How To Change Explorer Drive Icons via Registry⚑

See also: Windows Registry Paths and Keys > Explorer Drive Icons.

Contents⚑

Overview⚑

If you need to change or fix missing drive icons in explorer, this guide shows how to accomplish this through the Windows Registry.

Personally, I use this to tweak any icons associated with a mapped or mounted drive (i.e. G: Google Drive, etc.).

Here are all the steps in order:

  1. Run regedit
  2. Backup Registry via File > Export (optional)
  3. Navigate to path: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\DriveIcons
  4. Add Keys (folders) for each drive letter.
  5. Create sub-keys (folders) nested under each drive letter named DefaultIcon.
  6. Assign a value for each Default key value within the DefaultIcon sub-key as the quoted absolute path to the ICO icon file on the hard drive.
  7. Right click and Export the entire DriveIcons folder as a backup to future re-use.
  8. Exit registry and restart Windows Explorer in Task Manager to view updated icons.

Before and After:

Before

After

Preliminary Steps⚑

  1. Run regedit

  2. Backup Registry via File > Export (optional)

  3. Navigate to path: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\DriveIcons:

Create Nested DriveIcons Keys⚑

  1. Add Keys (folders) for each drive letter:

  1. Create sub-keys (folders) nested under each drive letter named DefaultIcon:

Note: Can also assign folders/keys for DefaultLabels here as well

  1. Assign a value for each Default key value within the DefaultIcon sub-key as the quoted absolute path to the ICO icon file on the hard drive:

Export and Test Results⚑

  1. Right click and Export the entire DriveIcons folder as a backup to future re-use.

  2. Exit registry and restart Windows Explorer in Task Manager to view updated icons.

Internal Links: Windows Registry Paths and Keys | 050 - Computer External Links: Link to Original Note I made in Evernote Sources: Original Source Unknown - From Evernote Note.