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Folder customization

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by estvb

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This isn't really important but it kind of annoys me. I have WinXP and for some reason when I open my D:\ drive in My Computer it has a big musical note graphic on the lower right corner. I know this is the default customization for Music Folders but I don't want it for the root of my drive and there doesn't seem to be an option to change or remove it. This only appears on my regular user account, not the administrator account.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

8 replies

by m.a.s. matrix

Try this and let me know if it works:

Change shortcut to your hard drive

Make a shortcut to your hard drive.
Right-click the shortcut and choose Properties.
Choose the Shortcut tab, and then click Change Icon to see the various icons available.
In this window, you can also click Browse to see the icons contained in other dll's. Not every dll contains icons.
You can then change the shortcut icon to whichever icon you prefer by clicking OK while your choice is highlighted.

Change the hard drive icon

If you want to change your actual hard drive icon instead of the shortcut icon, you need to follow the steps below.

Open notepad by going to Start --> Run and typing "notepad" (without the quotes).

Type this:

"[autorun]
icon=filename, number"

(again, without the quotes).

In this text, you will replace "filename" with the name of the .ico file or .dll in which the icon is contained.

"Number" indicates which icon file you wish to use. If you are using a .ico file, or if you want to use the first icon in a dll, leave this part blank. But if, for instance, you want to use the fourth icon in the .dll (the fourth one that appeared when you were browsing your dll icons as we did above), replace "number" with "4" (no quotes.)

Save this notepad file as "autorun.inf" in the root directory of the drive you wish to modify (eg. C:\), not within any subdirectories or folders within the drive.

Hit F5 to refresh your folder, if that doesn't work, you may need to reboot your computer to see your changed icon.

Did your new drive icon appear? If not, go back and check your syntax, make sure you have the correct filename and try again. This tip works in all versions of Windows.

by m.a.s. matrix

one other thing you you might want to try is to change the user icon when you get to the log-in screen in xp. click on the user icon and you will have different icons you can choose from.

by estvb

I guess I wasn't too clear with my description. I'm not trying to change the drive icon but the actual folder customization. When I open My Computer and double-click on my D:\ drive, the window displays the contents of the root of my drive. It is here that there's a big, blue music note graphic at the bottom left corner of the window. That's what I'm trying to get rid of. Thanks anyway though!

by estvb

Ok, let me try again. Windows XP has some built in folder customizations. When you open a folder in an Explorer window, you can go to View->Customize This Folder in the menu bar. There you can set whether the folder is holding music files, whole music albums, movies, pictures, or just normal documents. Depending on the one you choose a different watermark picture appears at the bottom right corner of the window. It also changes the view to something like thumbnails for movies and pictures or detail view for music. My problem is that the root of the drive doesn't give this option in the View menu, but somehow it was set to music. There's a big blue musical note watermark and I want to get rid of it. Thanks for the suggestion though.

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