Location of icon for files. Discussion in 'Windows 7 Support' started by Wallythekat, Jun 6, 2013. Wallythekat Joined: Jun 3, 2013. Likes Received: 0. I make icons for Desktop files and place them in a folder in 'My Pictures' folder. Location of new system icons? Is there a system file that contains the various new icons found throughout Windows 10 – something along the lines of imageres.dll? It would be nice to use some of these for shortcuts.

In previous versions of Windows when I right click on a shortcut and dived in to change the icon the initial list populated with a whole catalog of default icons.

On Windows 7 (RTM) here is what I see:

I found those icons useful when making shortcuts to web applications.

Any idea where I can find them?! I had a little 'Browse...' but couldn't find much.

Edit:

You've all so far provided excellent answers, thanks - unfortunately I can't pick you all as the right one! :( Three of the files you mentioned have had equally useful sets of DLLs:

BortJosh ComleyJosh Comley

9 Answers

In the box that says “Look for icons in this file:”, type or browse to: %SystemRoot%system32SHELL32.dll

NateNate

Windows 7 Icon File Location Windows 10

The can be all over the place. For example, browse to this location ...

But, they can be in any DLL, EXE or ICO file. You can also download cool ones.

There are more than 1,000 icons in total in these files:

• C:WindowsSystem32Shell32.Dll
• C:WindowsExplorer.Exe
• C:WindowsSystem32AccessibilityCpl.Dll
• C:WindowsSystem32Ddores.Dll
• C:WindowsSystem32GameUx.Dll
• C:WindowsSystem32imageres.dll
• C:WindowsSystem32MorIcons.Dll
• C:WindowsSystem32mmcndmgr.dll
• C:WindowsSystem32mmRes.Dll
• C:WindowsSystem32NetCenter.Dll
• C:WindowsSystem32netshell.dll
• C:WindowsSystem32networkexplorer.dll
• C:WindowsSystem32PifMgr.dll
• C:WindowsSystem32PniDui.Dll
• C:WindowsSystem32SensorsCpl.Dll
• C:WindowsSystem32SetupApi.Dll
• C:WindowsSystem32wmploc.DLL
• C:WindowsSystem32wpdshext.dll
• C:WindowsSystem32DDORes.dll
• C:WindowsSystem32compstui.dll

Additionally, lots of device icons are stored here:

and high res stuff from devices and printers (potentially) here:

GaffDer HochstaplerRemus RigoRemus Rigo

The real decade-long legendary MS-DOS icons secretly reside in pifmgr.dll dynamic library file with the description of Windows NT PIF Manager Icon Resources Library in System32 folder of root of Windows contained in %windir% environment variable, that's C:WindowsSystem32 by default.

Looking for a new ICON for an application on your Windows 7 screen? Goto the bottom of your screen and click on 'Start'.

In the Search Programs and Files box, enter *.ico. Above it, you will see - 'see more results' -select it and then select 'Computer'. Your Windows 7 search engine will then find and show you EVERY ICON that's in your computer - sit back, this might take a minute or two (you've got Icons scattered all over your computer). To put them ALL in one place, after your search engine stops, copy them ALL into a single folder and they'll always be available for you. Have fun everyone...

user 99572 is fine

Several good answers but no one seems to have the capitalization quite right (to make copy-paste actually work).

This was my path:

the procedures are the same in Windows 7 and Windows 8.

1. Create a folder named Taskbar Shortcuts.
2. Move it to c:Windows
3. Create a shortcut for the desired item within this folder.
4. Decide on the icon to be used for your Taskbar Shortcut(you may have to go to step 5)(do not try to apply the icon yet)
5. Right-click and drag the shortcut without releasing.(This may give you an idea of the true icon)(do not do any more here)

6. Icon Selection

   A. To apply a specific icon to your shortcut right-click propertieschange icon

   B. By default windows will offer you icons in the shell32.dll look through them to see if the desired icon is there. If it is then select it and click OK.

   C. If you can't locate your specific icon then follow these steps:

7. Once the shorcut has the proper icon Select your shortcut and press ctrl-c

8. Right-click in the Taskbar Shortcuts folder and selectNEWSHORTCUT

9. When the New Shortcut Wizard opens key in the following:

   explorer

   space

   ctrl-v

   (example: explorer 'C:windowsTaskbar ShortcutsLocal Connection)click OK

10. Give the new shorcut a similar but slightly different name from the original and click OK
11. Drag and drop your new shorcut to the windows taskbar.

12. If the new taskbar item needs right click functionality like Local Area Connection-DisableEnablethen do this:

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged windows-7icons or ask your own question.

Windows Registry is nothing but a central database used to store Windows settings, application settings, and other vital information in Windows operating system. When Windows operating system is running, it continuously refers to the information saved in Registry and because of this, a corrupt Registry might stop Windows from booting.

Since almost every information is saved in the Registry and there is a dedicated Registry Editor in Windows operating system, many users often manually edit the Registry to make necessary changes to the operating system.

The built-in Registry Editor allows users create backup of a specific key or value so that users can easily revert changes made to the Registry. After selecting a Registry key or value, one can click the File menu and then click Export button to backup the selected key or value. The backup file of Registry is saved with .REG extension, and you can double-click on the .REG file to restore the information back into the Registry.

Where are the Registry files stored?

May be you are troubleshooting an unbootable computer or want to backup all Registry hives before formatting the drive so that you can easily restore your personalization settings on your new Windows install.

Registry hives are located in WindowsSystem32Config folder. That is, for instance, if Windows is installed on drive “C”, you can find Registry hives by navigating to C:WindowsSystem32Config folder.

And when opening Config folder for the first time, you will get a dialog with “You don’t currently have permission to access this folder” message. You just need to click the Continue button to get access to the folder. This is a one-time prompt, and Windows will not display the prompt the next time you try to access the Config folder.

As you can see in the picture above, the Registry is not a single file. Each Registry Hive has a couple of supporting files and all supporting files except for HKEY_CURRENT_USER are saved in the Config folder. Supporting files for HKEY_CURRENT_USER are stored in your profile folder.

To know which file supports which hive, check out the following table.

Registry Hives	Supporting files
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftware	Software, Software.log, and Software.sav
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystem	System, System.alt, System.log, and System.sav
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESAM	Sam, Sam.log, and Sam.sav
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESecurity	Security, Security.log, and Security.sav
HKEY_USERSDEFAULT	Default, Default.log, and Default.sav
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG	System, System.alt, System.log, System.sav, Ntuser.dat, and Ntuser.dat.log

Windows 7 Icon File Location

How to open Registry files located in Config folder?

The Registry hives located in Config folder of Windows operating system can be opened using the built-in Registry Editor or any other third-party Registry Editing software.

Free Windows 7 Icon Download

We recommend you visit this page of Microsoft for in-depth information of Windows Registry.