Is it possible to customize taskbar icons? If so how?

I'd like to customize not just desktop icons but the icons that appear in the taskbar, is this possible?

And no, I'm not asking how to customize icons pinned to the taskbar, but rather the icons of active programs - specifically Chrome

There's not a single resource within the exe that contains the default icon, yet it continues to use the default icon

Solution 1:

1. Download and install ResHacker.
2. Open ResHacker as administrator and click File > Open and choose the exe file.
3. Click on the icon folder then on one of the subfolders there and then on a file inside the subfolder
4. Right click on it and choose Replace Resource...
5. A dialog will appear, choose the icon you want to replace from the list on the right.
6. Click Open file with new icon and choose the icon you want.
7. Click Replace.

8. Click File > Save.

   • It has to be as administrator so it could write changes to files inside program files.
   • Note that ResHacker also renames the original file to filename_original.
   • If for some reason you can't write to Program Files, Just do a Save As..., save the exe file somewhere else and replace it later.

Edit: To summarize all the comments below - sometimes the application uses the resources of external dll (and theoratically, exe) file. So, if you change the icons in the exe and it's not working, check the application dll files and replace the icon there too.