Folder Changing Icons ver.1.44

These icons are free and for Windows95 and WindowsNT4.0. They are freely redistributable. If you have any suggestion or request, please email to author. The latest version and additional stuff will be available in author's homepage.

EMO Apr/98

Concept

These icons are for replacement of the standard Windows folder icons. They dont look ugly in small size in Explorer and their colors are similar to the default folder icons so that they will easily fit for the Windows desktop.

Icons for replacement of the default drives are included. With these icons, you can totally refresh your Windows Explorer.

All folder icons are contained in ml_fld.dll and all drive icons are in ml_drv.dll. All icons have 256 and 16 color images in 32x32 and 16x16 size. These images are automatically selected for their situations. Each icon has its unique number which starts with 0 from upper left in the pictures above. Please refer to them when you use Regedit.

Install

You can easily install them with inf files included in archive. Each inf file corresponds to each case showed below.

To use inf file, put the inf file and appropriate icon file in the same directory, right- click the inf file and choose "install." It will copy the icon file to appropriate directory and automatically edit the registory. It will also enable Windows to use 256 color icons.

To change icons, restart Windows and run it in Safe Mode once(hit F8 key during reboot and choose Safe Mode). If your Windows has "Plus!" tab in "Display" properties, you can do same thing by changing setting of "Use Large Icons" and reboot.

(These inf files are made with Setup Inf Maker.)

256 Color Icons

To use 256 color icons in Windows95, you basically need to install "Visual Enhancements" feature of Plus!. Some Windows95 after OSR2 and WindowsNT4.0 have this feature as default. They will have "Plus!" tab in "Display" properties.

You also need to check "Show icons using all possible colors" in this tab. In addition, the color depth of screen have to be High Color or higher.

If you run Windows95 without Plus!, you could use them with some utilities described below. Or you can use Windows95 Font Smoother from Microsoft. After installing it, you will find "Plus!" tab added in "Display" properties.

Using Other Software

There are some utilities for changing icons, such as More Properties, Microangelo, and Icon Customiser. They will allow you to easily apply new icons. However, since some icons can not be changed by such software, you would need to use Regedit to change them.

Using Regedit

You can change icon settings by directly editing the registry by Regedit(Registry Editer). Since editing registry is generally dangerous, you need to backup your registry before you make actual changes. To backup registry, ERU in Windows95 CD-ROM will be useful.

1.Using 256 color icons

Open this key by Regedit. Change the data of "Shell Icon BPP" string to 16. If this string does not exit, make the string itself.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\desktop\windowmetrics

2.Changing icons

(1)To change folders, you need ml_fld.dll. To change drives, you need ml_drv.dll. Copy them to wherever you like.

(2)Refer the table below and edit registry by Regedit. Replace the data of icon which you change to the copied file. You also need to add the number of icon in the file. For example, if you change Closed Folder, assuming you copied ml_fld.dll to c:\windows\, enter "c:\windows\ml_fld.dll,0" because the number of Closed Folder icon in ml_fld.dll is 0. If this key or string does not exit, make the key or string itself.

(3)If you run Windows95, Restart in Safe Mode(hit F8 key during reboot and choose Safe Mode). It will reflect all changes in registry, then you may restart in normal mode. If you run WindowsNT4.0, change setting of "Use Large Icons" in "Plus!" tab of "Display" properties and hit "Apply." Restart Windows to reflect all changes.

(4)To restore default icons, simply edit the registry back to the original one. If you have not installed Plus!, just delete the key or string which you created. Do the same things as changing.

If you have installed Plus!, you need to replace the data of icon by cool.dll(it typically exists in c:\windows\system\). Refer the number of each icon in cool.dll in the table below. About other icons, edit back to appropriate default files.

If you made copies of these strings by "export of registry" before changing them, you can restore them by just double-clicking these copies. "Unknown" in the table below means that I have not found how to apply. If someone have any idea, please teach me.