If you are looking for a way to change your Drive icon on your Windows 11 or Windows 10 computer, then we show you how to do it by tweaking the Registry or using a free tool called Drive Icon Changer or My Drive Icon.
How to Change Drive Icon in Windows 11/10
To change drive icons in Windows 11, you can use some third-party software. However, if you don’t want to use any external app or software to do so, we are going to show you how exactly to modify icons for drives on your Windows 11 PC. You can try a simple registry hack to add the desired icon image to your drives. Let us check out how.
Here are the main steps to change drive icons in Windows 11/10:
- Move your ICO image to a designated folder and make sure you don’t change its location or replace or remove it.
- Copy the path of the icon image.
- Open Registry Editor.
- Move to the DriveIcons key.
- Create a new sub-key for a particular drive.
- Enter the copied path of your icon image to the value of the created key.
First of all, you need to have an ICO image to which you want to change the drive icon to. You can download some free ones from different online sources. Or, you can also create ICO images and use them. After that, move the ICO image to a folder and make sure you don’t change its location or delete the icon.
Now, right-click on the icon, and from the context menu, click on the Copy as path option to copy the location of the icon.
Next, open the Registry Editor app by pressing Windows + R and then entering regedit in the Run dialog box.
In the Registry Editor app, just copy and paste the following address in the address bar and press Enter:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\DriveIcons
Here, you need to create a new key. Just right-click on the DriveIcons key from the left panel and then select the New > Key option. A new sub-key will be created. Now, depending upon the drive for which you want to change the icon, you need to rename this newly created key. For example, if you want to change the drive icon for Drive E, right-click on the key and use the Rename option to name this key as E. And, likewise.
Next, right-click on the drive letter key and click on the New > Key option to create a new sub-key. Name this key as DefaultIcon.
Select the DefaultIcon key and from the right-hand side panel, double-click on the “Default” string, and then in its Value Data field, enter the path of the icon image that you just copied in the previous step.
Finally, press the OK button and close the Registry Editor app.
You can now open the File Explorer and you will immediately see the changed drive icon.
In a similar manner, you change the icon for other drives as well.
Related: How to change Drive letter in Windows 11/10.
Change Drive Icon in Windows 11/10 using a free tool
If you are looking for a free tool that allows you to change the icons of your drives in Windows 10/8/7, then this post will interest you. You can change the Icons of your Windows Drives easily using freeware Drive Icon Changer or My Drive Icon.
1] Using Drive Icon Changer
Simply select the Drive whose Icon you want to change, click on the Install button which opens an Icon select window.
Select the Icon which you want to use and click Install.
That’s it!
Now open the Computer to see the icon.
To uninstall the icon, select the Drive & click on Uninstall.
You can download it here at DeviantArt.
2] Using My Drive Icon
There is another utility called My Drive Icon.
It allows you to change the Drive Icon as well as the Drive label. You can download it here.
Read: Best free Icon packs for Windows 11/10
How to change File and Folder Icons in Windows?
You can How to change File and Folder Icons in Windows 11/10 easily. In this post, we show you the methods of changing different types of icons – Desktop icons, Shortcut icons, Taskbar icons, Folder icons, and File icons.