Windows Vista
Windows Server 2008
Windows Home Server
Windows Live
Live MeshDrive Icon Changer helps you customize your hard drive icon shown in My Computer and Windows Explorer to an icon of your personal choice. Like Turn Off LCD, I developed this little tool in C# using Visual Studio 2008 to change drive icons on the fly. It just takes a couple of clicks to customize the icon to your personal choice.
To change the icon, simply select the drive from the drop-down menu of which you want to change the icon. Then browse to the location of the icon you desire and click “Save”.
NOTE: If you want to change the icon of the drive on which Windows Vista is installed then you will need to run the program as Administrator.
Right-click -> “Run as administrator”.
Voila! you are done. You will need to restart your computer for the changes to take effect. You can always go back to the original default icon of your drive by clicking on “Restore Default”.
Now lets take a look at what this app does under the hood: It creates a file named “Autorun.inf” and makes a copy of your selected icon in the root of the drive.
Contents of Autorun.inf:
[autorun]
ICON=[path of your icon]
Both of these files are set to hidden. You can see these files by enabling “Show hidden files and folders” in “Folder Options”.
Of course you can change the icons manually too by creating an *.inf yourself and then adding those lines etc. but with this application, you can change the icon and then can restore back to the original all with just a couple of clicks.
Here is how it looks after you have customized your drives with the icons of your choice. Looks cool isn’t it?
Last but not the least, you are free to distribute and use this application. As usual I have tested this application on Windows Vista only. Please let us know if it works on earlier versions of Windows.
Icon used in this application is Copyrighted to 2008 Microsoft Corporation.
Application Name: Drive Icon Changer
Version: 1.00
License: Freeware
Requirement: .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
OS Compatibility: Tested on Windows Vista
Size: 717 kb (.exe) and 204 kb (.zip)
Download Drive Icon Changer and customize your drives with your own icons.
UPDATE: Due to popular demand we received about the icons, we decided to bundled them all and have released them in a package.
You can Download Drive Icon Pack for Drive Icon Changer here.
Download Windows Live Toolbar and customize your Web experience!
November 15th, 2008
40 Comments/Trackbacks on "How to Change your Drive Icon in Vista"
(#)
Usability FAIL!
What if I run the application and the decide NOT to change any icons?
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Taimur Asad said:
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:40 pm
right click on the application’s window in taskbar and click “Close”.
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Jason Hanford-Smith said:
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Sure… I was just being picky.
Great (and simple!) application.
Where did you get the icons from? Conversion from a web page image??
[Reply]
Taimur Asad said:
September 23rd, 2008 at 5:01 am
Jason,
The Xbox 360 icon i got it from web. The other two I made them myself by converting a .png image to .ico. I can share with you the icons if you want.
Jason Hanford-Smith said:
September 23rd, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Sure, that’d be great - you obviously have my email address, right?
(#)
Yes I have it Jason. Check your inbox.
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(#)
Awesome app could you send me a copy of the icons you have used too please?
Thanks Stu
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Taimur Asad said:
September 25th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Sure. Check ur inbox.
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(#)
Simple application bro. Could you send a copy of the icons you have used too pls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[Reply]
Taimur Asad said:
September 26th, 2008 at 5:01 am
sent.
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(#)
One question: IS there a way to get the source code?
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(#)
Great app!
Could you send me a copy of the icons you have used too? The Windows Vista Icon is very pretty
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Taimur Asad said:
September 28th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
sent
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(#)
Gracias por su programa, me ha gustado mucho.
Mallorca, Spain.
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(#)
Running the risk of ‘me too’ I would very much like a copy of your icons as well. Might I suggest that you make then available on your site? There seems to be a lot of interrest..
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Taimur Asad said:
September 29th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
the icon package has been released
Please read the “UPDATE” note above for more info.
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Sgaar said:
September 29th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Thank you!
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dhanesh said:
October 7th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
dude nice icons…can u share it with me….my email id is dhaneshkumar007@gmail.com
(#)
Please read the answer by Taimur to my question.
Read and thou shall be rewarded….!
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(#)
I like this program a lot! It’s basic. It’s simple and easy. One big problem that I am having though is that even though I right click on the program to open it and run as administrator, it still tells me that I don’t have admin privileges when I go to change the icon? I am using Vista Ultimate x32 Thank you
PS
This site is excellent! A great source of knowledge and a brilliant source of free downloads as well. Thank you
[Reply]
Taimur Asad said:
October 12th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Michael it should be working. You only need to run it as administrator when you are changing the icon of the drive on which Windows is installed.
Try deleting “Autorun.inf” and “Drive.ico” if they exist from the root of the drive and then try changing the icon again. Both of these 2 files r hidden so you will have to enable “Show hidden files and folders” to see them. Hope this helps
[Reply]
Michael said:
October 14th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Hi Taimur
I am and always have run the program as Administrator but still it keeps telling me that I might not have admin privalages, when I know full well that I have! I am sorry to sound like a noob (which I am) but where do I find these “Autorun.inf” and “Drive.ico” files? To be quite honest, I have not the foggiest idea what is meant by that, or for that matter, what the hell I am doing - LOL? I hope you can throw some light on the matter for a totally useless noob like me, who can’t even find these files (or whatever they are)?
I did notice however, that whenever I insert a disc into the optical drive (which is the icon I am trying to change), it does actually change to the icon that I have saved? But it doesn’t stay there after I remove the disc. I have successfully changed the other drives, after a few attempts and the changed icons have stayed put as they should do but this one is just not having any of it? Very wierd? Thank you again in advance for your assistance and sorry for being a pain in the butt again. Regards, Mike.
[Reply]
Michael said:
October 14th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
I actually managed to find “Autorun.inf” and “Drive.ico” as you suggested and I deleted them also as you suggested. Yes, as you rightly said, they were hidden so I did as you said and showed hidden files and folders and deleted them and then re-set the folder option back to not show hidden files and folders etc. I then tried to use the icon changer program again but yet again, its still telling me I may not have administrative privalages to use the program? I give up now as I am a bit of a noob and getting very frustrated with this program not working for some unknown reason? Its a shame, as it changed my three HDD icons perfectly with no problems but it just won’t change the optical drive icon for some unknown reason? Thanks for your help anyway.
(#)
Michael pardon me for this v.late response as I was busy with my studies. The thing is that this program as of now cannot change the icon for the optical drives. It can only change the icons of the Hard disk drives.
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(#)
have sucessfully changed drice c:\ however i am receiving the ‘do not have privileges’ message when i try to change any of the others, also, EVERY other drive other than C: is not listed correctly in the program,, i have drive letters m: s: and t: but none show up, just d: e: f: g: ect ect, which might be the reason why, just not sure yet,, i’m working on it but if anyone has any input it would be helpful
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(#)
Wow thatz so cool
hey Taimur, can u please email me that psp & xbox icons?
that will b awesome!!!
[Reply]
Taimur Asad said:
October 23rd, 2008 at 5:25 pm
MaX you can get the PSP and Xbox icon along with plenty more by downloading Drive Icon Pack for Drive Icon Changer here: redmondpie.com/drive-icon-pack-for-drive-icon-changer/
[Reply]
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