Changing Windows 8 file type icon

Solution 1:

There is really simple program called Default Programs Editor available to download from here. It works good also for Windows 8.1 (not sure for Win 8).

Solution 2:

If what you really want is to edit the registry, you first need to make sure what Prog ID your file type is using. You can do so by navigating to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.[ext]\UserChoice (where [ext] is the file extension you are looking for)

Then copy the value for Progid. If said value is not set there, then navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.[ext] and copy the value set for (default).

Next thing is to navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\[progid]\DefaultIcon (where [progid] is the value you obtained earlier). If the DefaultIcon key is missing, you need to create it.

Finally, set the (default) value to whatever you want and restart explorer.exe with task manager. You can also log off and back in or restart, but this is the most efficient way.

Hope that helps.

Solution 3:

Changing the DefaultIcon for .css or .js files in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CSSfile and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\JSFile has no effect.

Adding a DefaultIcon key to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CSSfile did nothing either, and I was reluctant about experimenting by adding it elsewhere in case I broke something.

what you did here is changing the icon based on application icon assignment

So from my understanding, you are looking for a file-type icon assignment. You want the file name extension to dictate the icon assignment not the application itself even thought the name extension is associated with the same application

For your case (.js and .css extension)

1. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ .js
2. Create a new key (folder) under .js and name it as DefaultIcon
3. In the newly created key, there is a default string value with value not set in its data. Double click this string value and add the icon path as its value (i.e X:\myiconfolder\customicon.ico)
4. close registry and go into task manager. Under the process tab restart windows explorer process by right clicking on the process and choosing restart
5. Do the same thing for .css file extension

Tell me whether this is working