How To Customize Icons In Windows: Quick Guide

Do you want to give your equipment a more original look? Suppose you want to personalize your computer entirely, in addition to changing the sounds of Windows and the wallpapers. In that case, you can change the operating system icons and the taskbar. In this quick guide, we show you how.

Personalize your Windows computer

Icons are the little images representing programs, folders, files, and other items on your desktop. You can change them for others you like better or are better suited to the theme or style you want to give to your computer.

There are many websites where you can download free or paid icons or create them with programs such as Photoshop or GIMP.

For its part, the taskbar is the lower strip that contains, among other elements, the clock and the calendar. From it, we access the anchored programs and the running applications.

Change Windows icons

To change Windows icons, go to the Control Panel and select Personalization > Change desktop icons. Here, you can choose the icons you want for the computer, the network, the recycle bin, and user documents.

To do this, click on the icon you want to modify and then Change the icon. A window will appear where you can choose between the default Windows icons or search for a custom one on your hard drive. Once you’ve chosen the icon, click OK and Apply.

The process is similar to changing the icons of folders, files, and programs. Right-click on the element you want to modify and select Properties. Then go to the Customize tab and click the Change Icon button.

There, you can choose the icon you prefer in the same way as before. Remember that you may need to restart your computer or refresh your desktop for the changes to take effect.

Download images for your icons

You can get icons for Windows from websites like IconArchive, Flaticon, or Icons8. You can review the icon formats you like on these pages, view their details, and download them to your computer.

Look at the format, size, and licence of the icon. Ideally, it should be compatible with Windows and have a suitable resolution for your screen. Then, you just have to store it in a folder that you use to change the icons of your applications, as we have indicated above.

Customize the taskbar

The taskbar is the horizontal strip at the bottom of the screen where open programs, the Start menu, the clock, and other items are displayed. You can customize it in several ways to change its size, position, colour, or transparency.

To do this, right-click on the taskbar and select Taskbar Settings. You can adjust the options you want there, such as locking or unlocking the bar, automatically hiding it, using small icons, grouping buttons by application, or showing labels.

You can also change the icons of programs pinned to the taskbar, that is, those that remain fixed even if they are not open. To do this, right-click the icon you want to change and click Properties. Then go to the Shortcut tab and click the Change Icon button, carrying out the same process.

Also Read: Tips For Operating Windows 11