Solved Add icons to Windows icon folder

Are there any particuliar requirements for adding icons
%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll

not quite sure what you mean by that, but these dll's all have icons in them

imageres.dll
shell32.dll

compstui.dll
DDORes.dll
ieframe.dll
mmcndmgr.dll
mmres.dll
moricons.dll
msctf.dll
netshell.dll
pnidui.dll
wmploc.DLL


or do youi mean to add icons to that file?

DLL File - Create with Customized Icons - Windows 7 Forums

Yes to adding icons to that file.
That is the file that opens when you right-click a shortcut for properties & click on change icon.

pcRat said:

Yes to adding icons to that file.
That is the file that opens when you right-click a shortcut for properties & click on change icon.

Click to expand...

This procedure: DLL File - Create with Customized Icons - Windows 7 Forums is too complicated for most users

Icon library actually has file extension as .icl so if you make a copy of the .dll file and rename it to .icl

e.g: imageres.dll =====> imageres.icl

Then use any icon editing program to open .icl file. I use Axialis Icon Workshop, Import the icon file(s), save it then rename back to .dll file.

Here's the link for Top 5 Free Icon Editors

Here's the screen shot that I have added 2 icons at the end of imagesres.dll



NOTE: personally I would not modify any system dll file, just make a copy of it, modify then use it as your customizable icon library.

Thank you for the info. I'll be reading it several times & a few dry runs before actually doing it.
There is a little more to it, than the create a certain size image, give it the .icl suffix & pasting it into the icon folder.

Why would you want to go through so much pain?! I thought of doing this too in the first place. But then I noticed you can actually attribute an .ico file directly as an icon, without having to add the file to the dll (or icl).

That is, any image which has the extension .ico can be used as an icon. So you can build your own library of icons in any folder on your system (any image files can be converted to .ico with the right software; there's a couple of free online converters which work best; there are also a couple of free icon sites where you can download whole packs of icons in png or ico format). Then when wanting to change the icon of a folder just navigate to that folder where you store your icon files, instead of the imageres.dll or other dll file, and pick and chose!

Thanks jlan. I'd forgotten all about this thread . Another advantage to a personal folder of icons is maintaining a copy on portable media to share or backup in case of crash or reinstall.