Let’s face it, some of the icons that appear on certain programs are just plain ugly. Well, did you know that you don’t have to live with them? That’s right, you can change those ugly icons to whatever you like.

In this guide I will show you how to change the icon for a program located on your desktop OR in your start menu. Please note that this guide is strictly for Programs located on your Desktop or in your start menu. I will be releasing Part II of this guide tomorrow which will show changing the icon for a Folder or a File.

First, Find the icon of the program you want to change, I chose Firefox. Then right-click on it and select Properties.

If you are choosing a program in your start menu you would simply click Start then All Programs, then navigate to the program you are wanting to change, then right-click on it and select Properties

Ok, once the Properties Box Opens, click on the Shortcut Tab then click Change Icon

Then A Window Will come up with the icons that came with that particular program.

If you want one of those, simply click on the one you want and click OK

If you want more selection of icons, you can pull up the windows xp default icons. To pull up the windows xp default icons, do the following: in the “Look for icons in this file:” Delete what is listed there and type: C:\WINDOWS\system32\SHELL32.dll Then hit enter on your keyboard.

If you still don’t like the choices that it gives you for icons, click Browse..

Navigate around to find any icon you want. Any icon will work. Once you find one, click Open. For this example I chose to use the DivX icon

Once you click open you will see a sub listing of icons, simply click on the icon you want

Click Ok, then Apply and your icon will change .

This guide was written by Jason LeDuc. Copyright © 2005-2006. All rights reserved.

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