Windows 10: Can you change the shortcut icons from Edge's to website favicons?

I put about ten shortcuts onto my desktop, such as ones for eBay, Google, Amazon, etc.; however, they all have Edge's standard blue icons. This makes the whole group appear as a monolithic bunch of icons that all look the same and not so easy to read. Is there a way to change these desktop icons to the various websites' favicons, making them easier to see/read/use?

I think that you can right-click a shortcut, then choose "Properties," then click on "Change Icon." However, from there, I'm stuck, because it offers me the option of browsing to the icon I want, but I don't know how to get to any favicon that I might want.

It's easy to find those websites' favicons, using Google images, and I can then save them onto my desktop, but I don't know how to get them from there onto their relevant shortcuts. I think there is a cache, called something like "shell32.icon" or whatever, which holds icons, but I'm not sure if that's anything I want to mess with, because I'm fully aware that messing with those kinds of files can lead to disastrous results, such as the computer freezing up, the 'blue screen of death,' etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

:)

 

Desktop Shortcut Icons

No problem creating shortcuts using Internet Explorer by click and drag but I want the upper right toolbar that comes with Edge. After I create Explorer shortcut I then create another one with Edge and in most instances the Edge icon changes to reflect the
websites logo ( I assume it is grabbing it from the Explorer shortcut somehow ). I then delete the Explorer icon and I am left with an Edge shortcut with the new toolbar and an Icon that reflects the websites logo. These are the websites that this has not
worked for....Skype, a utility co, 2 financial institutions and a grocery store. This process has worked for 39 other website shortcuts. After googling this issue I find that people have had this problem going back 2 years. Obviously Microsoft can't repeat
Explorers easy click and drag of a website address to the desktop using Edge.

 

Desktop shortcut logo for web sites always shows the MS Edge "e"

To create a shortcut to a website that has the website's icon, you need to create the shortcut from IE, Edge doesn't have that capability at the moment. So, for a site you want to create as a shortcut, you should open in Edge & then use the ... -> Open
with Internet Explorer option or navigate directly in IE.

IE can create two different types of Internet Shortcuts --- .url (Internet Shortcut) & .website (Pinned Site Shortcut)

.url
.website

created via:

File -> Send -> Shortcut to Desktop

--- or ---

Right-click in page background ->Create Shortcut

Tools -> Add Site to Apps

Created in:
Desktop

All Apps

(shell:start menu)

Opens with:
Default Browser
Internet Explorer

(but can be modified)

So if you want shortcuts that can be pinned to Start, they need to appear in All Apps, .website files appear there when cfeated, but you need to change the association for them if you want them to open in Edge. I describe that here:

Renaming Tiles in Windows 10

If you create .url files, you have to go through the extra step of moving or copying the shortcuts from the Desktop to the Start Menu/All Apps.

How to show website logos on tiles pinned to start screen in Windows 10?

Hope this helps,

Keith

 

The problem with creating URL shortcuts is the favicon.ico is stored on a Web site, not on the computer like the shortcuts in the Start menu. And Win10 doesn't show Properties on the right-click of icons like we're familiar with on Win7 and earlier. Haven't looked for it lately but there used to be programs one could use to extract and save the favicon.ico files but the issue there was they all have the same name, have to rename each time one is saved or the next will overwrite it. One could look in the Temporary Internet Files Folder for the favicon.ico file but again they may all be the same name.

 

This is something I would dearly like to be able to do as well... but under control of Windows and not using some 3rd party app or software that may cause problems in the future.

Rayzen... your post is very well written. I would recommend you copy the first paragraph and send it using the 'Feedback' option in Edge to MS as a suggestion. I have suggested this feature already, and so the more they get and the better. The feedback option is found under the 'more' options (just click the three dots in the top right of the browser)

 

[youtube]NNCQXiSemwg[/youtube]

 

Edwin, that's great *Thumbs I never even thought of trying something like that tbh, however...... why is there always one of those *Wink

I find that any simple text doesn't render very well when the shortcut is made into a tile as you can see here. The .ico is a 150*150 size and that displays clearly in its own right. When attached to the taskbar they are a little better.

 

Hi Edwin.
I tried following your excellent YouTube video as carefully as possible, but must have made some kind of mistake, because, when I tried to make the shortcut and got to the point where I put in the location of the item, it gave me the message, "The file C:\ %windows%\explorer.exe.microsoftedge;Google Translate cannot be found."

Here's what I did. Maybe you could help me, by finding the mistake in my process?

As you suggested, I went to the 'icon finder' website and located an icon for the 'Google Translate' website that I liked, clicked on "More," then saved it to my desktop as a 'Windows .icon' file. It showed up as expected, and when I checked it by right-clicking on it, then going to "Properties," it showed it as being a '.icon' object, so everything, thus far, looked good.

Next, after going to File Explorer -> This PC -> Windows (C): -> Windows, I made a folder called "Icons."

Then I cut & pasted the icon from my desktop into the icon folder which I just made.

Finally, I right-clicked on my desktop, chose "New," "Shortcut," and there's where my problem arose, because, as stated, I got the message this message: "The file C:\ %windows%\explorer.exe.microsoftedge;Google Translate cannot be found."

I am not real computer savvy, so my mistake is probably--hopefully--obvious. I tried to follow your YouTube instructions to the letter, after having written them down in a step-by-step fashion, but obviously I screwed up somewhere. Any help you might be able to give me would be greatly appreciated.

 

Open the site . Click top right three dots Open with Internet explorer. Click on Cog. Add site to Apps Click on Star Add to Favorites. Go to Start screen open the Apps list select the newly added app. Pin to the start. They are better than Edge and sometimes include the site's favicon. At least you don't have a bunch of identical icons. Now Windows please address the issue.
Everything in this Win 10 OS has to be done several times. I am not a geek and just want a system which works. Thank you to all the experts who give instructions of reconverting the computer with numbers and alphabets very good but I am too old for that just make the system work for goodness sakes. The fact that you hasve to pay for future upgrades from Win 7 etc is a joke.