Change Local Drive Icon

Well, this is my first Blog and the thing that push or inspire me to post article in this blog site is how other author of Blog's which they basically share their ideas base on their specialties. Some professional may not know everything and they still need others ideas or some beginners find the best way and they mostly found the answers thru Blog's.

I want to share with you some tricks or let say some behind the scene on how to change the drive icons and default name of your local drives in XP or Vista.



If you find too boring with these icons, we can change it the way we want it looks like just follow the steps below.

1. Create an icon file using image editor tool as long it saves file with .ico extension. Am using now the Axialis Icon Workshop. Save the file in location where you can easily remember it. (I saved my file in C:\Movie.ico). Other easy way is search any existing icon file that you want to use, if you don’t like to create a new one.



2. Open Registry Editor by clicking Start > Run > type “regedit” and click OK. Shortcut to this is Window + R.

3. Locate the path
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE >SOFTWARE >Microsoft >Windows >CurrentVersion >Explorer



4. If the “DriveIcons” key name exists in the path skip step #5 and proceed to step #6, if not proceed to step #5.

5. Right click on Explorer key and then select New > Key. This will create a new subfolder and named it “DriveIcons”.



6. Right click on “DriveIcons” key and then select New > Key. This will create a new subfolder and named it “E” the drive letter that you want to modify the icon.



7. Right click on “E” key and then select New > Key. This will create a new subfolder and named it “DefaultIcon” and this is where we need to declare the path of the icon. From the right pane of the window you will see a String Value that has a value name of “(Default)” with Type of “REG_SZ”. Double click this and in the Edit String window provide the path where the icon is saved (in Value Data field). I set my path to “C:\Movie.ico” and then click OK button to close Edit String Window. Notice that the Value column has the value of the path you declared.




8. This is optional in case you want to set default name for your local drive. Right click on “E” key again and then select New > Key. This will create a new subfolder and named it “DefaultLabel” and this is where we declare the default name of the drive. From the right pane of the window you will see a String Value that has a value name of “(Default)” with Type of “REG_SZ”. Double click this and in the Edit String window provide the name of the drive (in Value Data field). I set the name to “Custom Name” and then click OK button to close Edit String Window. Notice that the Value column has the name that you declared.

9. Open the My Computer window and see if the icon and label are reflected.

10. That’s it :)