What Windows 10 default files contain lots of useful icons for shortcuts to be set to?

On Mon, 10 Sep 2018 10:10:15 -0400, in alt.comp.os.windows-10, K120
wrote:

On Mon, 10 Sep 2018 07:31:02 -0500, Zaghadka said:

C:\Windows\System32\inetcpl.dll

I use the first house icon a lot for "home" folders. There's a bunch of
other interesting stuff in there that may be of more limited use.

That is one of the best so far!

I couldn't find the "dll" on Windows 10, but I had the "cpl".
C:\windows\system32\inetcpl.cpl


Yeah, sorry. I forgot it was a .cpl applet. You found it.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

On Mon, 10 Sep 2018 21:25:53 +0200, Sjouke Burry
said:

download he
https://sourceforge.net/projects/openiconlibrary/

Nice find that pointer to the open source icon library
https://sourceforge.net/projects/openiconlibrary/

That creates a 195MB file named "open_icon_library-standard-0.11.tar.bz2"

Where the home page says it contains
Over 10,000 unique icons in svg, png, xpm, ico, and icns formats.
Icon files: svg, png, xpm, ico, icns
Over 2500 unique svg icons
Over 7500 unique png icons

Looking up how to extract a tar.bz2 file, it looks like 7-zip works
http://www.e7z.org/open-tbz.htm

It complained about replacing myriad existing files so maybe I lost
hierarchy using 7zip, but it did extract nonetheless.

A quick look at the hierarchical results show thousands of "ico" files,
which is kind of cumbersome since you really want just one "icl" library,
don't you?

I just ran a few tests. Maybe you don't really need a binary "icl" library
after all, since you can scroll through the thousands of "ico" files easily
enough while you are using the "Change Icon" default GUI of Windows 10.

Is there a batch way to take thousands of individual "ico" files and create
a single "icl" library of those thousands of individual "ico" files?

On Mon, 10 Sep 2018 14:43:03 -0400, in alt.comp.os.windows-10, K120
wrote:

On Mon, 10 Sep 2018 14:35:13 -0400, Big Al said:

If you have a folder icon in PNG / JPG format then you open it with GFIE
and it becomes the base of your ico. You use the text tool to put a
letter on the folder. Scale the font to fit your folder properly.

It's like using almost any other image editor. Dots. GIMP, Photoshop,
even the icofx.exe program someone suggested.

Editing an image is and was never the problem.
Nor is or was saving an image as an ico file.

The problem was, and is, creating the "icl" or "dll" icon library.

I just posted how I did that with the IcoFX version 3.2.1 30-day trialware
that Jonathan Little had suggested, where he suggested there might be an
older version of the freeware around still somewhere.

Now the only task that will benefit all of us is finding either that IcoFX
freeware or some other freeware that performs that task of saving the ico
files into "icl" or "dll" icon libraries.

Here's a dropbox link to an old freeware version of IcoFX. It's hard to
find, but you can make .dlls with it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g6ge41cpul...setup.exe?dl=0

Use "Tools-Resource Editor."

This will bring up a blank file. Press the folder with the orange star in
it to add new icons. Then you press the disk icon to save.

It will say it wants to save as an .icl file, but if you type in a .dll
filename (eg: test.dll), it'll save it as a dll.

You can also use this to change icons in an existing file, but make sure
you back up the original first, because this can mess that up.

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

On Mon, 10 Sep 2018 15:52:17 -0400, "Jonathan N. Little"
said:

I said I had an old version, 1.6.4. There are many other editors out
there. Also $30 ain't bad if you do a lot of icons...

I agree where the best answers are those that everyone can do right now,
where it's not realistic to expect everyone here to pay to just play with
icons, since none of us do this icon stuff for a business.

We are just doing it for fun and to learn.

Certainly there should be a freeware way to put ico files into an "icl"
binary library.

I think other methods probably do that (which I haven't been successful
with yet). Or if we can find the last known free version of IcoFX online in
a reputable location.

Searching, I find
http://www.portablefreeware.com/foru...ic.php?p=40061
which implies this is the last known freeware available
and that the original author says he's OK with it being available.

