We all like give it a personal touch to our devices. Especially if we spend hours in front of them. In the case of the PC, this especially affects the Windows desktop, the folders and icons, the taskbar, and the background. What’s more, personalizing your Windows isn’t just practical for aesthetic reasons. It can also help you work better or make whatever you do as enjoyable as possible. Especially if we talk about customizing Windows folders.
if you give up customize your folders you will be able to find them more easily, recognize them at a glance and thus know where you have the games, the photos pending editing or those documents that you need to deliver on Monday. In addition, the tuning process is very simple and entertaining. And you can use the icons provided by Windows or create your own customizations.
let’s see how change icon of any folder or file in Windows in the classic way and, in addition, how to customize your folders with the help of an external tool. You will obtain more than acceptable results and you will be able to decorate your desk while your folders look original.
Change the icon of a folder in Windows
The process of change folder icon o Windows file is not too complicated. The key is to find the option within the tangle of Windows menus. But once found, you will see that you can choose from a varied assortment of icons. And if you don’t like them, you can always add your own collection. In addition to folders and files, you can also change the icon of a direct access without changing the icon of the linked element.
So to customize folders in the traditional way, you just have to right click and click on Properties. In the options window that will open next, you will have to go to the tab Personalize and finally click on the button Change icon…. There you will find a selection of Windows icons. Choose the one you like the most, select it and, finally, click on To accept and again in To accept. When you refresh the Desktop or Windows Explorer, you’ll see the folder icon change to the new one.
How to undo the change? Go back to the menu to choose the icon of the folder or file and click on Restore defaults. Then tap on To accept and you will see that the change you made to customize folders or files is back to the original.
On the menu Personalize you will see a section called folder images which can lead to confusion. It is used to show a specific image when the icon of a folder is that of an open folder. Thus, within that folder you will see the chosen image.
Use an image to personalize folders
One of the drawbacks that Windows has when customizing folders, files, or shortcuts is that it only supports images in ICO format, that is, the format of the icons. Even though many years have passed and these icons are now high resolution, it still doesn’t support more common formats like PNG or JPEG. So if you want to use your own image to customize folders you will have to convert that image to ICO. Otherwise, you have complete freedom to design images in any shape and from any application photo editing. They can be photographs, without more, or folder icons with some detail that differentiates it from the others.
To do so, you can use one of the many free pages on the Internet that convert all kinds of files. You can use, for example, converted, Zamzar or Online-Convert, to name three of the most popular. But they all work. In addition, they are free and do not require registration to use them. You will only have to upload the image, perform the conversion and download the result.
The only downside to using this trick is that the new icons don’t look right if you use the View of big icons and very large icons. In the rest of the views, they are seen correctly, since they have a maximum size of 256 x 256.
Customize your folders with icons and colors
A practical and simple way to differentiate Windows folders from each other is by coloring them. The easiest way to do this is by using an external application like Folcolor. It’s free and works on Windows 7, 8, 10 and 11. Once installed, it will add a new option to the context menu. That is, when you right click on a folder, you will see the option Color Folder. When you unfold it, you will see a list of colors.
The color you choose from the list will be the one you will apply to the selected folder. In this way you will be able to color Windows folders to differentiate them according to what they contain. A simple method to know where the images, presentations or documents are. Although you may have to accept the change, again, when prompted by Windows for security. On the other hand, you can choose up to 14 different colorsso you won’t have any problems if you need to customize a large number of folders.
Another application that will be very useful for customizing folders in Windows is CustomFolder. Once installed, it activates just like Folcolor. That is, you choose the folder to customize, right click, show more options and finally CustomFolder. A window will open for you to change the color and appearance of the folder. Among other things, you can add icons inside the folder. From your collection or the ones you have lying around. When finished, clicking on the button To accept You will see how the appearance of your Windows folder changes. And although it is not very intuitive, by testing its options you will end up mastering it in a matter of time.
