In Win7, one could give a desktop shortcut to a URL (website) any image one wanted, but that seems not to be the case in Win10. It forces the same image, in this instance the Firefox icon, for all URL shortcuts. Can this be changed? Thank you.
Windows 10 – how to change desktop icon for URL shortcut
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Related Solutions
Windows explorer keeps a cache of icons. You can try deleting the following file:
Vista/7: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\IconCache.db
XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\IconCache.db
Also, killing explorer.exe and restarting it may help.
Those tiles are limited to Modern UI apps. It's possible for such an app to launch normal desktop applications, so all that's needed is to make a simple app that launches the proper desktop application and customize that app's tile.
However, making an app for each shortcut may be a bit annoying. Luckily, one app can have multiple tiles, so called Secondary Tiles. So what's needed is an app that can make custom tiles that launch different programs.
Even more luckily, someone has begun making such a program. It's called OblyTile. This will allow you to create cool looking tiles for non-Modern UI apps (desktop shortcuts).
Features:
- A tile can point to a program, file, URL etc. (with optional arguments)
- Custom background color.
- Custom icon/image.
- Custom small image.
- Custom text (or no text) on the tile.
HOW-TO
Create an PNG image that will cover the entire tile. The size should be 120x120px. This image can have transparency (then the tile's background color will show). Optionally, also create a small version of the image, 30x30px.
My icons for a Firefox icon: small - big
They are white and transparent, so a bit hard to see. On grey background:
Run the OblyTile program.
Fill inn the name of the program, browse for the .exe file (or what you want) and select the two images. Then select a background color for your tile. Example:
This can also be done through command line / batch scripts:
start ob.exe "Firefox" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" "" "fx_big.png" "fx_small.png" #f58d00 show
After doing this with a few tiles (Mail&Desktop tiles are not custom):
And the small image:
To remove a tile, just right click it and select Unpin from start
My icon are from this icon pack, but there's no need to go for the same minimalistic style as I did.
Best Answer
I tried this on Win10. Works. Created a Facebook shortcut, pasting in the URL. Got the standard browser icon first. Then I did a right click on the icon, checked "Properties". Looked for "Change icon". The system has icons. OR, you can go to a web site and create your own from anything. https://icoconvert.com/ This will take items and turn them into .ico formats so you can use anything you wish to make a suitable icon instead of boring stuff. Save your icons in a selected folder for handy reference. The site allows an upload of your pic, then download to your folder. Simple. I've used this many times without difficulty. Running latest version of Win10 (2004).