Beautiful icons for Windows 7. Colored folders for Windows Explorer without programs

Many users pay special attention to personalizing their personal computer. Various options are available for the desktop interesting wallpaper, themes are installed that change appearance windows and panels. In Windows 7, it is possible to set custom icons for various folders and assign new icons to program shortcuts. This article describes how to change folder icons using files with the ico extension.

Folder properties

If you want to assign a special icon to a certain directory in order to somehow highlight it, you need to go to the configuration menu.

To do this you need to do the following:

Where to get ico files

Icons for Windows have their own extension - “.ico”. In the operating system there is basic set pictures that can be used as shortcuts. In addition, icons may change during installation new topic for your sis Windows themes.

If among the standard sets you could not find anything that would suit you, you can download new ico icons. There are a lot of sites on the Internet that offer their visitors to download various thematic sets or certain pictures individually.

Some resources offer shortcuts for download in png format. In this case, users will need to convert them to required format. To do this, you can use the special Avelcon program or any equivalent. In most cases, websites will prompt you to download all the necessary software.

More than six years ago I told you described one free program, which helped us replace boring, monotonous folders with informative, cheerful or even fun ones colored folders in Windows Explorer.

Today I will give you a free set of colored folders and tell you how to replace the standard ones with them, without using any programs at all.

Colored folders for Windows Explorer

There are plenty to choose from, right? You can change the color of important folders (by making them red) or by giving one color to folders with specific content (photos, videos, audio...).

Thus, these directories immediately become visually highlighted in the “gray” mass of content in Explorer or other file manager windows.

How to change the folder icon

It's very simple. For example, I’ll “recolor” my “Service” folder...

In it I have all sorts of different important files live and accumulate - from now on it will be red, amen let's go...

Click on the selected experimental folder with the RIGHT mouse button and go to its “Properties”...

Here we need the “Settings” tab. We look into it and find, just below, the section “Folder Icons”...

What do we need here? That's right - change the icon. Click on the corresponding single button and specify the folder of the desired color from our free set. As I said above, I need a red one. Ignoring the contents of the line, I click on “Browse”...

...and specifying an aggressive color icon - click “OK”...

As you can see, there is a saving button “Restore default values” right there - this is if you want to return the folder to its standard boring color.

All that remains is to apply the changes...

... and enjoy your colorful folder...

Please note that after changing the color of a folder, the preview of its contents no longer appears...

It will just be a solid color.

Those who are tired of looking at the same icons on their computer can easily replace them with others. It's easy to make your computer more expressive and interesting.

There are many thematic resources for this and additional programs.

How to choose an icon set

To successfully change the design of icons, it is better to adhere to certain rules:

1. New icons must match the OS theme.
2. Information function icons are more important than decorative ones; they should not be clumsy and difficult to read.
3. When choosing a set of icons, you need to pay attention to their quality. Poorly made icons will not only not decorate the system, but will also spoil the appearance.
4. In pursuit of style, one should not forget about practicality.

Where to download icon sets

The network is replete with various resources with “embellishments” of operating systems. Among them, there are many low-quality craft sites that are being introduced into search results.

Here are a few resources that provide quality free content:

7themes.su

A good thematic resource that allows you to download icons for free. In addition to icons, you can find many other free decorations for operating system.

The collection of icons is constantly updated and undergoes strict selection for quality.

Oformi.net

Another good specialized resource. The selection is somewhat smaller, but there are unique options developed specifically for this site.

Along with icons, you can download cursors or even entire themes.

Westyle.ru

Relatively small collection of icons. But this is compensated by the originality of the materials provided. More than 60% of the icons provided were not found on other sites.

How to download icons for windows 7

Important! The system extension for icon files is ICO. Therefore, you need to download icons for Windows 7 in ico format. To use packages in PNG format You will need to convert them, this will take additional time.

Let's look at downloading using 7themes.su as an example. First you need to find your favorite collection of icons in the catalog.

Then go to its page and click the “Yandex.Disk” button in the “Download file” block. To download from cloud storage, you will need to go through a simple registration process.

This is faster than waiting on a file hosting service.

Before downloading, you need to check the file format. In the “Info” block, in the “Format” column, ICO should be indicated.

Often included is a set of icons in PNG and special file IP for the IconPackeger program, about which more later.

On the Yandex.Disk page you will also need to click the “Download” button.

Now the archive with icons has been saved. It is enough to unpack its contents into a separate directory and you can begin installation.

How to install icons

Icons can be assigned either separately for each object or for the entire OS. In the first case, use system tools.

In the second - IconPackeger software (a free thirty-day version is available).

Adding an icon to a single object

Let's look at applying an icon to one object using the example of a created folder. To do this, you will need to right-click on the required folder. Select “Properties” from the menu.

In the object parameters form, you will need to select the “Settings” tab, in which there will be a “Change icon...” button.

A guide to system icons will open. In its window you need a “Browse” button.

Clicking on it will open a standard explorer, where you need to set the path to the icons, and then select one of them and use the “Open” button.

The Icon Explorer will show the selected icon. In its window you will need to click “OK”.

Then, in the options window, click “Apply” and the folder icon will be changed.

This method is applicable to other folders and any files.

Important! System icons(My computer, Recycle Bin, etc.) cannot be changed this way. The program described below will help you make them different.

Changing all icons using IconPackeger

The downloaded program will need to be installed. Then launch using the item in the Start menu. Before direct launch program, a window will appear asking you to purchase a subscription.

In it you need to click the green “Continue” button.

After this, the program window will open. New icons can be selected from the carousel at the bottom of the window.

To use downloaded icons (file with .ip extension), you will need to click “Add icon package”. In the drop-down list, select “Install from disk”.

This will open File Explorer where you need to provide the file path and then click Open. After which the program will load the collection and show a preview of the icons.

Many people know what icons are, because they appeared a long time ago back in the 90s. Interestingly, the first to use icons were not Windows developers, and Mac OS programmers. But over time, the Windows operating system overtook its competitor and began to use and improve the graphical component of icons with all its might. With the development of the operating room Windows systems and the Internet, a huge number of all kinds of icons have appeared. Icons are used everywhere these days; without them, no one would probably be able to work in any system. You can download icons for free and without registration on your desktop or for Windows by going to our website.

On our website you can find and download many beautiful and unusual icons on various topics. By combining icons, Windows themes, and desktop backgrounds, you can greatly transform your interface. Also great value Icons are now available to web programmers; they use them to create various website elements. Web designers using icons and special programs, create amazing design projects. The collection of icons on the site will be constantly replenished and updated, I think everyone will find the type of icons that will be in demand.

All icons on the site are hand-selected and sorted, most icons have a PNG extension. In the future, icons for other extensions that have their own specific applications will appear on the site. Download icons You can absolutely free of charge, without any SMS or file sharing, just click on the button or archive with the file. Together with the selected icons, the corresponding icons will look harmonious