Most on that page seem to say the MD5 hash of 1.6.4.0 is
MD5 069E5551B7DEEE6F37833E8930E66A34 17.11.2008 21:15

Which is said to be here
http://www.321download.com/LastFreew...e40.html#IcoFX

Looking up how to get an MD5 from Windows 10 I find
https://www.nextofwindows.com/5-ways...-in-windows-10

Where there is a Windows "certutil" command
certutil -hashfile icofxsetup.exe MD5
MD5 hash of icofxsetup.exe:
0c4858ca1193d73fb10c2656becbb42f
CertUtil: -hashfile command completed successfully.

Well, that's disconcerting.

I'll keep looking where it would be useful for everyone if we find a
trusted source for the last good freeware of IcoFX version 1.6.4.0
as it shouldn't take payware just to enable anyone who wants to to play
with creating binary "icl" libraries of folder icons in Windows 10.

On Mon, 10 Sep 2018 16:18:05 -0400, K120 said:

I'll keep looking where it would be useful for everyone if we find a
trusted source for the last good freeware of IcoFX version 1.6.4.0
as it shouldn't take payware just to enable anyone who wants to to play
with creating binary "icl" libraries of folder icons in Windows 10.

There is apparently an IcoFX version 2.13 official crippleware version here
https://www.icofx.ro/downloads.html
https://www.icofx.ro/files/icofx2setup.exe
I do not know (yet) what it doesn't do or what it does do.
But at least it's an 'official' version.

"K120" wrote

| Most on that page seem to say the MD5 hash of 1.6.4.0 is
| MD5 069E5551B7DEEE6F37833E8930E66A34 17.11.2008 21:15
|
| Which is said to be here
| http://www.321download.com/LastFreew...e40.html#IcoFX
|
| Looking up how to get an MD5 from Windows 10 I find
|
https://www.nextofwindows.com/5-ways...-in-windows-10
|
| Where there is a Windows "certutil" command
| certutil -hashfile icofxsetup.exe MD5
| MD5 hash of icofxsetup.exe:
| 0c4858ca1193d73fb10c2656becbb42f
| CertUtil: -hashfile command completed successfully.
|
| Well, that's disconcerting.
|

I already gave you that link. I downloaded
it myself and extracted the installer. WinMerge
tells me it's identical to the backup installer I
have for v. 1.6.4.

I don't know about MD5 hash. I've never paid
attention to that. And the chat you linked to seems
to be comparing the executable, not the installer.

| as it shouldn't take payware just to enable anyone who wants to to play
| with creating binary "icl" libraries of folder icons in Windows 10.

There's also no reason to need something that
makes ICLs. It's not a problem, but unless Win10
has gone bonkers you don't need to put an icon
into an ICL in order to use it. And the ICO doesn't
need to be multiple. It just needs to contain the
right size of the icon you want to use. That's why
I asked you before what size you needed. You said
you had tried 256 and 32 but the point is to use
whatever your desktop display is specced to use.
Though Windows should adjust to some extent. I use
some 32x32 icons as 16x16 in the taskbar. Windows
handles the resizing and does a good job of it. But
it may not do that for basic folder/desktop icons.

On Mon, 10 Sep 2018 15:11:15 -0500, Zaghadka said:

Here's a dropbox link to an old freeware version of IcoFX. It's hard to
find, but you can make .dlls with it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g6ge41cpul...setup.exe?dl=0

Got it. Thanks.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g6ge41cpul...setup.exe?dl=0
certutil -hashfile icofx_164_setup.exe MD5
MD5 hash of dropbox_icofx_164_setup.exe:
0c4858ca1193d73fb10c2656becbb42f

Based on the hash, it seems to be the same file as I got here
http://www.321download.com/LastFreew...e40.html#IcoFX

Who knows which hash though is the "right" hash anyway?

On Mon, 10 Sep 2018 16:33:11 -0400, Mayayana
said:

I already gave you that link.

Ops. Sorry. I didn't see it or I forgot, or whatever.
Sorry. I am just trying to move forward where the problem is that it's sort
of like "the road less traveled by" where you go down one path even though
you could have gone down a differnet path.

At the moment I'm going down the IcoFX path, where it's forking a few
times, but I don't want to go back to try the other methods since I know
that the trial ware worked.

I downloaded
it myself and extracted the installer. WinMerge
tells me it's identical to the backup installer I
have for v. 1.6.4.

Thanks. I'll use the 1.6.4 that I got from the link you agree on.

I don't know about MD5 hash. I've never paid
attention to that. And the chat you linked to seems
to be comparing the executable, not the installer.

