Default Icons

[CodeHog]

Windows' "Change Icon" dialog (Shortcut Properties > Change Icon) often initially opens its Browse dialog to the crusty Windows XP-era icons in %SystemRoot%\System32\SHELL32.dll. That's not configurable in Windows itself - but the dialog reads its "starting folder" from whatever path is currently typed in its filename textbox. This script watches for the "Change Icon" window and pre-fills that textbox with your custom icon folder, which in my case is C:\Icons, so when you click "Browse..." it opens there instead. Thanks to some chatbox guidance. I updated script to assign it the "esc" hotkey to terminate  the program so that you can launch it, when needed with your preferred hotkey and terminate it with the "esc" key.

expandcollapse popup

#cs ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
     AutoIt Version: 3.3.18.0
     Author:         BYTE-ME

    PURPOSE:
    Windows' "Change Icon" dialog (Shortcut Properties > Change
    Icon) always opens its Browse dialog in C:\Windows\System32.
    That's not configurable in Windows itself - but the dialog
    reads its "starting folder" from whatever path is currently
    typed in its filename textbox. This script watches for the
    "Change Icon" window and pre-fills that textbox with your
    custom icon folder, so when you click "Browse..." it opens
    there instead.

     Script Function: Set Icon Path
    1. Edit $sIconFolder below if C:\Icons isn't your path.
    2. Double-click the .au3, or compile it to an .exe with
       Aut2Exe and put it in your Startup folder so it's
       always running).
    3. Right-click a shortcut > Properties > Change Icon...
       The textbox will auto-fill with your folder. Click
       "Browse..." and it will open directly in C:\Icons.
    4. If auto-detection doesn't fire (dialog/control names
       differ on your Windows build), use the manual hotkey:
       Ctrl+Alt+I while the Change Icon dialog is focused.
    5. Upon activation, the script now displays a custom
       tray icon to indicate the script is active and to
       alert user that hitting the "esc" key will terminate
       the script.

#ce ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
#RequireAdmin
#include <WinAPI.au3>
#include <TrayConstants.au3>

Global $sIconFolder  = "C:\Icons\"    ; <-- change this if needed
Global $sDialogTitle = "Change Icon"
Global $sEditControl = "Edit1"        ; textbox holding the icon path
Global $hLastHandled = 0
Global $bRunning     = True

; --- Tray setup ---
Opt("TrayMenuMode", 1) ; default menu items off, we build our own
TraySetIcon("C:\Icons\Icon1.ico")
TraySetToolTip("Icon Path Filler - Active (Esc to stop)")
TraySetState($TRAY_ICONSTATE_SHOW)

Global $idExitItem = TrayCreateItem("Exit")
TrayCreateItem("") ; separator

; One-time popup notification on launch
TrayTip("Icon Path Filler", "Script is now active. Press Esc to stop.", 5, 1)

; Hotkeys
HotKeySet("^!i", "_FillIconFolder")   ; manual fallback
HotKeySet("{ESC}", "_StopScript")     ; kill switch

While $bRunning
    Local $hWnd = WinGetHandle($sDialogTitle)
    If Not @error Then
        If $hWnd <> $hLastHandled Then
            _FillIconFolder()
            $hLastHandled = $hWnd
        EndIf
    Else
        $hLastHandled = 0
    EndIf

    ; Check tray menu clicks too
    Switch TrayGetMsg()
        Case $idExitItem
            _StopScript()
    EndSwitch

    Sleep(250)
WEnd

Func _FillIconFolder()
    Local $hWnd = WinGetHandle($sDialogTitle)
    If @error Then Return
    Local $hCtrl = ControlGetHandle($hWnd, "", $sEditControl)
    If @error Or Not $hCtrl Then
        ; Control name didn't match on this Windows build.
        ; Open "AutoIt Window Info" to find the correct ClassNN
        ; and update $sEditControl above.
        Return
    EndIf
    ControlSetText($hWnd, "", $hCtrl, $sIconFolder)
EndFunc

Func _StopScript()
    $bRunning = False
    HotKeySet("{ESC}")
    HotKeySet("^!i")
    TraySetState($TRAY_ICONSTATE_HIDE)
    Exit
EndFunc

 

Edited Thursday at 06:46 PM by CodeHog