How to Change the ICON of an EXE file

Submitted by Srikanth on Friday, 17 October 200823 Comments

Some times it becomes necessary to change the ICON of an executable(.exe) file so that the exe file get’s a new appearence.Many of the Tools such as TuneUP Winstyler does this job by adjusting the Windows to display a custom icon to the user.But in reality when the file is carried to a different computer, then it shows it’s original ICON itself.This means that inorder to permanantly change the ICON, it is necessary to modify the executable file and embed the ICON inside the file itself.Now when this is done the exe file’s ICON is changed permanantly so that even if you take file to a different computer it show’s a new icon.

For this purpose I have found a nice tool which modifies the exe file and will embed the ICON of your choice into the file itself. ie:The tool changes the exe ICON permanantly.

I’ll give you a step-by-step instruction on how to use this tool to change the icon.

1. Goto www.shelllabs.com and download the trial version of Icon Changer and install it (Works on both XP and Vista).

2. Right-click on the exe file whose ICON is to be changed.

3. Now you will see the option Change Icon…Click on that option.

4. Now the Icon Changer program will open up.

5. Icon changer will search for all the ICONS on your system so that you can select any one of those.

6. Now select the ICON of your choice and click on SET.

7. Now a popup window will appear and ask you to select from either of these two options.

Change embeded icon.
Adjust Windows to display custom icon.

Select the first option (Change embeded icon).

8. You are done.The ICON get’s changed.

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23 Comments »

Anonymous said:

Cool,thanks for the info,was looking for something like this

- 5 November 2008 at 4:30 pm

zenith said:

Great but need more.

- 13 December 2008 at 9:56 am

Srikanth (author) said:

@ zenith

What more u need? If u have ny problem share it…

- 13 December 2008 at 4:15 pm

Saj said:

Icon changer is cool application but it has a problem.
It changes icon of the exe, but when I minimize the exe, it shoes previous icon in the taskbar.

Any suggestions for this?

Regards,
Saj

- 30 December 2008 at 12:21 pm

Srikanth (author) said:

@ Saj

Restart the system and try…

make sure you select the option (Change embeded icon) while changing the icon

- 30 December 2008 at 7:42 pm

me, comming with problems said:

it doesn t works i tryed but doens t works i pressed change embeded icon and it doesn t works im on linux …

- 12 January 2009 at 1:15 am

Srikanth (author) said:

@ me, comming with problems

It only works on Windows and not on Linux..

- 12 January 2009 at 6:29 am

sushant said:

hats offto u srikanth

- 20 February 2009 at 1:36 pm

Aghaamou said:

Very Thanks…

- 6 April 2009 at 12:25 pm

Neel said:

hello srikanth i am using Torbo C++ to compile .c file however i am not able to change the ico nof the generated .exe file ?? which compiler do you use ???

- 7 April 2009 at 3:24 pm

Srikanth (author) said:

@ Neel

You need to use a 32-bit compiler to change the icon of the compiled executable. I guess you are using a 16-bit compiler…

- 8 April 2009 at 3:22 pm

MrNeoDark said:

It’s great.. tnx bro..

- 15 May 2009 at 1:17 am

karthi said:

good think…… but i can’t change c prog .exe file icons…

- 19 May 2009 at 11:36 am

karthi said:

sorry i got it…. sir

- 19 May 2009 at 11:46 am

Srikanth (author) said:

@ karthi
You need to compile C progras in 32-bit compiler to change the .exe icon. I suppose you’re using a 16-bit compiler.

- 21 May 2009 at 6:55 am

Bhargavi Goswami said:

Thanks, its so easy and useful.

- 20 July 2009 at 10:51 am

maui said:

Great stuff…

- 20 July 2009 at 11:21 am

soumik said:

very usefull application…thnx…keep it up…

- 22 July 2009 at 3:10 pm

Neolite said:

Thanks for sharing nice information.

- 12 October 2009 at 7:24 am

Abhijeet said:

I have not tried but i know it will work becouse you are genious

- 8 November 2009 at 10:01 pm

d_a_r_k said:

First of all thank you for this awesome tool, but I’ve encountered a problem when i try to change icon for a large .exe file. It doesn’t seem to change even after rr
any suggestions?

- 5 December 2009 at 8:30 pm

Pavan Somu said:

Nice tool. Thanks for sharing.

- 16 December 2009 at 12:42 pm

h@ckfreak said:

hi!!!!! sir i am following your site and i want to know how did you do this i mean is their any institute which teaches this if yes then sir please tell me or if you can mail me please sir i will wait for your mail

- 19 January 2010 at 3:15 pm