You need to know what the hash needs to be so it's not all that useful to
us except for us to compare what we have amongst ourselves, if we trust
each other.

There's also no reason to need something that
makes ICLs.

It makes sense that we can either choose to have individual "ICO" files,
which are easy to manage in Windows, or we can put them into a binary
library of "ICL" or "DLL" types.

I'm only coming to grips on what's a good way to do it slowly, so, I'm
going to take your advice that we don't really need the ICL or DLL binary
library file after all.

That simplifies things.
A lot.

It's not a problem, but unless Win10
has gone bonkers you don't need to put an icon
into an ICL in order to use it.

I agree. There must be *something* special about an ICO file that makes
Windows use it though, as simply saving any old JPEG to ICO from Irfanview,
even at 32x32, failed.

Yet, the library of ICO files from here worked just fine in Windows.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/openiconlibrary/

So there is some mysterious hidden as yet unknown voodoo magic that makes
Windows "like" certain ICO files and that makes Windows hate others.

And the ICO doesn't
need to be multiple. It just needs to contain the
right size of the icon you want to use. That's why
I asked you before what size you needed.

I think there "may" be more voodoo than just the size, as I don't care
about the size at this stage, so I made mine 32x32 pixels and Windows still
didn't recognize it when I output it from Irfanview.

I could have made it any size, but I figured 32x32 was a safe number.
Yet it failed.

Why doesn't this work?
001 Open any image in Irfanview
002 Save as 32x32 ICO file with transparency
003 Try to use that in Windows

I failed.
Why?

Is there some voodoo magic that has to be in the ICO file for Windows to
recognize it? I don't know.

You said
you had tried 256 and 32 but the point is to use
whatever your desktop display is specced to use.

Oh. Now you tell me.
My display is 1680x1050.

What size icon does that indicate to you?

Though Windows should adjust to some extent. I use
some 32x32 icons as 16x16 in the taskbar. Windows
handles the resizing and does a good job of it. But
it may not do that for basic folder/desktop icons.

I don't know what the voodoo magic is, but if you can tell me what size I
should make the ICO I'll try it since Irfanview would be great if it works.

Is this the process to create an ICO file out of any old image?
001 Read the image into Irfanview
002 Resize that image to (whatever by whatever) you tell me to resize by
003 Save that resized image as an ICO with transparency

I already tried that (at 32x32) and it failed.
If the problem was just the wrong size, I'll try again.

What size should I use for a 1680x1050 display?

"K120" wrote

| I already tried that (at 32x32) and it failed.
| If the problem was just the wrong size, I'll try again.
|
| What size should I use for a 1680x1050 display?

Whatever size Windows is using. You have some size
now and you need to stick with it. It should be he

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

Shell Icon BPP
Shell Icon Size

One thing that might make a difference is color
depth. It shouldn't matter, but Win10 may be finicky.
IrfanView will save a 24-bit JPG as a 24-bit icon.
The icons in the download you have are actually
32-bit, including alpha channel. You can tell by the
header but also because of file size. 32x32 = 1024.
So a 24-bit icon will be a little over 3 KB. A 32-bit
icon will be a little over 4 KB. (4 bytes per pixel.)
Oddly, the headers in the icons you downloaded
are wrong, but they seem to work OK. They display
fine for me.

So you have two questions: Is the icon the right
dimension and does Win10 require a 32-bit icon.
IcoFX can convert the icon from IV if necessary.

Fun, huh?

A followup to that last post:

I just tried the following and it worked:

Drop an image into the IcoFX window. Select
32-bit and the size. That produces a 32-bit icon.
It also saves it properly. In the case of 32x32
it should look like so:

00 00 01 00 01 00 20 20 00 00 01 00 20

The ones you downloaded look like this:

00 00 01 00 01 00 20 20 00 00 00 00 00

The first 1 indicates an icon. The 2nd 1 indicates
one icon in the file. The 20 20 indicates a 32x32
icon. (20 is hex for 32.) The next 1 indicates a
single plane. The 20 indicates 32-bit color. Hex
20 = 32. The sourceforge icons are missing those
last two header values. Yet they display, so I
guess Windows must "sniff" them.

