Windows 10: Registry default icons customization not working anymore?

Greetings,

I like to change many default icons (drive, folder, documents, downloads, pictures, desktop, web, control panel, recycling bin etcc). Not just manually replacing the icon of each folder individually.

I used to go through two different paths:

1. Edit the resources inside imageres.dll and shell32.dll
2. Edit the registry at [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons] to override the default icons.

First approach always works, but upon each update i've to replace the file again; moreover in the unlikely possility that a newer version of windows updates these two files adding new icons i'd have to re-generate the two files from the new ones, replacing each icon manually again;

Second approach used to work, is update-safe, doesn't modify system files, BUT it doesn't work anymore.

For anyone curious you can open shell32.dll with a program like resource_hacker to see the icons it contains. The index of the icons is the one used in the registry to replace them.

For example

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Icons] "5"="...\FolderBack.ico,0" "6"="...\FolderFront.ico,0"

Would replace the back half and the front half images used to represent folders that contain some files with the two specified icons.

29 and 163 replace the arrow used on shortcuts, and so on.

Today i've updated windows to version 1909 and my icons customized through registry won't show anymore, i see the default ones everywhere.

I tried to both rebuild the icons cache

del %localappdata%\IconCache.db /A del "%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache*" /A

But after rebuilding it still had the default windows icons.



Am i missing something or last update broke that registry key's ability to override default icons? I'd like to be sure before resorting to the "replace shell32.dll" option.

submitted by /u/sephirothbahamut
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:)

 

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Need Registry Value Data For Default Text Icon

Hi there,

I wanted to customize my text file icon,
by replacing it with an icon I created.
The registry change was successful.
My custom made icon has now replaced the default icon.

However,
I mistakenly forgot to make note of,
or export the registry file default value.
So that I could change it back to it's default value/icon in the future.

Would anyone know what value this registry entry needs to be,
in order to restore it back to the default text icon?

Below is a screen shot of the registry entry in question,
with the edited value.





Any help with restoring the default value of this registry entry,
will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.