HOWTO: Changing Program Icons

Almost all purchased programs come with their own unique icons. Some are pretty or cute, while others are ugly.

If you create your own programs or Command files (.cmd) to run several commands, you'll end up with a plain, unattractive default Windows icon for that file type.

However, you can change the icon to any other icon that you can find on your computer.

Most icons are actually encoded into the program files themselves, but Windows knows how to find them. Windows also has a set of generic icons that you can choose to use.

Let's create a Windows shortcut to immediately shut down your computer, without getting the Stand By, Turn Off, Restart or Cancel.

Right-click on a blank part of the Windows Desktop, and select New, Shortcut.
In the "Type the location of the item:" box, enter the following:
shutdown.exe -s -t 0
(don't miss the "-s -t 0" part -- they mean shutdown, time delay, 0 seconds)


Click the Next button
Give it a title, like "Shutdown Now"

Now, you'll get a nice, ugly default icon



Next, right-click on the new Shortcut icon and select Properties
On the Properties dialog box, click on the Change Icon... button

You'll get an error message like this, but do not worry about it:

Click ok. Then, you'll see a selection box with a number of standard Windows icons you can choose. Or, ou can browse to find another icon.


Scroll and pick the icon you want -- or use the Browse button to search elsewhere on the drive for other icons.
Select the icon you want and click the OK button.
Then click the OK button on the Properties dialog box, and you're finished.