This is a kind of swiss army knife of tools for working with file types and extensions. As you can see from the description above, it does more in Vista/Windows Seven environments than in XP. And since I am using Windows XP I will not cover DefaultPrograms’ ability to edit autoplay handler programs, no’r will I be using it to edit the registered default programs and their assigned types.

Instead, for this review I will go through two exercises that can (a) show what this program can do and just how cool itis in general, and (b) illustrate the user experience a little bit.

Exercise #1. Changing the default icon for PDF files on Windows XP.

I use PDF-XChange Viewer as my default PDF reader, and don’t particularly care for the default icon it uses for PDF’s. Here’s how DefaultPrograms can change the default used icon for a specific file type.

1. Click the "Icon" button in the interface
2. The next screen will display a list of file extensions
3. Filter by the desired extension ("PDF" in this case)
4. The next screen shows the current icon used. Click "Browse" to select a new icon
5. Select the new icon. You can point to executables, individual icon files, or icon libraries
6. Click "Save Icon" and you’re done

Exercise #2: Changing the context menu options a file type (.JPG).

You may have noticed that, at least in XP, when you right click an image file and click "Edit" in the context menu, the default program used to edit is MS Paint. Here’s how you can use DefaultPrograms to edit the context menu for JPG’s.

1. Click the "Icon" button in the interface
2. The next screen will display a list of file extensions
3. Typed "JP" in the filter then CTRL-selected four image types at once (see image to the right)
4. Next, in the list of context menu commands, select "Edit" and click "Edited Selected Command"
5. The next prompt shows the command name and program path
6. Change the path and parameters to the new program; in this case I will be using my favorite "PhotoScape"
7. That’s it (although you will need to do this for remaining image types).

The verdict: what I like about this program is the user interface, which is simple and intuitive, and the fact that it works and does exactly what it claims to do. I’ve seen and written about a number of programs whose functions intersect with this one (Types and Icon Phile come to mind) but DefaultPrograms is without a question the utility that I would prefer to use to perform these sorts of tasks. Highly recommended.

Version Tested: 2.4

Compatibility: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7. MS .NET Framework 3.5 required.

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 675K).

There is an impressive range of excellent freeware Windows enhancements and tweaks. This posting will present forty three excellent additions to Windows that you will like.

When I first thought of this post, I more or less knew what programs I wanted to list here. The common theme that brought these together was that they were all really cool Windows “enhancements”: i.e. apps that tweak or change the way we work with files, folders, applications, or the system environment itself (or, apps that brings functionality to the Windows environment that could or should have been a built-in option in Windows ).

Two more things to say before presenting the list itself; the first is that this list might not include some well known titles because in some cases I shied away from Windows enhancement apps that try to do many things at once in favor of simpler, more straightforward ones. The second is to be aware that many of these have overlapping functions and hotkeys that you wouldn’t necessarily want installed on the same system at the same time (you also dont want to overburden your PC, so install selectively).

Note: this post took a long time to write, so please Stumble or Digg!

Here’s the list:

1- Fences: do you ever wish that there was some way to organize your icons into general, clearly-labeled areas on your desktop that you could move or organize without needing to deal with each icon individually? If so, you’re in luck, as this is exactly what Fences does. You can create floating areas on your desktop, label them, and move icons of any type into them; you can then re-arrange these by moving entire units around, etc. Fences will do two more things for you (1) it will preserve/save icon locations on your screen, and (2) it will allow you to double click an empty area on the desktop to hide all icons.

Note that Fences is still in beta and seems to exhibit some bugs on some machines. It works fine on my XP (with XP’s Dr. Watson debugger disabled).

2- QTTabbar: ever imagined using explorer windows in a Firefox style tabbed interface? This is essentially what this (terrific) freeware does, but it also manages to deliver a range of nice functions, including the ability to browse contents of folders without clicking into them (see screenshot), the option to bookmark groups of open tabs, a searchbox for filtering files, image previews on mouse-hover, as well as a slew of others.

QTTabbar is extendible through a handful of plugins that provide extra functionality, including a “folder memo” plugin to add notes to folders.

3- Filebox Extender: this one adds new buttons on the title bar next to the minimize, maximize, and close buttons that provide favorite folders and recent folders access anywhere (including file open/save dialogs). Other functions: a “stay on top” pushpin button, and a window roll-up button that hides all but the title bar of a window.

There are many apps that are designed to access favorite folders and files, but this one is one of the most original and innovative.

4- Desktop Media: this may be familiar to you if you’ve worked with Liunx. Desktop Media is a free program that creates automatic shortcuts on the desktop whenever you plug in a USB drive, CD, or other media. The shortcuts will automatically disappear when the media is ejected.

This program also provides an interesting option whereby hardlink rather than shortcuts can be (optionally) created on NTFS drives (see “Link Shell Extension” below for more on hardlinks).

5- Sizer: allows you to you right click on the “maximize”button on the title bar in order to quickly change the size and/or placement of the active Window using a selection of pre-set profiles. You can add your own user-defined sizes and placements.

While this function hardly sounds revolutionary, I will tell you that once you start using this one you will wonder how you managed without it. Sizer will prove to be very useful and is in fact one of my first installs on a new machine.

6- Folder Menu: this is a terrific little free app that displays favorite folders anywhere on Middle mouse click or using a hotkey. It can even invoke favorite folders in Windows and MS Office open/save dialogs.

This is a new Autohotkey-based program that deserves to be more well known; since installing it it’s become one of my favorites, and I am betting that you will like it as well.

7- Folder Size: ever noticed that Windows’ detail folder view does not display sizes for folders? Well guess what, this free Windows extension adds a column to Windows’ “detailed” view that displays folder sizes. Check out my review for how to get this set up.

The latest information as I write this is that a new version 2.5 is about to be released, so watch out for that.

8- WinSplit Revolution: a freeware program that brings instant, versatile docking and resizing of windows to the sides of the and/or corners of the screen. But what is really nice is that the program allows you to control the placement of your windows by using hotkeys, by using a “virtual numpad” control that is prompted by clicking on the app’s icon in the system tray, or by so-called “drag’n go”, which involves moving your window around the screen while pressing Ctrl+Alt (whereupon it will display visual previews of the resize area as you move your window around – see screenshot).

For another interesting program that offers a similar function check out PowerResizer, which is also excellent.