On Mon, 10 Sep 2018 17:56:56 -0400, Mayayana
said:

Whatever size Windows is using. You have some size
now and you need to stick with it. It should be he

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

Shell Icon BPP
Shell Icon Size

Thanks for that pointer, where, as I said, it matters not to me at this
stage the minor things like size, since I'm just trying to get the job
done.

Looking at that key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics
I don't have a "Shell Icon BPP" but the "Shell Icon Size" is 32.

One thing that might make a difference is color
depth. It shouldn't matter, but Win10 may be finicky.
IrfanView will save a 24-bit JPG as a 24-bit icon.
The icons in the download you have are actually
32-bit, including alpha channel. You can tell by the
header but also because of file size. 32x32 = 1024.
So a 24-bit icon will be a little over 3 KB. A 32-bit
icon will be a little over 4 KB. (4 bytes per pixel.)
Oddly, the headers in the icons you downloaded
are wrong, but they seem to work OK. They display
fine for me.

I have to apologize as I just tested this again to try all your sugestions
and now suddenly, it works. I think the reason I thought it didn't work
before is that it actually takes about 20 seconds or so to work sometimes.

I don't know why (nothing special is running that I know of).

So I did this where I don't think the initial file matters one bit.
001 I took a screenshot and loaded that into Irfanview with Control+V
002 Control+R sets the size to 32x32 pixels
003 Control+I shows color depth by default is 256 (8 bits per pixel)
004 I Control+S saved as ICO & checked the ICO transparency checkbox
005 That ICO works fine (after 20 seconds) to set the icon for a shortcut

In the end, this is the _easiest_ way to create an icon for Windows 10!

001 Edit any file any way you want until you like what it looks like
002 Load that into Irfanview and save as a 32x32 with transparency
003 Put all your ico files in the same directory for easy management

That's pretty much it.

If I knew it was that easy, I wouldn't have bothered with FxICO or
Greenfish or Foldermarker in the first place!

Thanks to you, my hindsight went from 20:10000 to about 20:400 today!

What do those fancy programs do that is useful then?

The only thing I can see that I care about is that the fancy programs can
put the ICO file into a binary ICL library - but we already established we
don't really need a binary ICL library.

Individual ICO files work just fine for my purposes.

So you have two questions: Is the icon the right
dimension and does Win10 require a 32-bit icon.
IcoFX can convert the icon from IV if necessary.

I think my main problem originally was that it takes about 20 or 30 seconds
sometimes for the icon to take hold, for some reason. I think I was just
impatient before.

Loading any image into Irfanview and savnig that as 32x32 ICO files is, by
far, the easiest way of all to create the icons for shortcuts and folders.

I'm not sure what it means when I change a folder icon to get the warning
that it won't show a "preview of its contents" though.
Folder: Properties, Customize, Folder icons, Change Icon
"You can change the folder icon. If you change the icon, it will
no longer show a preview of the folder's contents."

When does a folder show a "preview" anyway?

"K120" wrote

| I have to apologize as I just tested this again to try all your sugestions
| and now suddenly, it works. I think the reason I thought it didn't work
| before is that it actually takes about 20 seconds or so to work sometimes.
|
| I don't know why (nothing special is running that I know of).
|
Explorer only refreshes when necessary. In some
Windows versions it can actually take a forced refresh
and sometimes deleting the icon cache in order to
get Explorer straight about what icon goes where.

| What do those fancy programs do that is useful then?
|

They can allow you to make a multiple icon, with
different sizes in the ICO file. They let you draw by
hand. But I guess the main point is just that functionality
like IrfanView provides is fairly recent. There didn't used
to be programs that could convert an image to an icon
so easily.

| I'm not sure what it means when I change a folder icon to get the warning
| that it won't show a "preview of its contents" though.
| Folder: Properties, Customize, Folder icons, Change Icon
| "You can change the folder icon. If you change the icon, it will
| no longer show a preview of the folder's contents."
|
| When does a folder show a "preview" anyway?

I assume it's this:

https://www.askdavetaylor.com/change...to-windows-10/

A classic example of the Microsoft logic that
"Too much of a good thing is even better".

Summary of how to put an icon to a batch file in the Windows 10 taskbar
(some of this should work for Windows 7 and 8, should it not?)

