Access Hidden Icons in Vista

Written by mypchell.com

Customizing Icons in Windows Vista is a fairly easy process that most users are already familiar with. When customizing, the default list of icons that Windows Vista gives you to choose from, it is noticeable that there are several default Windows icons that are missing. The most obvious missing are the icons for Documents, Pictures, Favorites, Videos.

Note: Click on any image for a larger view of that particular image.

First, let’s back up a second and quickly go through how to customize an icon.

To customize an icon:

All you do is right click on the icon that you want to change, then choose Properties.

Then a box will pop up, select the customize tab,

Then click on the Change Icon button.

When you do this the following selection of icons pops up:

{ gallery }default{ /gallery }

These can be accessed by changing the field “Look for items in this file" field. The default location that is listed is:

%SYSTEMROOT%\system32\Shell.dll

To access the Windows Vista icons for Documents, Pictures, Favorites and Videos plus a bunch more, put the following in the “Look for items in this file" field: