Microsoft is changing up the legacy icons of its popular operating system. You’ve already seen some of these changes hit classic Windows 10 apps like Mail and Calculator, but up next are new icons for File Explorer’s folders.
But I wouldn’t use the Dev channel for my primary PC, just in case. Icons are nifty and all, but not worth the potential problems if, or when, the build starts acting up. Thankfully, there’s another easy way to get these updated icons: Install them yourself.
To get started, download the icons from this helpful link (courtesy of Reddit user Random_Vandal, who extracted them directly out of the operating system. Mirror here if that link dies.) Drop them on a folder on your system that you don’t mind keeping around forever. There’s a lot of them—662 in total—but they only eat up a mere 36MB of space.
Next, navigate over to your Users folder, typically C:\users\[your name]. Right-click on any user folder whose icon you want to change, like “Downloads,” and click Properties. Click on the Customize tab, and then click on the “Change Icon” button:
Click on “Browse,” and find whatever icon you want from the massive folder you just created. The ones that match the lead image in this post are:
- Desktop: imageres-175.ico
- Documents: shell32-127.ico
- Downloads: imageres-176.ico
- Music: shell32-129.ico
- Pictures: shell32-128.ico
- Video: shell32-130.ico