001 Create test.bat & test to ensure it works
002 Copy test.bat to test.exe (which can be deleted later, if desired)
003 Make a shortcut to test.exe (which also can be deleted later, if desired)
004 Set the icon to "shortcut to test.exe" to one of your choosing
"shortcut to test.exe", Properties, Change Icon, (select icon), OK
C:\windows\system32\shell32.dll (default icon location)
C:\windows\system32\imageres.dll (folders, devices, actions)
C:\windows\system32\ddores.dll (hardware devices and resources)
C:\windows\system32\pifmgr.dll (old-style icons of Windows 95 vintage)
C:\windows\system32\inetcpl.cpl (old-style icons of Windows 95 vintage)
C:\windows\system32\moricons.dll (old-style icons of Windows 95 vintage)
C:\windows\system32\accessibilitycpl.dll (accessibility features icons)
C:\windows\system32\mmcndmgr.dll (old-style computer management icons)
C:\windows\system32\gameux.dll (gaming icons)
C:\windows\system32\mspaint.exe (paint-related icons)
C:\windows\system32\mmres.dll (audio speakers, headphones, microphones)
C:\windows\system32\netcenter.dll (network settings and features)
C:\windows\system32\netshell.dll (network connections & hardware)
C:\windows\system32\networkexplorer.dll (network connections & hardware)
C:\windows\system32\twinui.dll (twin screens icons)
C:\windows\explorer.exe (file explorer icons)
005 Right click on "shortcut to test.exe" to "Pin to taskbar"
006 Double-right click on the "icon on the taskbar" to set the
"icon on the taskbar" "Properties" "Target" to the full path to
the original batch file "test.bat"
007 Test that the "icon on the taskbar" now works
008 If you're not planning on populating the Start Menu, you can now
delete the "shortcut to test.exe" and "test.exe".
009 If you wish to populate the Start Menu, then modify the Target field
of the "shortcut to test.exe"
From "test.exe"
To "test.bat"
So that you can use this shortcut to populate the Start Menu
010 To add the command to the left side Start Menu, move the
"shortcut to test.exe" to this left-side Start Menu location
C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\ Start Menu\Programs\shortcut to test.exe
This will alphabetically place the "command in the left side Start Menu"
011 To add the command to the right side Start Menu, right click on the
"command in the left side Start Menu" & select "Pin to Start"
012 Test the batch file, task bar icon, & both left & right Start Menu icons

Caution: Step 6 entails a doublerightclick on the "icon on the taskbar".

On Sun, 9 Sep 2018 22:57:27 -0400, K120 said:
Quick summary of how to put custom batch file icons in Windows 10 menus
(much of this applies to WinXP & Win7 so I included them for this 1 post)
a. Taskbar
b. Left-side Start Menu
c. Right-side Start Menu
d. Taskbar Toolbar Cascade Menu (aka the Windows XP Classic Start Menu)

Cut here for a sample batch file to output a Hello-World print statement:
@echo off
echo "Hellow World"
pause
exit
Cut here for a sample batch file to start Microsoft Edge in prive browser
mode:
@echo off
%ComSpec% /c "start
shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8 bbwe!MicrosoftEdge
-private"
exit
Cut here for a sample batch file to open a red command window as
Administrator:
@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS
IF NOT "%~1"=="" goto :START
SET LogFile=%TEMP%\cmda.vbs"
Echo Set UAC = CreateObject("Shell.Application") "%LogFile%"
Echo UAC.ShellExecute "%~f0", "%cd%", "", "runas", 1 "%LogFile%"
Start "" /MIN "%LogFile%"
goto :EOF
:START
%ComSpec% /k "CD /D "%*" & Echo Administrator: & color 4F"
:EOF
Cut here for a sample batch file to check the IP address & network
connection:
@echo off
set pingit=www.google.com
:curlme
C:\Windows\System32\curl.exe icanhazip.com
timeout 1 /nobreaknul
ping %pingit%
pause
goto curlme
:stop
exit
Cut here for a sample batch file to set & doublecheck the local time zone:
echo off
tzutil.exe /s "Eastern Standard Time"
echo.
tzutil.exe /g
echo.
pause
exit