9- Q-Dir: is a free dual-pane file manager that is simply terrific. It offers a slew of nice functions, including bookmarking favorite folders, a search box for filtering files and folders, the ability to save configurations of open panes and folders, and a whole host of other nifty options. What is quite innovative about Q-Dir are the nifty buttons on the toolbar that let the user access multiple configurations of file panes, quickly and easily.

I personally use Q-Dir as a replacement for Windows explorer, such that clicking on a folder in Windows will open it using Q-Dir; In that sense it is the ultimate Windows enhancement. (See my original review of the program for instructions on how to do this, find favorite feature #6).

10- Taskbar shuffle: this freeware Windows extension gives you the ability to reorder the tabs in your taskbar (on the bottom of your desktop) by dragging them at will. Very cool!

11- Standalone Stack: this freeware allows you to create folder shortcuts that, when clicked, open up as Mac-style hovering icon stacks. It supports two styles of icons “grid” and “fan”. The screenshot here depicts a grid-style such shortcut that I strategically placed in the “Quick Launch” area.

12- TaskSwitchXP: this is a freeware Alt+Tab replacement. It’s my favorite because it is straightforward and simply scrolls across the different open apps and windows while (reliably) displaying a screenshot of the selected app. It strength is function rather than form, and I like the fact that it bucks the 3D vista-style and the Mac Expose trends (but if you must have these, check out WinFlip, Shock Aero, and DExpose2).

13- Link Shell Extension: is a freeware app that allows you to right click on files and folders and create instant (and effortless) hardlinked clones, with the single stipulation that your hard drive should be NTFS formatted.

A clone is NOT a copy. A little known piece of information is that a file in Windows XP and Vista can be in two places at once (as long as the hard drive is NTFS formatted and not FAT). Suppose that you keep videos of “The Sopranos” in their “Sopranos” folder, but that you had set up a “Favorite TV shows” folder where you wanted to keep a list of some of the TV-show episodes you like the most. If your hard drive is NTFS formatted, you can keep a clone of that video in that folder that does not occupy extra space on your hard drive (rather than create a duplicate copy.

14- Launchy: this is a freeware launcher for apps and files where, instead of clicking on shortcuts or icons of the programs or files you want to open, you type in the name of the program you are seeking in a search box and select it from a list of results (the program will refine the list of selections as-you-type, which is a very nice effect).

By default this program will monitor (index) the execs and shortcuts in your start menu but can be configured to look anywhere for any file type you want. Lastly I will say that once you start using this I guarantee you will not want to use your computer without it. Some good Launchy alternatives (also free): Find and Run Robot, Key Launch and Keybreeze.

15- Freesnap: ever wanted to snap just one or two edges of your window that you’re working with right to the side of the screen? Freesnap is a freeware that lets you do just that (see screenshot). It will also let you use hotkeys to quickly send your window to any of the 4 corners of the screen (or the center), and perform a number of window-resizing operations.

16- Everything: this one is a free desktop file search program that works ONLY on NTFS formatted drives. The reason: it relies on the Master File Table of the NTFS volume to build its index of files, rather than constantly scanning and scouring the hard drive. What this means is that Everything will always be up to date with all file changes that occur on your hard drive.

The reason this one is included in this post is that more than any other program it has changed the way I work with Windows (with the possible exception of Launchy, above). I now find myself constantly right-clicking “Search Everything” on folders in order to locate the files that I am working with. Being able to right click on my computer in order to find a file or files anywhere on my drives is an extremely powerful thing to be able to do.

17- 3RVX: this freeware allows you to control your system’s volume (up/down/mute) through hotkeys. Its not the most feature-packed utility of its kind (Volumouse might have that distinction), but it just may be the most pleasant to use, looks really pretty (emulates the MacOSX volume bezel, but is skinnable and comes with many other cool skins).

This is another one of those apps I have to have installed on my machine.

18- OSD Mute: a very simple free app that does a very simple thing: displays a “Mute On” message on your desktop near the system tray when the system volume is muted. While this is not quite revolutionary, it is so useful that I install it on all my machine, and is really an option that should have come built into Windows.

19- Dexpot: this is without a doubt the best, most feature rich and advanced freeware virtual desktop program for Windows. It doesn’t offer some of the eye candy that you might find in some others (animated 3D cube transitions between desktops, for example), but what it lacks in style in makes up for in substance (e.g. rules, hotkeys, icon placements on different desktops). If you are unfamiliar with virtual desktops imagine being able to work on, say, your Office applications in one desktop, then flipping to another that has your browser/webmail, and then flipping to a third that displays, say, your media player.

One thing you can do with Dexpot that I have not found anywhere else is to actually designate different icons to different desktops. This alone makes it the undisputed number one virtual desktop app as far as I am concerned.

20- Infotag Magic: a freeware shell extension that tweaks Windows to display informational tooltips when hovering over a range of filetypes, including audio files, text files, shortcuts, and executables (see screenshot).

File extension types supported: wp3, wma, ape, and Ogg Vorbis (for audio), txt, ini, log, bat, diz, bak, and que files (for text files), exe, dll, ocx and lnk (for executables/shortcuts). I would have liked to have tooltips support for video files; if that’s something you want it is provided in the latest beta of MediaInfo.

21- AudioShell: a freeware shell extension that allows you to view and edit audio files tags directly in Windows Explorer (for individual files or groups of files). It adds tabs in the audio file’s right-click “properties” dialog that enable you to edit tag information on the fly. (Including album art, which you can easily import into the Audioshell tab and save it into the audio file itself.)

Audioshell will also display your audio file tag information inside tooltips when you mouse-over your audio files, and will add additional audio related columns that can be displayed in Windows explorer’s folder “detail” view (e.g. Title, Album, Artist, etc.)

22- Stick: is an interesting freeware app that places dockable tabs on the sides of your screen that can contain a variety of functions, such as notes, RSS feeds, shortcuts for apps or favorite folders, etc.

The nice thing about this one is that the “dockable tab” effect works really well, and its a very interesting innovation on the typical Windows user interface.

23- Xentient Thumbnails: a freeware that automatically changes the icons for image files to appear as little thumbnail previews of the images themselves.

This means that the even in icon or tile view each individual image will display a thumbnail for its icon that reflects a preview of the image itself. It also means that your image files will display little thumbnails for their icons even when placed on the desktop (a nifty and rather unusual effect).

