Vista Forums - View Single Post - Change default folder icon from Vista vertical to XP horizontal?

TAH50 · 07-06-2009

You can also change the icons manually, without any additional tools, via two simple registry settings. These registry settings will affect other programs also, e.g. regedit.exe .

Open the registry editor (RegEdit.exe) and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\explorer.

Below this there may already be a Shell Icons key but if not create one; either way, go inside of the Shell Icons key and create two String values with names 3 and 4.

3 should point to the .ico file to be used for Closed Folders.

4 should point to the .ico file to be used for Open Folders.

To get an icon file to use for the new view use any icon extractor such as icon extractor ( IconsExtract - Extract icon/cursor stored in EXE, DLL, OCX, CPL files ). This is a freeware program.

On an XP machine copy SHELL32.DLL in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 folder to your new Vista machine and then extract all the icons.

I have used this on VHP and it works well. 99% of the folders are back to XP style and much easier to see.

Another recommended acquisitions to help make Vista behave like XP are; TWEAKVI, Ultimate Windows Tweaker version 1.2, and XdN Tweaker. All of these change lots of Vista settings, but to get to all needed to get Vista like XP you'll need all three. I've found that each one has it's strengths but no single one will change all that's needed, so get all three. All are free and functional, but there are more feature rich versions for a few $$. Just do a search and you'll find all of these programs.

Good Luck, Vista needs a lot of work to make it useful.

07-06-2009	#2 (permalink)
TAH50 VHP32 1 posts	Re: Change default folder icon from Vista vertical to XP horizontal? You can also change the icons manually, without any additional tools, via two simple registry settings. These registry settings will affect other programs also, e.g. regedit.exe . Open the registry editor (RegEdit.exe) and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\explorer. Below this there may already be a Shell Icons key but if not create one; either way, go inside of the Shell Icons key and create two String values with names 3 and 4. 3 should point to the .ico file to be used for Closed Folders. 4 should point to the .ico file to be used for Open Folders. To get an icon file to use for the new view use any icon extractor such as icon extractor ( IconsExtract - Extract icon/cursor stored in EXE, DLL, OCX, CPL files ). This is a freeware program. On an XP machine copy SHELL32.DLL in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 folder to your new Vista machine and then extract all the icons. I have used this on VHP and it works well. 99% of the folders are back to XP style and much easier to see. Another recommended acquisitions to help make Vista behave like XP are; TWEAKVI, Ultimate Windows Tweaker version 1.2, and XdN Tweaker. All of these change lots of Vista settings, but to get to all needed to get Vista like XP you'll need all three. I've found that each one has it's strengths but no single one will change all that's needed, so get all three. All are free and functional, but there are more feature rich versions for a few $$. Just do a search and you'll find all of these programs. Good Luck, Vista needs a lot of work to make it useful.
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