If you want to change the default desktop icons, read our tutorial.
1. Step Open up the Windows 8 Personalization Control Panel, if you don’t know where it is read our Windows 8 FAQ: Where is the Personalization Control Panel (right-click on Desktop, then click Personalize at the very bottom)
2. Step Once you have opened it, you can now on the left side see a couple links. Select the link Desktop icons
3. Step Next, you can see below that many of the desktop icons are unchecked. On your PC some might be checked. Once you uncheck them and click Apply the icons will disappear from your desktop completely. We also explained this in the tutorial how to remove desktop icons
4. Step If you want to change a desktop icon now, select the icon (either Computer, Network, Recycle Bin (Empty, Full), Control Panel) and click the button Change Icon as seen below:
5. Step When you click that button, Windows 8 will automatically load the file imageres.dll because that is where the default desktop icons for your computer are stored. If you need a full list of all icons stored in imageres.dll you can check out our list of icons in imageres.dll
6. Step Finally, click on Browse and go to a location where you stored your new icons e.g. C:\icons\
7. Step Keep in mind you can ONLY select files that use the format .ico – there are various online tool that can convert PNG files to ICO files as we reported here how to convert PNG to ico
If you still have problems with installing new desktop icons please post your questions below and we will get back to you as soon as possible
Related Tutorials:
Above we already explained how to get rid off desktop icons on your computer, but here’s an overview again:
This tutorial explains how to remove desktop icons from your PCÂ