24- Thumbview: you might have noticed that some image file types (e.g. JPG, GIF, BMP and a few others). display preview thumbnails in Windows Explorer while others do not . What Thumbview does is provide support for 19 additional image file types such that Explorer is able to provide thumbnail previews for those as well. It also adds tooltips for image files in Explorer such that hovering over an image file displays its type, dimension, bitdepth, and filesize.

25- WinCDemu: a small, free, extension that adds to Windows the ability to mount disk images as virtual drives simply by double clicking on the image files. Supports .ISO, .IMG, .CUE, .BIN and .RAW disk images and an unlimited number of virtual drives.

Runs in the background with no user interface, and seamlessly integrates disk image files into Windows.

26- Allsnap: imagine that your windows had a little “magnetic field” around them such that if they came sufficiently close to each other they would simply snap together. This effect, which we have all seen employed by various apps (such as Winamp for example) is exactly what this freeware does. Very cool, and also configurable so that you could set exactly how many pixels around each window this “magnetic field ” should be in effect.

There is also, interestingly, a portable version of this app which I just discovered.

27- TeraCopy: this free program integrates itself with Windows to deliver accelerated file copying in many instances as well as the ability to pause and resume copy operations. It comes especially handy when copying or moving a large number of files such that the entire process will not break down if it encounters, say, a file error.

You have the option to set whether to have TeraCopy perform all file copy operations by default (which is what I do), just when invoked by the user, or only when the “Caps Lock” key is on.

28- HOBComment: this free Windows extension adds a context menu entry that allows users to instantly add a comment to files and folders (yes, folders, which normally you wouldn’t be able to add comments to in Windows). I’ve been looking for a long time and this remains my favorite way to add comments to files and folders (despite relatively sophisticated freeware general file tagging apps such as Tag2Find and Taggedfrog.

The one conspicuous drawback that afflicts HOBComment though is that it is sometimes unable to add comments to some file types, such as .MSI and MS Office files (forcing me to resort to right clicking properties/summary/comment in Windows to do so).

29- StyleFolder: this freeware adds a simple entry to the Windows context menu that makes it possible to change folder icons. And while there are a handful such apps, I like StyleFolder because it is simple and unassuming; but, more importantly, it saves the icon info within the folder rather than simply pointing to it, which means that folders retain their new, customized icons when they are moved to portable media or across the network, etc.

30- Unlocker: have you ever tried to move, delete, or perform other operations on a file or folder only to be notified that it is locked because it is being used by another process? Enter freeware Unlocker to the rescue. This software can (a) identify the process(es) that are using your files/folders and holding them hostage, and (b) will let you “unlock” these or optionally to kill the offending process so its no longer running.

Unlocker installs a convenient entry in the Windows context menu that can be used to right click any file or folder and investigate the processes that might be working with it, if any.

31- Send To Toys: this app will breathe new life into the “send to” entry in Windows’ context menu by making it extremely useful and customizable. There are a number of commands that “Send To Toys” can introduce into the send to menu, including send to clipboard, send to command prompt, send to run, send to trash, and send to quicklaunch. But what makes this program really useful is the ability to add your favorite folders to the send to menu, whereby you can quickly copy or move any item to them (pressing Shift as you use the send to folder command will move your files/items rather than copy them, while pressing ctrl+shift will copy a shortcut).

32- RBTray: minimize any window to the system tray by right-clicking on the “minimize” button. Simple with fairly low resource consumption.

What I like about this one is that is coexists very well with other Windows enhancements (aforementioned Sizer, for example), when some other apps like it do not.

33- Trayconizer: this interesting free app is for those programs that you use that you wished would simply minimize to the system tray every time by default. Trayconizer can create special, modified shortcuts to these apps that, when run, will make these always minimize to the system tray without any further intervention by the user.

34- Flashfolder: this freeware apps makes it easy to access your favorite folders in Windows’ open/save dialog (as well as that of MS Office). What is notable about FlashFolder, aside from it being extremely useful, is that in terms of coolness/form factor alone it scores extremely high points with me (check out the toolbar that add overlays on top of the open/save dialog in the screenshot to the right).

Aside from favorite folders, Flashfolder can also quickly access recently used folders and a number of other functions.

35- Folder Guide: this freeware lets you right click to access your favorite folders. Works on the desktop, in Windows’ open/save dialog, as well as the MS Office open/save dialog.

There are two ways to add your favorite folders to “Folder Guide”; from the settings, you could browse to the folder of your choice, or simply right click on the folder you want to add and use the “Folder Guide” context menu entry.

36- Shock Bookmark: another freeware app that, similar to Folder Guide above installs your favorite folders in your right click context menu and enables quick access to these on your desktop and in the Windows open/save dialog (but, interestingly, not in the MS Office open/save dialog for this one). Shock Bookmark goes one further in that it lets you access favorite apps as well as favorite files in the context menu in addition to folders.

Like Folder Guide, Shock Bookmark allows you to right click on a folder in order to add it to the app’s context menu. However, it also features “copy to” and “move to” functions on right click for quickly moving or copying your files to your bookmarked folders (similar to “Send to Toys” above).

37-Open Target Shell Extension: [XP only]. This extension adds a right click context menu entry to Windows that shows up when you right-click on shortcut files, giving the option to instantly open the target folder where the item actually resides. This saves the user a few steps that would otherwise be required right-clicking properties then “find target” on XP.

Vista users do not need this as this functionality is already built into that OS.

38- MenuApp: this tiny free app lets you create shortcuts to folders that, when clicked on, display a browsable, cascading-style menu similar to the Windows Start menu. You can create a shortcut folder any folder(s) you like and place them in all sorts of convenient places, such as the quick launch menu area, on your desktop, or within your favorite launcher app, etc.

39- Visual Subst: this freeware presents an interesting way to access favorite folders by mapping them as virtual drives that you could access from “My Computer”.

The idea is that this makes it easier to access these using on or two clicks from open/save dialogs or by navigating from anywhere all the way back to the root drive.

40- Visual Task Tips: [XP only] a lightweight freeware utility that brings thumbnail previews to minimized task bar items in Windows XP. Simply hover over a minimized taskbar button to display a preview pop-up (Windows Vista already has this functionality built in).

Check out my original Freewaregenius site design template in the screenshot!

41- Explorer BreadCrumbs: [XP only] a free Windows explorer extension that add a “breadcrumbs navigation” toolbar for folders in XP. The breadcrumb navigation method is already built into Windows Vista; it comprises a flat path structure whereby each “node” in the path is interactive and can be navigated at will in order to quickly move back and forth across the folder structure.