001 Create test.bat & test to ensure it works
002 Copy test.bat to test.exe (which can be deleted later, if desired)
003 Make a shortcut to test.exe (which also can be deleted later, if
desired)
004 Set the icon to "shortcut to test.exe" to one of your choosing
"shortcut to test.exe", Properties, Change Icon, (select icon), OK
You may need to wait up to 30 secondes for the new icon to take effect.
You can choose the icons from any file below.
C:\windows\system32\shell32.dll (default icon location)
C:\windows\system32\imageres.dll (folders, devices, actions)
C:\windows\system32\ddores.dll (hardware devices and resources)
C:\windows\system32\pifmgr.dll (old-style icons of Windows 95 vintage)
C:\windows\system32\inetcpl.cpl (old-style icons of Windows 95 vintage)
C:\windows\system32\moricons.dll (old-style icons of Windows 95
vintage)
C:\windows\system32\accessibilitycpl.dll (accessibility features icons)
C:\windows\system32\mmcndmgr.dll (old-style computer management icons)
C:\windows\system32\gameux.dll (gaming icons)
C:\windows\system32\mspaint.exe (paint-related icons)
C:\windows\system32\mmres.dll (audio speakers, headphones, microphones)
C:\windows\system32\netcenter.dll (network settings and features)
C:\windows\system32\netshell.dll (network connections & hardware)
C:\windows\system32\networkexplorer.dll (network connections &
hardware)
C:\windows\system32\twinui.dll (twin screens icons)
C:\windows\explorer.exe (file explorer icons)
You can choose the icons from this set of thousands of icons.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/openiconlibrary/
You can also convert any image to an icon file using this 2-step
process:
A. Determine your "Shell Icon Size" dimensions, for example, if your
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics\Shell Icon
Size=32
then you should create a 32x32 pixel icon "ico" file.
B. Load any image into Irfanview & save as an ICO file of 32x32 pixel
size
C. Use that "ico" icon file as your "test.ico" shortcut & menu icon
file.
005 Right click on "shortcut to test.exe" to "Pin to taskbar"
Note that you can't pin it to the taskbar as a "batch" file.
006 Double-right click on the "icon on the taskbar" to set the
"icon on the taskbar" "Properties" "Target" to the full path to
the original batch file "test.bat"
From Target = "test.exe"
To Target = "test.bat"
007 Test that the "icon on the taskbar" now works
008 If you're not planning on populating the Start Menu, you can now
delete the "shortcut to test.exe" and "test.exe".
009 If you wish to populate the Start Menu, then modify the Target field
of the "shortcut to test.exe"
From Target = "test.exe"
To Target = "test.bat"
010 To add the command to the left side Start Menu, copy or move the
"shortcut to test.exe" to this left-side Start Menu location
C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\ Start
Menu\Programs\shortcut to test.exe
This will alphabetically place the "command in the left side Start
Menu"
011 To add the command to the right side Start Menu, right click on the
"command in the left side Start Menu" & select "Pin to Start"
012 To add the command to the native Win10 Cascade Start Menu toolbar,
move or copy the "shortcut to test.exe" to a sub-hierarchy of your
choosing in this directory which you can set as a taskbar "toolbar":
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\mymenu
NOTE: This toolbar then acts exactly like the WinXP Cascade Menu.

On Mon, 10 Sep 2018 20:36:48 -0400, Mayayana
said:

Explorer only refreshes when necessary. In some
Windows versions it can actually take a forced refresh
and sometimes deleting the icon cache in order to
get Explorer straight about what icon goes where.

Thanks for explaining that as I didn't know why it was taking so long to
refresh the icon once I changed it.

| What do those fancy programs do that is useful then?
They can allow you to make a multiple icon, with
different sizes in the ICO file. They let you draw by
hand. But I guess the main point is just that functionality
like IrfanView provides is fairly recent. There didn't used
to be programs that could convert an image to an icon
so easily.

Thanks. I don't remember this functionality in old Irfanview either.
It's sooooooo easy now.

001 Read any image into Irfanview & spit out an ICO at 32x32 pixels.

That's it!

All this stuff about icofx, foldermarker, greenfish, I'm sure is good
stuff, but, to create an icon ... none of it is needed.

Sigh. If I only knew this morning what I know now!

| When does a folder show a "preview" anyway?

I assume it's this:

https://www.askdavetaylor.com/change...to-windows-10/

A classic example of the Microsoft logic that
"Too much of a good thing is even better".

Oh. Thanks for finding that. I don't like it, but that's the point I guess.

Thanks for your help.
I think the whole icon thing turned out to be a joke it's so easy.

I did write up a nice DIY for people though, which they can use in the
future, so the effort is leveraged to others like it always should be.