Solved Problem changing icons for similar file extensions.

BackSpace · Apr 26, 2026

At one time, I had different homemade icons for each of ... .txt .srt .vtt .ass etc. Then, out of the blue, if I now change any one of them, the system will change all the others as well. Just because they are all simple text files, Windows thinks I want the same icon for each.

Standing by for your registry bashing advice.
Thank you
Peter

dalchina · Apr 27, 2026

Hi, suggest you start by having a look at this useful free program.
These are successive dialogues related to changing an icon for a file type.

Dealing with icons for file types is just one thing it can do.
You can also see the correlation between a group of file types as I show above.

You could also consider Nirsoft's Filetypesman.

(Are you really still on the build shown under your avatar?)

BackSpace · Apr 27, 2026

Hi dalchina

Thanks for stopping by. I like your recommendation however the problem remains.
I need to know how to break up the mandatory relationship between the various text
files with differing extensions. This program is a ..."Change one and they all change".

Re: Nirsoft's Filetypesman. Yes, I'm a big fan of FileTypesMan and his very old icon changer
called Types which I've been using successfully until now.

Re: Are you really still on the build shown under your avatar?
Unfortunately, yes. After an unsolvable problem, and a complete rollback of partition C:,
I've never been able to get beyond ...

And then, nothing but the security updates ever comes down the pipe. I just gave up and live with it.

Peter

dalchina · Apr 27, 2026

The common element to those is txtfile.
To override this, and override applications assigning an icon to a file type see:

How to Assign a Custom Icon to a File Type - Win32 apps

A custom icon must be assigned to a file type to provide a visual indication to the user of that file type or the application that file type is associated with.

learn.microsoft.com

N.B. before making such changes ensure you have appropriate backups. Best to experiment in a VM (virtual machine).

See e.g. these for two of those file types, where you can see how the default icon is allocated.

I believe the reason you're not automatically offered a build upgrade is because the PC (shown in your specs) is old and 'not Win 11 compatible' in MS's terms.

The only way to do that is a manual build upgrade using an appropriate iso file.

BackSpace · Apr 27, 2026

Well, as it turns out, I don't even have a HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\txtfile
But the .txt has ...

After a backup, I deleted HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt and all the others that pointed
to the same application with the idea of reconstructing them from scratch.
SURPRISE: Nothing changed at all (!?)

Re: ... the PC (shown in your specs) is old and 'not Win 11 compatible' ...
I'm sure your right.

dalchina · Apr 28, 2026

What you say you've done is wrong... and you have completely ignored the link from MS which I posted for you.

BackSpace · Apr 28, 2026

Re: ... completely ignored the link from MS ...
No. I went to the link and then I force-fed the following ...

I also noticed that the link said "Icons can also be assigned on an application-specific basis".
I see the word "can". Not the word "must". But, like it says in FileTypesMan ...

So true. Thus any changes I make are ignored and I still haven't found where
to turn OFF this wannabe-helpful feature.

Ain't life beautiful when all I have is to complain about the wrong icon
on a file?

dalchina · Apr 28, 2026

Did you do this?

Step 1:

Create a subkey named DefaultIcon in one of the following two locations:

For a file-type assignment, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.extension
For an application assignment, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ProgID

Step 2:

Assign the DefaultIcon subkey a default value of type REG_SZ that specifies the fully qualified path for the file that contains the icon.

- that's adding to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt
- when you say
I deleted HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.txt

Disclaimer: I only offer this on the basis of what I've read- never tried it myself.

Skeptic Mike · Apr 28, 2026

BackSpace said:
I also noticed that the link said "Icons can also be assigned on an application-specific basis".
I see the word "can". Not the word "must". But, like it says in FileTypesMan ...

It seems that the extensions whose icon you can't change have an icon assigned to a ProgID that they share. The default value of the .ext registry entry is the ProgID. So look at that for each extension. If they are all the same and the ProgID has a default icon, then that's the explanation. You might want to figure out how this happened. DefaultProgramsEditor could do that.

glasskuter · Apr 28, 2026

To give each extension its own icon, the user must:

Create a unique ProgID for each extension
Point each extension to its new ProgID
Add a DefaultIcon entry under each ProgID

Windows will then treat them as separate file types

Windows 11 21H2 has older file association behavior so am not sure if this applies or is even done the same way in 21h2.

IMO it's definitely not worth the effort all for the sake of an icon.

BackSpace · Apr 28, 2026

By using a very old program called Types, I was able to eliminate the Class
and the Perceived Type of the troublesome extensions. In turn, the icon assigned
to a particular extension no longer effects the icons of files with similar content.

Ergo, I'm happy again.

Solved Problem changing icons for similar file extensions.

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