How do I access/edit the Chrome user avatar images?

Question

By which I mean the files which are referenced as chrome://theme/IDR_PROFILE_AVATAR_X

I have identified the icon used as being %APPDATA%/Local/Chromium/User Data/Profile X/Google Profile.ico

But what I'm looking for is the image used in the top left.

Answer 1

1. Quit Chrome (ensure you don't have any running)
2. Find the Chrome application directory (e.g., on windows, it is %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data
3. Put your new avatar png file in the "Default" subdirectory.
4. Edit "Local State" in a good text editor

5. Find the "profile" section; it resembles this:

      "profile": {
         "info_cache": {
            "Default": {
               "avatar_icon": "chrome://theme/IDR_PROFILE_AVATAR_7",
   

6. Ignore the "avatar_icon" line - it's not what you want!

7. Edit the "Default" profile section and add the following lines (I put them in the right alphabetical order amongst the other lines; I'm not sure whether that matters):

               "gaia_picture_file_name": "your-icon-file-name.png",
               "has_migrated_to_gaia_info": true,
               "use_gaia_picture": true,
   

8. Save the "Local State" file.

9. Start Chrome.

If you want to do this for other profiles, just do the above steps for a different directory besides "Default" (for example, "Profile 1").

I had run chrome with the --gaia-profile-info switch before I tried the above, so you may need to do that first, but I'm not sure.

You may want to star the Chrome issue 91230 http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=91230 to get a proper UI for this type of thing again.

Answer 2

The icons are in the file C:/Program Files (x86)/Chromium/chrome.dll

You can use an application such as 7-Zip to browse the contents.

(You may need to close Chromium before you can access the file - or create a copy.)

Go to chrome.dll/.rsrc/BINDATA/ and you will see a bunch of numerically named files.

Files 6167 to 6192 are the avatar icons, in PNG format.

Unfortunately 7-Zip doesn't seem to support putting changed files back into the DLL, so need to find other software to do that...

Warning: modifying the chrome.dll does change the image, but also appears to stop keyboard shortcuts from working...

Answer 3

Answer 1 totally does work. However, there are caveats.

1. It puts a strange square around your image. I can deal with that but it's not as nice as the ones in the .dll.
2. It stretches the image vertically. You'll have to "squish" it a bit to get the correct proportion.
3. You'll have to go back into "edit" to select your new image
4. Bob's your uncle. I'll attach a picture below so you can see the results.

You can see the results here:

Answer 4

Go to this folder:

%LocalAppData%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Avatars

Then simply replace one of the default avatars with a custom one, using the same name, file extension and dimensions. Restart the browser and then you will see the custom avatar once you're actually using it on a profile. Very easy!