Change My Documents Folder Icon in Windows Explorer???

[t.cruise]

When I configured Windows XP, I moved the target for My Documents to C:\My Documents. So,
it now appears in the tree as any other generic yellow folder. The rest of this refers to
that My Documents default yellow open and closed folder with the path C:\My Documents (my
moved target), NOT the My Documents desktop folder, and not the My Documents folder
directly below the Desktop icon in Windows Explorer. When I right click the other default
yellow folders, then left click Properties, then click the Customize tab, there is a
Change Icon button. But when I do the same for C:\My Documents, the Customize tab does
not exist, and I cannot change the generic yellow folder icon. Is there any way to change
that icon, without having to use third party software?

 

[Micky]

When I configured Windows XP, I moved the target for My Documents to C:\My Documents. So,
it now appears in the tree as any other generic yellow folder. The rest of this refers to
that My Documents default yellow open and closed folder with the path C:\My Documents (my
moved target), NOT the My Documents desktop folder, and not the My Documents folder
directly below the Desktop icon in Windows Explorer. When I right click the other default
yellow folders, then left click Properties, then click the Customize tab, there is a
Change Icon button. But when I do the same for C:\My Documents, the Customize tab does
not exist, and I cannot change the generic yellow folder icon. Is there any way to change
that icon, without having to use third party software?

The My Documents, My Music and My Pictures folders (regardless of
which folders they physically represent) cannot be customized in this way.
This is by design. Go figure...

To customize the icon for these folders, you have to first make the folder
a system folder. You would do this by issuing the following commands
from a command prompt (Start > Run > CMD):

ATTRIB +S "C:\MY DOCUMENTS"

Next, create a desktop.ini file in the folder. If one already exists, edit it
with notepad. Note that you must unhide protected files to see if the file
exists or not. In Explorer, use Tools | Folder Options | View to hide/unhide
protected files. If it exists, double-click it to edit it. Otherwise use notepad
to create it (remember to surround the filename with double quotes to avoid
gaining a .TXT extension).

Ensure the following three lines exist in the file (change the path to the
icon as appropriate):

[.ShellClassInfo]
IconFile=D:\Icons\XP-Folders\Ice Cream.ico
IconIndex=0

Save the file and (if you created the file) change its attributes to both
system and hidden:

ATTRIB +S +H "C:\MY DOCUMENTS\DESKTOP.INI"

Then hide protected files and folders once more.

If you wish to use an icon within (say) shell32.dll or another executable,
specify the file and the appropriate index. The first icon is always index 0.
To determine the index, create a shortcut to the file containing the icon.
The look at the shortcut's properties, and click the Change Icon button.
Icon index 0 is top left, with index 1 immediately below.

Hope this helps.

 

[t.cruise]

Thank you for the concise easy to follow directions....
--

T.C.
t__cruise@[NoSpam]hotmail.com
Remove [NoSpam] to reply

When I configured Windows XP, I moved the target for My Documents to C:\My Documents. So,
it now appears in the tree as any other generic yellow folder. The rest of this refers to
that My Documents default yellow open and closed folder with the path C:\My Documents (my
moved target), NOT the My Documents desktop folder, and not the My Documents folder
directly below the Desktop icon in Windows Explorer. When I right click the other default
yellow folders, then left click Properties, then click the Customize tab, there is a
Change Icon button. But when I do the same for C:\My Documents, the Customize tab does
not exist, and I cannot change the generic yellow folder icon. Is there any way to change
that icon, without having to use third party software?

The My Documents, My Music and My Pictures folders (regardless of
which folders they physically represent) cannot be customized in this way.
This is by design. Go figure...

To customize the icon for these folders, you have to first make the folder
a system folder. You would do this by issuing the following commands
from a command prompt (Start > Run > CMD):

ATTRIB +S "C:\MY DOCUMENTS"

Next, create a desktop.ini file in the folder. If one already exists, edit it
with notepad. Note that you must unhide protected files to see if the file
exists or not. In Explorer, use Tools | Folder Options | View to hide/unhide
protected files. If it exists, double-click it to edit it. Otherwise use notepad
to create it (remember to surround the filename with double quotes to avoid
gaining a .TXT extension).

Ensure the following three lines exist in the file (change the path to the
icon as appropriate):

[.ShellClassInfo]
IconFile=D:\Icons\XP-Folders\Ice Cream.ico
IconIndex=0

Save the file and (if you created the file) change its attributes to both
system and hidden:

ATTRIB +S +H "C:\MY DOCUMENTS\DESKTOP.INI"

Then hide protected files and folders once more.

If you wish to use an icon within (say) shell32.dll or another executable,
specify the file and the appropriate index. The first icon is always index 0.
To determine the index, create a shortcut to the file containing the icon.
The look at the shortcut's properties, and click the Change Icon button.
Icon index 0 is top left, with index 1 immediately below.

Hope this helps.

 

[Micky]

Thank you for the concise easy to follow directions....

You're welcome. Glad I could help.

When I configured Windows XP, I moved the target for My Documents to C:\My Documents. So,
it now appears in the tree as any other generic yellow folder. The rest of this refers to
that My Documents default yellow open and closed folder with the path C:\My Documents (my
moved target), NOT the My Documents desktop folder, and not the My Documents folder
directly below the Desktop icon in Windows Explorer. When I right click the other default
yellow folders, then left click Properties, then click the Customize tab, there is a
Change Icon button. But when I do the same for C:\My Documents, the Customize tab does
not exist, and I cannot change the generic yellow folder icon. Is there any way to change
that icon, without having to use third party software?

The My Documents, My Music and My Pictures folders (regardless of
which folders they physically represent) cannot be customized in this way.
This is by design. Go figure...

To customize the icon for these folders, you have to first make the folder
a system folder. You would do this by issuing the following commands
from a command prompt (Start > Run > CMD):

ATTRIB +S "C:\MY DOCUMENTS"

Next, create a desktop.ini file in the folder. If one already exists, edit it
with notepad. Note that you must unhide protected files to see if the file
exists or not. In Explorer, use Tools | Folder Options | View to hide/unhide
protected files. If it exists, double-click it to edit it. Otherwise use notepad
to create it (remember to surround the filename with double quotes to avoid
gaining a .TXT extension).

Ensure the following three lines exist in the file (change the path to the
icon as appropriate):

[.ShellClassInfo]
IconFile=D:\Icons\XP-Folders\Ice Cream.ico
IconIndex=0

Save the file and (if you created the file) change its attributes to both
system and hidden:

ATTRIB +S +H "C:\MY DOCUMENTS\DESKTOP.INI"

Then hide protected files and folders once more.

If you wish to use an icon within (say) shell32.dll or another executable,
specify the file and the appropriate index. The first icon is always index 0.
To determine the index, create a shortcut to the file containing the icon.
The look at the shortcut's properties, and click the Change Icon button.
Icon index 0 is top left, with index 1 immediately below.

Hope this helps.