Vista - Drive Icon Change

Information

This will show you how to change any drive icon that uses a drive letter to whatever icon you want in a user account. These will be the ones that show up in Computer with a drive letter.

NOTE

This is not to fix a missing or changed drive icon that just happened out of the blue, but to replace it with one you want instead of the default one. If the drive icon went missing or changed to some odd one, then try rebuilding the icon cache first. See: How to Rebuild the Icon Cache in Vista If you want to also rename the drive, then see: How to Rename a Drive in Vista

WARNING

The icons you decide to use must be a 256x256 bit .ico (icon) file, not .png, to be used in Vista without viewing problems. A png file must be converted to a 256x256 ico file before it can be used. To convert a PNG to ICO you must use a program such as this with a free 30 day trial program called: Axialis IconWorkshop: Axialis IconWorkshop Download Page

Tip

The default icon path for the C:\ drive is located at C:\Windows\System32\imageres.dll,30. Here's a good location for some free icons: deviantArt: Dock Icons If your default drive icon is missing or was changed and you did not do it with the methods below, then look for a hidden (not always hidden though) autorun.inf when you open the drive letter in Computer and right click on the autorun.inf file and click on Delete. Next, approve the deletion.

• How to Change a Folder Icon in Vista
• How to Change a Shortcut Folder or File Icon in Vista
• How to Change the Open Folder Icon in Vista
• How to Change a Folder Preview Picture in Vista
• How to Change a Icon in the Control Panel in Vista
• How to Restore and Change a Desktop Icon in Vista
• How to Change the Desktop Control Panel Icon in Vista
• How to Delete and Extend a Partition with Disk Management in Vista
• How to Shrink and Create a Partition with Disk Management in Vista
• How to Add, Change, or Remove a Drive Letter in Vista
• How to Rebuild the Icon Cache in Vista
• How to Show or Remove Drive Letters from Displaying in Vista
• How to Rename a Drive in Vista
• How to Disable or Enable Low Disk Space Warning in Vista
• How to Increase Hard Drive Performance in Vista
• How to Remove or Show Drive Letters in the Vista Send To Context Menu
• How to Restrict or Unrestict Drive Access in Vista
• How to Hide or Unhide a Drive in Vista
• How to Create a Drive Shortcut in Vista
• How to Change a File Extension Type Icon in Vista
• How to Mount or Dismount a Drive or Partition to a Folder in Vista
• How to Retain the DVD Drive Icon if Disappeared from Computer
• How to Change the Vista Default Folder Icon

NOTE

This will only change the drive icons for the user account that you are currently logged on in.

1. Open the Start Menu.

2. In the white line (Start Search) area, type regedit and press Enter.

3. Click on Continue in the UAC prompt.

4. In regedit, go to: (See screenshot below step 5)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes

5. In the left pane, right click on Classes and click on New and Key.
NOTE: If you already have the Applications key under Classes, then go to step 7.

6. Type Applications and press Enter. (See screenshot below)

7. In the left pane, right click on Applications and click on New and Key.
NOTE: If you already have the Explorer.exe key under Applications, then go to step 9.

8. Type Explorer.exe and press Enter. (See screenshot below)

9. In the left pane, right click on Explorer.exe and click on New and Key.
NOTE: If you already have the Drives key under Explorer.exe, then go to step 11.

10. Type Drives and press Enter. (See screenshot below)

11. In the left pane, right click on Drives and click on New and Key.
NOTE: If you already have the Drive Letter (EX: C) key under Drives, then go to step 13.

12. Type the drive letter (EX: C) you want to change the drive icon for and press Enter. (See screenshot below)

13. In the left pane, right click on the drive letter (EX: C) and click on New and Key.
NOTE: If you already have the DefaultIcon key under the drive letter, then go to step 15.

14. Type DefaultIcon and press Enter. (See screenshot below)

15. In the right pane, right click on (Default) and click on Modify.

16. To Restore the Default Drive Icon -

A) Empty the Value data field and click on OK. (See screenshot below step 17)
B) Go to step 19.

