How to Change the Libraries icon pinned to Taskbar in Windows 7

Question

Some time back I changed the default libraries icon on Taskbar to "Computer" icon. I had to format the PC and now I looks like the I forgot the procedure to change the icon.
I tried changing the Libraries icon in %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows.
That did not change the icon on the taskbar.
What should I be doing to change the icon?

Answer 1

Assuming that you are talking about the explorer icon and that it is currently pinned to the taskbar:

1. Press Windows+E to open an explorer window
2. Right-click on the icon in the taskbar and then right-click Windows Explorer and select "Properties"
3. Click on "Change icon..."
4. Select the icon that you want and click "OK" and OK out of the properties window.
5. Right-click on the Explorer icon in the taskbar and select "Unpin this program from taskbar" and then close all open explorer windows.
6. Press Windows+E to open an explorer window and the new icon should be displayed
7. Right-click on the icon and select "Pin this program to taskbar"

Answer 2

If you pinned it and then changed the icon of the library, unpinning it and pinning it again should do it.

If need be, the pinned shortcuts are stored here:

"C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar"

You may also want to try clearing the icon cache so it rebuilds:

1. Close all folder windows that are currently open.

2. Launch Task Manager using the CTRL+SHIFT+ESC key sequence, or by running taskmgr.exe.

3. In the Process tab, right-click on the Explorer.exe process and select End Process.

4. Click the End process button when asked for confirmation.

5. From the File menu of Task Manager, select New Task (Run…)

6. Type CMD.EXE, and click OK

7. In the Command Prompt window, type the commands one by one and press ENTER after each command:

   CD /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local

   DEL IconCache.db /a

   EXIT

8. In Task Manager, click File, select New Task (Run…)

9. Type EXPLORER.EXE, and click OK.

HTH