Note: QT Address Bar is another freeware that delivers the same functionality.

42- VSO Image Resizer: delivers image conversion and resizing as a function within the Windows explorer context menu. What is interesting about VSO Image resizer, aside from the fact that it does a great job, is that it allows for the creation of different size/format/quality profiles that make it easy for the user to right click and quickly perform multiple, different resizing operation while accessing their commonly used settings. Also allows for image processing in batch.

43- XnView Shell Extension: freeware that embeds a number of image-related operations into the Windows context menu, including an interesting image preview inside the right click menu. Other functions include the ability to edit image IPTC metadata and to resize image and/or convert them to other image formats on-the-fly

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A quick image to icon converter that offers drag and drop simplicity alongside a versatile set of format choices for your resulting ICO file. Here are more notes on this program:

• Portable: just unzip and run, no installation needed.
• Drag and drop: the interface couldn’t be simpler (or more pleasant to work with). You can drag a single image or multiple image files at once onto the ToyCon dialog hovering on your desktop (see screenshot).
• ICO file formats: right click on “choose formats” to access a format selection dialog. This is where you determine if your ICO file will contain any or all of Vista, 32bit, 8bit or 4bit color information as well as the icon sizes that you would like included in your ICO file for each (16×16, 24×24, 32×32, 48×48, 64×64, 72×72, 96×96, 128×128 and 256×256). The format chooser is very versatile and powerful and comes with 3 pre-built presets (XP, Vista, and “Dock”) with the ability to specify a custom configuration. (Although it doesn’t allow you to save it independently as a preset).
• Convert ICO to PNG: is possible, up to an image size of 256×256.
• Batch conversion: see “drag and drop” above.

The verdict: although I’ve written about other image to ICO converters previously (e.g. Imagicon, the online service Bradicon) I would probably recommend this little program over these other ones because of the following: it doesn’t require installation, it is very user friendly, and it is very versatile and powerful in terms of what it does. A winner!

Version Tested: 0.6

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to the ToyCon forum page to download the latest version. Scroll down for English (approx 186K).

This is the third program of its kind that I am featuring on Freewaregenius (I’d previously reviewed DIManagerX and Shock Desktop). My experience with these kinds of programs is that they are strangely unreliable, especially in relation to whether ’Auto Arrange’ and/or ’Align to Grid’ are enabled. Each of the programs above offers its own set of features and advantages, but Desksave brings a number of things to the table that has made it my desktop-icon-saving program of choice; (these are the first four points outlined below):

• It’s reliable: i.e. it works, whether ’Auto Arrange’ or ’Align to Grid’ are turned on or off, it does what it purports to do (and does not force you to re-check Align to Grid if it was checked to begin with. Note that for this as well as other similar program it might be necessary to perform the icon restoration multiple times in order to get everything back exactly the way it was, depending on how mixed up your icons become.
• Can live in the context menu: this program can be accessed from the system tray or (optionally) in the context menu. I never thought that context menu access would be desirable for a program like this, but in practical terms I’ve found this to be extremely useful (I would even say this is my favorite feature). There is something intuitively appealing about right-clicking to restore the icon layout when you need to.
• It’s lightweight: a mere 78,5 K for DeskSave.exe, and 79.5K for the shell extension.
• Portable: this is a no install program. Adding (or removing) Desksave to the context menu can be done within the program dialog.

Other features as follows:

• Saves to file: you can optionally save the icon layout to file, which is useful if, for example, you like to maintain the same icon layout on multiple computers, if you need to clean-install your OS and get the icon layout back later on, or if you simply would like to back up your saved icon layout.
• Auto restore: can be set to auto restore icon layout after certain events take place such as a resolution changes or program start or resume from standby/hibernation. Did not use this functionality personally.
• Automatic backup: of current and saved layouts
• Accepts command line parameters: did not use this personally.

• Other features: auto save at logoff, unicode support,

The verdict: I’ve been using this program for weeks and I am extremely happy with it. As stated previously I like that its very small, I like that it can be accessed from the context menu, that it can be run portably, and most importantly that it delivers the goods. Highly recommended.

Version Tested: 8.1.2

Compatibility: Windows 98, 2000, XP and Vista (32 bit).

Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 179K).

Bradicon

A cool little site that can instantly convert any image you upload to it into ICO icon format. Of course, this can also be done by many freeware programs that you can install locally, such as the IcoFX icon editor (which can also do image to ICO conversions in batch), or Imagicon. However, if you don’t convert images to icon regularly and/or don’t care to install a program on your machine for a handful of conversions, Bradicon is a great resource that works really well. More info on this one:

• Supports JPG, GIF, PNG image types as input, and outputs 32 bit icons in ICO format.
• ICO file includes 3 sizes: 16×16, 32×32, and 48×48. Transparency is preserved.
• Conversion example: see the image to the right.

In summary: generally a nice resource to have that works very well.

Version Tested: the site as of 6/3/2008.

Go to the Bradicon page.

Deleket’s icon gallery

I am always looking for high quality free icons, mostly for use on my hard drive as custom folder or file icons, and when I stumbled upon this guy’s profile on deviantART I was blown away.

Its not just that the quality of icons is outstanding, but this designer’s prolific output is quite an achievement: I counted thirty icon packs displayed across two gallery pages (with more surely to come soon). More notes on these:

• License: these icons are released under the Creative Commons license, which is to say that they are freely downloadable, and you are able to “copy, distribute and transmit” them, but have to attribute them to the author. You are able to use the icons for non-commercial projects but are not allowed to alter them.
• Formats: most of these packs contain icons are made available in PNG and ICO formats, and some also contain Mac ICNS format. There are exceptions such as the Mobile wallpaper pack that is simply JPGs.
• Sizes: run the whole gamut: 16×16, 24×24, 32,x32, 48×48, 64×64, 72×72, 96×96, 128×128, and even 256×256.

Ok here’s my top five six favorite Deleket icon packs:

1. Folder Icon Pack
2. 3D Cartoon Icons Pack III
3. Orb Icons Pack
4. Button Icons Pack
5. Scrap Icons
6. Mobile Wallpapers. These last ones are wallpapers for mobile phones, not icons, but are really cool.
    

    

Some tips: (a) If you want to transform any collection of icons into an icon library(.DLL or ICL) BeCyIconGrabber is a good freeware program that can do it;  (b) Stylefolder is a good freeware program that can change folder icons from within the right-click context menu.

The verdict: wonderful stuff — Nuff said!

