, click the Change Icon button. Now choose one of the other available icons or click browse to find the icon you want.

Now we are going to change Icons of Running Programs in the Windows 7 taskbar. We can customize the icon of any program running in the taskbar!  This only works on applications that are running but not pinned to the taskbar, so if you want to customize a pinned icon you may want to unpin it before customizing it.  But the interesting thing about this trick is that it can customize any icon anything running in the taskbar, including things like Control Panel. Right-click or click and push up to open the jumplist on the icon, and then right-click on the program’s name and select Properties.  Here we are customizing Control Panel, but you can do this on any application icon.

Now, click Change Icon as usual and when the next time you open the program, you will notice your new icon on its taskbar icon.