Windows 10 Learned something new, that's useful!

MikeHawthorne

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Hi

I just found out that you can convert a .bmp file to an Icon just by renaming the file extension.
I have always used Photoshop and a plugin that will let you save in .ico format to create icons.

But you can simply create your Icon in Windows Paint or any other graphics program and save it as a .bmp file, and then use rename to change the extension to .ico.

The one I just did I made 100 pixels square but I think you can probably go up to at least 150 pixels square.

This is my test icon.



I just changed a folder on my desktop so that it now shows this icon.
I can't believe that I didn't know this before now.

Mike
 
Solution
It certainly is not best practice to rename bmps to ico's. The Icon format is different, and contains a dataset for multiple icon sizes etc. It may functionally work in some places, but it's not correct You certainly should not use this when making a favicon for a website as some browser won't render your "ico" file correctly.

Be safe and do it correctly
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It certainly is not best practice to rename bmps to ico's. The Icon format is different, and contains a dataset for multiple icon sizes etc. It may functionally work in some places, but it's not correct You certainly should not use this when making a favicon for a website as some browser won't render your "ico" file correctly.

Be safe and do it correctly
 
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Solution
Hi

That got my digging around and I found a free program called IcoFX that will let you create an Icon all in one small self contained program.
I used it to create this Icon...



This isn't the actual Icon it wouldn't let me load the Icon file into the forum image process.

But this looks like a decent free option for people who like to make their own Icons.
I do this a lot, because I think that hundreds of yellow folders is boring and confusing.

So I have Icons for different programs etc. for example a Poser job may have many different types of associated files in one folder for one job.
So I made an Icon design that is a colored square with a large P in the middle. A red one with a white P is for the parent file other colors for sub folders of different types.

I then made a version of it in 6 different colors.
I assign a different color to each file type so I can see at a glance which files in a folder (there may be dozens of files in one folder) are .Pz3, Poser job files, .Mp3 sound files, .Psd Photoshop image files, Texture files etc.

But a lot of it is just making File Explorer more intuitive, for instance the folders that are things related to my wife's stuff have her picture on them.

IcoFX Portable (icon editor) | PortableApps.com

Mike
 

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