Go to Deleket’s gallery page on deviantART.

The tagline used in this program’s website under is “Ubericon: pointless eye candy is fun”, which really is all there is to say about this program. What it does is display visual effects when you click on an icon. Ubericon comes with 3 types of effects built in upon installation: iBounce (left screenshot) makes the icon look like its jumping up on clicking, Flatout (middle) creates the illusion of the icon disappearing into the horizon, while iZoom (right) creates the effect of quickly zooming into the icon. Here are more notes on this one:

• Installing plugins: download the plugin zip archives, unzip, and place in the plugins folder in the program directory.
• Memory use: jus under 4 megs, which is quite ’affordable’ (so to speak).
• Note: although a previous version of this that I tried a few months ago reliably caused my system to crash, this version has been remarkably stable and error-free.

The verdict: an interesting (and original) tweak. For those who simply love to tweak your system, this one’s for you.

Version Tested: 1.0.4

Compatibility: Windows 2000, 2003, XP. Not supported: Vista, 64bit OS’s, alternate shells.

Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 1.53 megs).

IconX? Yes. Do not mistake this with the shareware Stardock IconX, though, which is a completely different product.

A few weeks ago I wrote about how to change the icons used for any filetype using a freeware program called Icon Phile. And although that program worked great for me, I discovered through reader’s comments that it didn’t work on all systems or had problems. Moreover, it was not as user friendly and I would have liked, so I kept my eye out for other options and found IconX. I am happy to report that IconX does the job easily straight from the Windows right-click context menu. Here are more notes on this program:

• How it works: simply install IconX, right click on any file or folder and select “change icon” from the context menu. A dialog will be shown with a preview window for any icon files that you might browse to. Note: you can use ICO files, DLLs, ICL icon libraries as your target, just change the “files of type” dropdown at the bottom of the open file dialog. You can also point it to EXE files with icons in them.
• Individual v. global: to change the icon used globally for a file type, right click “change icon” on any file of that type then check the box in the IconX icon browser that says “use icon for all files of that type”. Otherswise, if the box is unchecked, IconX will change the icon of the individual file rather than globally.
• Where are the icons stored?: for files with individually changed icons, the new icon is not stored in the file/folder itself, but rather in a centralized place on your system (most likely the registry). This means that files/folders with customized icons that are emailed or moved to a network drive will not display custom icons when viewed from another computer. (Unlike, say, Stylefolder, which will store the icons in the folder itself).
• Note on changing icons: icons on the desktop might not visibly refresh after implementing a change. Try going into a folder and seeing if the change occured, or logging off/on.
• Reverting to default icons: right clicking on “change icon” for a file with a changed icon then clicking “restore” will restore the Windows’ default icons. Seems to work only on individually changed icons though. See below for more info on this.
• Installation: unzip the downloaded archive, then right click “iconx.inf” and select “install”, then close out the two text files that are displayed. A “change icon” entry should appear in the context menu. You will have to register the program using a free key that’s provided in the readme.
• Uninstallation: before you uninstall using Windows’ add/remove, you need to go into the program dialog and select “Remove IconX from Registry” in the file menu first to remove all icon associations made with IconX. You might need to re-install your software of choice for handling certain file types to get their default icons re-instated.
• But is it free?: yes. IconX used to be sharware but is now freeware. The author provides a free registration key in the readme (username=anonymous, Regcode=CFUC-20004919). Once inside the IconX dialog, register through the file menu.

What I do NOT like about this program:

• Once you define a new icon to be used for a certain filetype that does not have a Windows’ default icon (e.g. PDF, XLS), and want to go back to the previous icon, you will most likely need to reinstall the application that handles this filetype. Using IconX to point to the icons in that program’s executable did not seem to work.

The verdict: I’ve been searching for something like this for a while: a very good, simple utility that can change your system’s default used icons for a certain filetype quickly and easily. The fact that it’s placed inside the context menu is an added bonus. This is not a perfect program (see “what I do not like … “, above), but I recommend it all the same.

Version Tested: 1.2.2

Compatibility: WinAll; no info on Vista.

Go to the IconX home page to download the latest version (approx 37K). If the website is down you can download IconX ver 1.2.2. here or here.

Imagine this: you have just installed a very nice program that may be outstanding in many respects but inexplicably foists on yours PC some of the ugliest icons you’ve ever seen for the file extensions that it handles. Or you’ve just downloaded some nifty icon libraries with very nicely done icons for various file types, and you would like to use those instead of the default icons on your system. This how-to will show you how you can do this; it will assume that you have (a) an icon or icons for a file type that you want to change, and (b) an icon or icons that you want to use in their stead, in the form of an icon file (.ICO), an icon library (DLL) or even an executable that might contain the icon(s) you seek.

For the purposes of this posting I will change the default icons for PDF files from those used by my favorite free PDF reader, PDF-XChange Viewer, to another icon I found in a library.

The program used: is called Icon Phile. Alas this freeware program is no longer in development but you can find a download link on my Icon Phile review page. Once downloaded unzip the archive in the place you want to keep it, as this program does not require installation. After this go ahead and launch the program.

Step by step:

• The objective now is to find the PDF file extension. Normally, to find most file extensions you would use the main dropdown to switch to the file category/group of interest.
• If you can browse the pre-existing groups from the dropdown and find the filetype you seek then you do not need to go through all the steps described here; simply right click on the icon to change it. For system and desktop icons go to the “desktop icons” or “System Files”. None of the available dropdowns contain the PDF filetype, though, so we will need to find it on our own.
• Click on ’Edit Groups’ in the top right corner. After a bit of activity, the display will revet back to the “compressed files category (which is OK) but a new pane on the left showing all of your system’s file extensions will appear.

• Click on “Add group” (see screenshot) and then enter “My custom icons” or any category name you like in the form that appears.

• Next scroll down the extensions list on the left pane until you find the extension you are looking for (in this case PDF). Note that pressing the first letter of the extension on the keyboard will immediately jump to that letter in the extensions list. Once you get to PDF drag and drop it into your newly created category. Do this for any others you are interested in changing as well.

• When you have all the extension types dragged into your new group (PDF only in this case), go ahead and dismiss the file-type list by clicking on the small ’x’ on the top right of the pane.

• Icon Phile will revert back to the original screen that you saw when you first launched the program. From the dropdown, select the group that you created (”My Custom Icons”). Right click on the PDF icon and select “Change icon”.