17. To Change the Drive Icon -

A) Type in the full path of where the icon is saved at and click OK.
(EX: C:\Users\Everyday\Downloads\HDD Black.ico)
NOTE: The icon will need to remain in it's location for as long as you are using it. You can use any icon (.ico file) you want, or one that came with Vista. (EX: A .dll file path) See the How to Use a DLL OR EXE Icon Library File below.

18. The registry should look similar to this now. (See screenshot below)

19. Close regedit.
NOTE: The change will be immediate. If you have Computer open, then you may need to press F5 to refresh the window to see the new icon. If you used a wrong icon size for the drive icon, then you may need to change the window's icon size in the View or Views menu to a smaller size.

20. Repeat steps 11 to 19 if you want to add another drive letter icon to change.

21. In some cases, you may need to restart the computer to apply the changes.

Tip

How to Use a DLL OR EXE Icon Library File NOTE: Example: For a .dll library full path, you would type in something similar to this: C:\Windows\System32\imageres.dll,30 (The default icon path for the C:\ drive) 1. imageres.dll is just one the many icon library files that come with Vista. This one contains most of the different icons used by Vista. 2. The ,30 is the icon's index number location inside the imageres.dll icon library. NOTE: See the boxed in red icon in the screenshot below. 3. You can determine this by counting the icons in the library. The top left icon is 0, and it counts vertically down until you run out if icons. It then starts in the next column/row and repeats vertically down. NOTE: See the added red numbers in the screenshot below to help understand this. 4. When you count to the highlighted icon, you get 30. Thus, the imageres.dll,30 NOTE: (Icon Library File),(Icon Index Number) To see how to open a box like this to just see what the icon index number is, See: How to Change a Shortcut Folder or File Icon in Vista and How to Change a Folder Icon in Vista 5. You could also download and install the free program IconViewer, then right click on the imageres.dll file and click on Properties and the new Icons tab to see what number to use for the icon you want.

NOTE

This method can be helpful for using with optical (DVD) or removable drives. CREDIT TO: Member:AvatarOfTheShip

1. Open the Start Menu.

2. In the white line (Start Search) area, type regedit and press Enter.

3. Click on Continue in the UAC prompt.

4. In regedit, go to: (See screenshot below step 5)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer

5. In the left pane, right click on explorer.exe and click on New and Key.

6. Type DriveIcons and press Enter. (See screenshot below)

7. In the left pane, right click on DriveIcons and click on New and Key.

8. Type the drive letter (EX: D) you want to change the drive icon for and press Enter. (See screenshot below)

9. In the left pane, right click on the drive letter (EX: D) and click on New and Key.
NOTE: If you already have the DefaultIcon key under the drive letter, then go to step 11.

10. Type DefaultIcon and press Enter. (See screenshot below)

11. In the right pane, right click on (Default) and click on Modify.

12. To Restore the Default Drive Icon -

A) Empty the Value data: field and click OK. (See screenshot below step 13)

B) Go to step 15.

13. To Change the Drive Icon -

A) Type in the full path of where the icon is saved at and click OK.
(EX: C:\Windows\System32\imageres.dll,31)
NOTE: The icon will need to remain in it's location for as long as you are using it. You can use any icon (.ico file) you want, or one that came with Vista. (EX: A .dll file path) See the How to Use a DLL OR EXE Icon Library File above.

14. The registry should look similar to this now. (See screenshot below)

15. To Rename the Dive -
NOTE: This is helpful for something like a DVD (optical) drive since they cannot be renamed through the normal method here: How to Rename a Drive in Vista
If you do not want to rename the drive, then skip this step and go to step 16 below instead.

A) In the left pane, right click on the drive letter (Ex: D) and click on New and Key. (See screenshot below)

B) Type DefaultLabel and press Enter.

C) In the right pane, right click on (Default) and click on Modify.

D) Type the name you want (Ex: DVD-RW) and click OK. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: To Restore the Default Drive Name, leave this blank.

E) The registry will now look similar to this. (See screenshot below)

16. Close regedit.
NOTE: The change will be immediate. If you have Computer open, then you may need to press F5 to refresh the window to see the new icon. If you used a wrong icon size for the drive icon, then you may need to change the window's icon size in the View or Views menu to a smaller size.

17. Repeat steps 7 to 16 if you want to add another drive letter icon to change.

18. In some cases, you may need to restart the computer to apply the changes.