How to revert to the old yellow icon for File Explorer?

I have Win 11 Home 21H2, in Dell XPS 17.

Until recently, my taskbar icon for File Explorer was a yellow folder with a tab - identical to folders in metal filing cabinets. It was visible at a glance when the task bar was full of icons.

Now, the icon changes to match the currently active file in File Explorer. For example, if File Explorer is pointing to Desktop, then the taskbar icon is a blue rectangle.

Is there any way to revert to the old taskbar icon?

Thanks

Search for a yellow folder you wish to use and download it, create a shortcut to explorer.exe and change the icon. move the shortcut to where you want it

Another way would be to go to: C:\Windows\explorer.exe ...and right click and choose: Send to > Desktop (create shortcut)

Then unpin the Explorer that's on the Taskbar, and pin this new one to the Taskbar.

Ghot said:

go to: C:\Windows\explorer.exe ...and right click and choose: Send to > Desktop (create shortcut)

Then unpin the Explorer that's on the Taskbar, and pin this new one to the Taskbar.

Click to expand...

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I think that's how I got my current explorer.exe, although my method was more brutal - Ctrl-C followed by Ctrl-V. But the end result should be the same.

I should mention that each of my taskbar icons is followed by some text. That's because I keep multiple instances of Edge open, in multiple browsers. So I need the text to identify each tab.

My memory is no longer reliable, but I think the text next to each icon comes from Classic Shell and Taskbar Tweaker. That gives me a Windows 7 look and feel:
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It looks as if the lowest pixels in the screenshot were needed by the Greenshot selection box.

But irrespective of how I exposed the icon text, I can assert that up till recently my File Explorer icon was permanently yellow. Some of the folks on the Microsoft forums were complaining about the same problem. The post that I highlighted below resolved the issue, but MS wrecked the solution at the next build.
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Thanks

The-Hive said:

Search for a yellow folder you wish to use and download it, create a shortcut to explorer.exe and change the icon. move the shortcut to where you want it

Click to expand...

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Thanks for the response.

I'm unclear about your procedure. I now have a downloaded image and a shortcut to explorer.exe

What do I do now?
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Thanks

Right click the short cut and select properties, then on the shortcut tab select change icon and browse to the location of the icon you downloaded. Firstly move the shortcut and icon to where you want them to live.

If you go the "change icon" via properties route... where it shows you the choices... click Browse... and browse to:
C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll <----- many, many icon choices.

Another option is just delete the Explorer icon and tell Windows to show: "ThisPC" on the desktop.
It's under...
Settings > Personalization > Themes > Desktop Icons ...in Windows 10... I believe it's located in the same place on Win 11.

ThisPC takes you to the same place as File Explorer.

At top left...

OldGrantonian said:

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Thanks for the response.

I'm unclear about your procedure. I now have a downloaded image and a shortcut to explorer.exe

What do I do now?
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View attachment 35561
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Thanks

Click to expand...

Sorry, I think I misread your post, yes Browse to the location in C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll to select the icon you want, I thought that it wasn't in that folder, my fault, sorry. btw yoy can rename the shortcut whatever you want, that is what I did as I use a whole range of custom icons and have my shotrtcut pointing to the D: drive

At this point, both of the kind responders have suggested using:

- C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll

So, I'll start from that point.

Right-click on the "explorer.exe - shortcut" > Properties > Change icon

In the popup, I wanted to select an unlikely icon that would never be used for File Explorer (FE), but would be clearly visible on the taskbar. So I selected the blue question mark in the next screenshot.

Click "Apply". The FE shortcut icon on the desktop changes to "?", as in the next screenshot.

BTW: The screenshot shows an example of the annoying inconsistencies that have plagued Windows since Windows 7. You can see that the "?" icon is square in the palette, but circular in actual use. Personally, I don't care whether the icon is round, square, or pear-shaped But it doesn't inspire much confidence in the code.





After changing the icon image, the following simple tests show, unfortunately, that the shell32.dll method is not going to work for me, despite the fact that it works for the two responders to this post.

Click on the new File Explorer shortcut ("?") on the desktop. A FE window opens, and simultaneously a new tab opens on the taskbar. This new tab has a YELLOW folder icon, rather than "?". That's not a good start

In FE, I now randomly click on folders which have dedicated icons, such as Dropbox, Pictures, iCloud Drive. In each case that dedicated icon is displayed in the FE tab on the taskbar. I want to see a "?" icon - either square or circular.

I'd be grateful if someone could tell me what I'm doing wrong in my procedure.

Thanks

That is correct, pin your shortcut to the taskbar, if you are allowed to. It will always show the yellow folder when activated. The icon you created will be useful in finding it as with other icons.

The-Hive said:

I use a whole range of custom icons and have my shotrtcut pointing to the D: drive

Click to expand...

Are any of these icons for File Explorer ?

Thanks

OldGrantonian said:

Are any of these icons for File Explorer ?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Yea a lot, there are also a lot of custom ones on this forum in the Personalisation thread