• From the open file dialog, browse to the new icon that you would like to use instead of the current one. You can open .ICO icon files, icon libraries (.DLL only not .ICL) or even executable files and select the icon you want.

• That’s it. All you need to do now is click “Apply” on the main screen, exit the program, and your new icons are in effect system-wide (see first screenshot on top of this posting for before/after screenshots).

Note: if you know of a free program that can do this that’s still being development (and that is generally well designed and works well) please let me know in the comments. I have been looking and the only other similar program I found was ActivIcons, which I didn’t like as much as Icon Phile.

I’ve previously written about a couple of programs that change folder icons from the context menu on this site (Foldermarker, and FolderICO). What I especially liked about the latter (and what I like about Stylefolder) is that the folder icon changes are saved into the folder itself, making it possible to, say, put a folder on the network or on a USB drive and preserve the custom folder look when you access the folder from another computer.

Here are some more notes on this program:

• Changing folder icon: can open any file to get icon resources (icon libraries, icon files, executables, etc.) It doesn’t offer pre-packaged icon sets like the programs mentioned above. If you are looking for free icons, however, check out this post.
• Changing folder background: you can, it seems, use any image file as background to your folder. The image will be tiled in the background so ’pattern’ type images will work best.
• Changing font color: this would be the font color for the files/folders displayed inside your folder.
• Reverting changes: can be done with a single click. Its also possible to revert any single changed element (icon/background/text color).
• Context menu integration: can be turned on or off.
• Folder size: because the image/icon you use is saved within the folder itself, you will have empty folders that, once customized, will actually be a few kilobytes in size (corresponding to your image file and/or icons sizes).

Wish list (or how this program could be even better):

• Once you implement changes to a folder, all of your icons on your desktop get alphabetically re-arranged for some reason. It would be good if the program didn’t need to do that (but as it is I simply use a program like Shock Desktop to get all the icons back to where they should be).

The verdict: a nice little program, if for the context-menu icon changing ability alone. If customizing Windows’ look-and-feel is your thing you’ll probably love this one.

Version Tested: 1.0.1

Compatibility: Windows 9X/ME/2000/NT/XP/Vista

Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 1.36 megs). If unavailabe you can download version 1.0.1 here.

There are a number of programs that save and restore the locations of desktop icons, but I really like this one for the following reasons:

• Profiles: Allows you to set any number of profiles. This can be useful if (a) you flip different resolutions on your display, and (b) if you would like different icon arrangements and not just a single, favorite one.
• Tray icon operation: resides in the tray icon for quick access. Although there are a couple of functionalities that it offers if its running in memory (see below), you really only need it when you’re ready to restore icon locations. (You can switch auto-starting with Windows in the options).
• Usage: Does not require switching off the ’align to grid’ option to perform. This is a strange requirement of some desktop-icon saving apps such as another favorite of mine, DIManagerX.
• Hiding desktop icons (a.k.a interesting functionality#1): there’s an option whereby you can quickly turn desktop icons on and off from the system tray. (For me this comes in handy whenever I want to create screenshots for programs).
• Interesting functionality#2: pressing a hotkey (CTRL-Q by default) will display icon locations through and over any Windows that might be covering them (see screenshot). A rather unusal feature, but seems like it could might come in handy.
• Resource use: is at around 12 megs memory, which is not too much for this sort of app (DIManagerX uses up approx 9 megs). Having said that it seems to me like it could be smaller.

But does it work with virtual desktop programs?: (my favorite Dexpot for example). My guess is that it would, but I haven’t tested it. Please let us know in the comments forum if you find out.

The verdict: a very nice program from creator of Shock Sticker (my favorite desktop notes program) and Shock Aero. Recommended.

Version tested: 1.25

Compatibility: Windows XP, 2000, 2003; no info on Vista

Go to the download page to get the latest version (approx 800K). Also visit the program page.

Rating

Version tested: 1.0.2

Xentient Thumbnails changes the default icons for image files in Windows explorer and replaces them with thumbnails of the images themselves. It works automatically on all image files within the Windows environment without user intervention.

Every Windows user knows that setting “thumbnails” in the folder view options results in a thumbnail view of the pictures within it. Xentient Thumbnails goes a step further by replacing all image icons on-the-fly with thumbnails that are visible in all folder views (icons, tiles, list and details views, and even images placed on the Desktop). Here are more notes on this program:

• How it works: once installed/activated, this program starts generating thumbnails on the fly for all folders that you open. (Conversely a folder containing images that is never opened will not get its icons converted to thumbnails).
• Controls: interaction with the program is through a “Xentient Thumbnails” entry it adds to the Windows’ Control Panel. The only three options there are (a) switching the “generate thumbnails” function on/off, (b) increasing/decreasing the cache size for thumbnails, or (c) clearing the cache of all thumbnails.
• Image types: affects an impressive range of image types (JPG, JPE, JPEG, JP2, J2K, GIF, PNG, BMP, WBMP, EMF, WMF, PCX, PBM, PGM, PNM, PPM, RAS, TIF, TIFF, and TGA).
• Thumbnail location: is in the application data. The image files themselves do not store the thumbnail information (i.e. an image placed on a network drive will not show a thumbnail icon when seen from another computer). Uninstalling the app means that thumbnails will no longer be displayed as icons for image files.

The verdict: I really like this program (I especially like seeing thumbnail icons for images placed on the desktop). I noticed that for some thumbnails where the images are narrow or long Xentient Thumbnails uses a detail of the image for the thumbnail rather than whole image, but that is understandable and works rather well. Recommended.

Compatibility: Windows 98/SE/ME/2K or XP; high color or true color display.

Download HERE (approx 729K). This program seems to have been removed from the developer’s site.

Rating

Version tested: 3.7.2

[Note: this review was written by my friend Mohammed Raei from Amman, Jordan; see his personal blog here - The Freewaregenius]

Folderico is a nice little program that allows you to change the color and individual icons of folders right from the context menu.

This is a versatile program and can be used in so many ways. For example you might denote all of your work folders with a red color to visually differentiate them from other folders, or you could change the icon of your downloads folder from a simple plain folder to one that, say, has a big green arrow on it.

This program is very similar to another program previously featured on Freewaregenius called Foldermarker. There are a number of differences between them which I will point out.

