Changing Windows 7 pinned taskbar icons

Question

I have changed the icons on the shortcuts in the folder %AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar.

I have tried logging off and back on, and rebooting, but the icons remain the same.

Am I doing it wrong?

Answer 1

You need to rebuild the icon cache. To do so, open task manager, terminate the explorer.exe process, run cmd.exe and type:

cd /d %userprofile%\AppData\Local
del IconCache.db /a
exit

Finally, run explorer.exe

Answer 2

It seems that in the new and wonderful Windows 7 there's no easy way to change the icon of a pinned taskbar item.

The only way I found to change the icon is as follows:

Drag the pinned item to the desktop, unpin it, modify its icon, then re-pin.

Answer 3

There is an easy way: Right click in the taskbar shortcut you want to change, right click on it's name (E. Windows Explorer), properties, change icon

Answer 4

I found that I could create a shortcut to the application, customizing it as I see fit (name/icon), and then run the application from my shortcut. At that point I could pin it and it would use my new icon.

I have a similar problem with the icons in the Win7 taskbar and logging on/off and rebooting seems to be hit and miss.