How To Change the Icon for an EXE File
Changing the icons used by programs on your computer is a great way to customize your business computer and reflect your corporate personality on the desktop. Icons used by the executable files are actually embedded resources inside the program file itself. It is not easy nor is it completely safe for your system to modify these resources. Doing so can risk the integrity of your system. However there is another way to use your custom icons by using Windows shortcuts. Windows shortcuts are typically what you already have on your desktop, which are pointers to the real executable. In Windows 7, you can modify the icon used by the shortcut easily without risky modifications to your machine's registry.
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1.
Create a shortcut to the executable you want to customize if you do not already have one. Right click on the executable file and select "Create shortcut" in the pop-up window.
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Right click on the shortcut file and select "Properties."
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Click on the "Shortcut" tab in the pop-up window if it is not already shown by default. Click the "Change Icon..." button at the bottom of the window.
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Click the "Browse" button in top of the "Change Icon" window and navigate to the ICO (icon) file you want to use as your custom icon. Click "Open" or "OK" when you have selected your icon file.
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Click "OK" at the bottom of the "Change Icon" window.
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Click "OK" at the bottom of the "Properties" window. Your shortcut now displays your custom icon.
References
Warnings
- It is not advisable to change the icon resource embedded inside the program's executable or to modify the icon with Windows registry changes. These methods bypass some protections that prevent changes to executable files and may actually cause some virus software to block your executable as a corrupted file.
Writer Bio
John Granby began his writing career in 2000 as a founding member of a tech industry website targeted at WAP developers. He has provided in-depth coverage of the wireless industry, served as a speaker at several conferences and authored a book on Bluetooth. Granby earned a Bachelor of Science in computer engineering from Purdue University.