Here is what I like about this program:

• Allows the change of a folder’s icon straight from the context menu (right mouse click).
• Comes with multiple built-in themes that contain custom folder icons on various subjects (e.g. music, video, Linux, etc). A theme is the collection of icons that are automatically presented as options when you right-click on a folder; you can switch across a number of built in themes or load your own.
• A nice feature is that it can load icon libraries (.ICL) and install these as custom ’themes’ (Foldermarker, on the other hand, allows you to load up custom icons individually). You can use BeCyIconGrabber to create .ICL files from other icon resources including .ICO or .DLL files. (Or use ICL Builder, a program by Folderico’s creators).
• Unlike manually changing a folder’s icons or changing it using Foldermarker, Folderico stores the folder’s new icon within the folder itself. In other words, if you change a folder’s icon on a flash drive and transfer it to another computer it will show the new icon, while another folder changed manually or using Foldermarker will display the default windows folder icon. (This is also true for network drives for example).
• Tooltips: a not-so-obvious function is that you can use Folderico to display whatever string you want as a tooltip that will show whenever you hover over the folder with the mouse.

Ways in which it could be improved:

• Unlike Foldermarker, Folderico does not support changing the icons of a group of folders simultaneously. So, for example, if you wanted to denote all your work folders using a red color you would have to change the color for each one of these individually.

This is a convenient and easy to use program that does the job really well. It is easy to use and I especially like the fact that changed folders with Folderico retain the new icons when transferred to other computers. I highly recommend it.

Compatibility: Windows 2000, XP.

Go to the program home page to get the latest version (approx 1.3 megs).

Rating

Version tested: 1.5.01

IcoFX is an advanced icon creation and editing program that offers a full range of tools and effects for icon manipulation. It can handle a wide range of data types, color modes, resolutions, and image/icon formats.

IcoFX is an impressive program; the tools that are available for image manipulation and the various effects and editing options rival those of a sophisticated bitmap editor/paint program. Which is not to say that it is an overly complicated program; in fact, it is remarkably straightforward. Here’s what you need to know about this program.

• Useability: simple yet highly functional. Zoom up to 1000% for precision editing, switch grid off/on. Sidebar contains all different icon size incarnations for easy switching and access. Most importantly, allows multiple undos (yes, you can trace your work all the way back to the point before you messed everything up).
• Images to icons: IcoFX can do batch image to icon conversions (supports BMP, JPG, PNG, and GIF image formats). Unlike Imagicon, another program that I reviewed recently, IcoFX will create individual icon files that contain multiple icon sizes. You can also export images if you like (including transparencies).
• Icon Extraction: point IcoFX to an EXE file or icon DLL library and it can extract any available icons (including Vista icons). It can do this individually or in batches of files/icons.
• Capture icons: just tell IcoFX the icon size you want, and the capture tool will allow you to ’snap’ any area on your screen and edit is/use it as an icon.
• Editing Tools: in addition to the default tools that you would expect, this program includes tools such as an opacity tool, a gradient tool, and a blur/sharpen tool. Other editing option include flipping and rotating (including free rotation), brightness/contrast manipulation, color balance manipulation through sliders, opacity, fadeout, and shadow. You can also change the dimensions of the icon you are working with.
• Effects: supports more than 40 effects, including multiple embossing, sharpening, blurring and edge effects. The drop shadow effect in particular is a nice one.
• Custom effect creation: IcoFX allows you to create own custom effect if you want. This is done through entering values in a 5×5 table/grid, but I was not able to find any satisfying documentation as to how to best do this. The keys to doing this well, therefore, seem to be (a) experimentation, and (b) loading up pre-existing filters and changing the existing values for those. This is an interesting and powerful feature but I do not foresee it to be useful for most people.
• Icon types supported: All Windows Icons including XP and Vista (256×256). Supported data types: 2, 16, 256, True Color, True Color + Alpha (transparency) channel. Vista icons with PNG compression also supported. RGB and HSB color modes supported.

My wish list (actually just one item): the ability to import Mac (ICNS) icons, a function that I’ve been looking for for some time now.

The verdict: I’ve tried a number of icon editing applications previously but was never compelled to feature them on Freewaregenius; IcoFX is without a doubt one of the best icon editors out there. It is also the best program for converting images to icons that I’ve come cross. (And its 100% free; what are you waiting for, get it now).

Compatibility: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista.

Go to the the program home page to get the latest version (approx 1.29 megs). Thanks go to reader ’Foghorn Leghorn’ for letting me know about this program.

Vistaicons.com: contains over 2000 high quality 256×256 icons (suitable for Windows Vista) in PNG and ICO formats. Freely downloadable.

Toolsbox PNG Package Deluxe: version 6.1 features 240 (128*128) High-Quality PNG Icons. The home page seems may be down but you can download it here (3.71 megs).

Iconaholic: this website has some amazing icons, wallpapers, and themes available for download; commercial use of these requires a licensing fee.

Crystal Clear Icon Pack: created by Brazillian artist Everaldo Coelho; view and download individual icons at Wikimedia commons crystal clear icons page or download collectively from the artist’s site.

Iconbase: icon packs for Windows, Mac, Linux available for download. Some of the download links dont work for some reason.

Maxpower: features a list of icons submitted by various artists, some of which are actually free (for personal and commercial use).

KDE-look.org: has a good icon section.

Icon Drawer: has a free section that is worth checking out (for personal or non-commercial use).

InterfaceLIFT: submission-based aggregator of downloadable icon sets. The quality of submissions can vary but you will find many excellent icon sets here. Check out the highest rated and most commented sections.

Iconfactory free section: keep an eye on new content added every week or so.

Freeiconsweb: offers some 15,000+ downloadable icons that you can use for personal projects; for commercial use you would have to pay a licensing fee.

AvenTenbrae: offers downloadable icon packs by Laurent Baumann, released under the Creative Commons 3.0 Licence (no commercial use). Unfortunatley its Mac format only (.icns) — if you know of a free program that can convert ICNS to ICO please let me know.

Dhtml site: this site contains links to a number of other sites with free icon sets. The collections tend to be mostly small-size 16×16 icons suited for website use.

Yellow Icon: offers downloadable icon sets with different themes such as Spider Man, MacOSX, video game characters, etc.

Icongalore: this site offers for-pay icon packages, but you can visit this page to downloads their free (and rather good) XP icon samples pack

Vista High PX icon pack: 150+ Vista-inspired icons; a 20.72 meg download.

CrystalXP’s Icon gallery: some really cool stuff. Massive PNGs; personal use only (commercial use not allowed).

PNG Factory: individually-downloadable PNG’s; quality varies.

FAMFAMFAM: small (12×12) icon sets.

PixelGirl’s XP icon section: downloadable icon packs

Rating

Version tested: 2.4

Imagicon is a small program that performs image to icon conversions as well as image conversions across all the supported formats (BMP, PNG, JPG and ICO). It features a simple drag and drop interface.

I was looking for a simple program to convert PNG’s and JPG’s into Icon (ICO) files and found this one. I chose to post this program over a number of others primarily because it supported converting a a number of popular image formats (BMP, PNG, and JPG), whereas most of the others I looked at typically converted a single format only (usually PNG). Here are some notes on this program:

• Simple interface: first define the output image settings you want (convert to icons by default), then simply drag and drop an image or multiple images onto the program dialog for the conversion to take place.
• Fast: very efficient conversions compared to other image-to-icon programs that I have tested.
• Icon settings: 32×32 by default, but can be set to any icon size setting (16×16, 48×48, 128×128, 64×64). You can also enable/disable transparency support within icons.
• Convert across formats: you can (a) set output format to any of BMP, PNG, or JPG instead of ICO, (b) set it to reduce image size to a percentage of the original, (c) set to custom pixel size instead of percentage, and choose whether or not to preserve proportions, (d) choose to flip the resulting image vertically or horizontally, and (e) a ni-filtering option can be selected that can "smooth out" image output.
• Customizable: the color of the program as well as the image used as background in the drag and drop dialog can be changed.

This program does what it does really well and has a nice efficient interface. My personal interest in it is as an image to icon converter but it can certainly be used as a small, easy to use image converter as well. Recommended.

Compatibility: Windows 98/2000/ME/NT/XP/Vista.

Go to the program home page to get the latest version (approx 944K).

Rating

Version tested: 7.0.0.123 Final.

DIManagerX saves the location of desktop icons, allowing you to restore them if their locations change

Imagine you’ve just cleared your desktop of all the icons you do not want and put in all the shortcuts and files that you typically like to work with, exactly the way you want them. Wouldn’t be cool to be able to save this configuration so you could always go back to it? With DIManagerX you could do exactly that.

There are a number of reasons why your desktop icons might change from the way you like them: you (or somebody else) may move them in the course of your work, a program such as a virtual desktop application may mess them up for you. Or, most commonly, it happens whenever there’s a change in screen resolution (which typically happens when launching games).

The main draw that this program has for me is that it works beautifully with Dexpot, my favorite virtual desktop program. Here’s what you need to know about DIManagerX:

• You can save as many configurations as you want, even with different screen resolutions. With Dexpot I am able to save the icon configuration for each of my virtual desktops and restore them at will (use the Re-Save saving option to create different profiles).
• Works with multiple monitor setup.
• If you elect to do so, you can keep it running in the background and it can automatically revert back to the default profile whenever there’s a change in screen resolution. It can also take a snapshot and save your icon locations at regular intervals (which seems a bit of a strange function to me, as I am not sure how you would prevent from saving a configuration you don’t want).
• Note that by default the program language is German. You will have to do some navigation (in German) in order to change to English.
• No install program, can be used portably on USB.

Wish list: one drawback that the program has is that it seems to require switching off the “align icon to grid” option to function. Somewhat inexplicable and inconvenient to say the least. I do hope they change this in a future release.

I’ve used a number of programs similar to this and I must say DIManagerX is my favorite; I recommend it highly.

Compatibility: Windows 2000, NT4, XP 32bit, Vista 32bit

Go to the download page to get the latest version (approx 593K). Also visit the program home page.

Version tested: 2.1 beta

Icon Phile is a small program that can be used to change Windows system icons (including desktop icons, cursors, drives, start menu and folders), as well as the icons for any document format/extension such as compressed files, MS offices files, graphic and media files and others.

Ever installed a really cool program such as an image viewing program, zip/compression program, etc., and really liked it but could not stomach the file icon at all? If so (yes I know it happened to most all of us) then Icon Phile is exactly what you need.

You can use Icon Phile to quickly change the icon not just of system icons but for any file extension that you want. Here’s a list of some of the coolest features:

• Allows you to create “categories” or icons that you can change collectively.
• Allows you to save the entire icon scheme. This is useful because it allows you to save your icon selections initially and later on undo any changes that you have made. It is also useful for creating entire ’themes’ of icons.
• Allows you to drag and drop any file into the app in order to change the associated icon of the extension. Note that the version I tested (a) some extensions (like FLV) would not be added in this way, and (b) the program did not successfully change the icons of those extensions that I was able to add. I was using a beta version, though, and I am assuming that this is a bug that will be eventually fixed. All pre-defined icons were easily changeable, though.
• Offers different ’views’; you can view groupings of icons, view changes, view all, etc. (see second screenshot).
• You can restore Windows’ icons as well as rebuild the icons database.

This program is simply cool. It has a great, intuitive UI and for the most part works really well. Although I (think) I did find a bug as described above, I am guessing this will be ironed out in a future release. Moreover, as if the program alone weren’t cool enough, the site also offers a large group of cool, freely downloadable icon packs.

Compatibility: WinAll.

Go to the download page to download the latest version. The program home page. Alternately if links are broken, download v2.1 beta here.

Version tested:  2.20

BeCyIconGrabber is a very small app that extracts icons contained in resource files (DLL, ICL, OCX, CPL, SRC, ICO and CUR). It also enables saving them singly in ICO, CUR, BMP, or PNG files, or collectively within resource libraries (DLL icon libraries or ICL cursor libraries).

There are many such freeware icon extracting programs. This one is my favorite, however, for the following reasons:

1. It allows you to save icons collectively to resource libraries. Most similar programs only feature saving icons singly.
2. It is very small and has a functional, simple design. Different icon sizes are viewable very intuitively through clicking tabs, and there is even a zoom function.
3. Icon search function; specific director(ies) or all directories
4. Favorites section for all the icons you hold dear

Simple, small, looks good, and 100% free. What more do you want from an icon extractor?
Go to download page for latest version (scroll down to the middle). The program home page.

This is a nifty utility that I use at work. If you’ve ever felt like you’d like to differentiate some of the folders that you work with or make them stand out from the rest, this software can help.

Rating: 5

Version tested: 1.2

Foldermarker is a very small program that allows you to change the color and/or appearance of your folders straight from the context menu. It also allows you to load and use your own custom folder icons. Very handy!

Download here for latest version. The Program Home Page.