Changing Explorer.exe Icon

[J-Sickness]

Good day,

Im currently running the "HUD Machine Red" for windows 10 (http://virtualcustoms.net/showthread.php/77766-HUD-Machine-Red-for-Windows-10-Creators-Update).
At this point i about got everything customized to my liking (excluding the title of windows appears to have a gray box around it... if anyone knows how to remove this please let me know! *its noticeable in the pic below highlighted in blue)
At this point i was attempting to do so research on how to change the file explorer (*explorer.exe) icon...
so far i have the file explorer pinned to my task bar and have attempted (to right click, select file explorer than right click, properties, change icon.... ) however the task bar icon is still not changing and also, when accessing quick access i noticed instead of displaying the quick access icon it is displaying the file explorer icon... honestly not a big deal however if there is a way to customize "it id really like to".
In addition to attempting the above i have installed "resource hacker" in attempts to modify explorer.exe directly however i am unable to replace the exe due to insufficient permission (likely because its running - as i have full admin rights... although i have attempted to end the process tree and even with explorer not running it appears to be blocked) Thus i just wanted to post this up to see if anyone in the community could help...

78887

Thanks in advance,
Jay

[Nimbi]

Good day,

Im currently running the "HUD Machine Red" for windows 10 (http://virtualcustoms.net/showthread.php/77766-HUD-Machine-Red-for-Windows-10-Creators-Update).
At this point i about got everything customized to my liking (excluding the title of windows appears to have a gray box around it... if anyone knows how to remove this please let me know! *its noticeable in the pic below highlighted in blue)
At this point i was attempting to do so research on how to change the file explorer (*explorer.exe) icon...
so far i have the file explorer pinned to my task bar and have attempted (to right click, select file explorer than right click, properties, change icon.... ) however the task bar icon is still not changing and also, when accessing quick access i noticed instead of displaying the quick access icon it is displaying the file explorer icon... honestly not a big deal however if there is a way to customize "it id really like to".
In addition to attempting the above i have installed "resource hacker" in attempts to modify explorer.exe directly however i am unable to replace the exe due to insufficient permission (likely because its running - as i have full admin rights... although i have attempted to end the process tree and even with explorer not running it appears to be blocked) Thus i just wanted to post this up to see if anyone in the community could help...

78887

Thanks in advance,
Jay


That would be the lack of AeroGlass. It seems that theme wasn't built with the workaround Shemhamforash uses in his ports to remove that grey box without needing BigMuscle's AeroGlass mod. You can get it from http://www.glass8.eu

Seeing as that is the Windows 10 CU version it actually is currently supported on that build. AeroGlass simply hasn't been updated for Fall Creators Update yet.

Modern Frame support can be enabled as well, however there's a workaround I had to use to make it work properly in Creators Update. If you use modern apps and want the window frames on those themed as well you'll probably need that workaround.

[gsw953]

Sometimes the pinned Explorer icon in the taskbar does not change instantly,it will after a few computer restarts
or if you want to force it to change without restarting go to
Personalization>Themes>related settings>Desktop icon settings
change anyone of the icons and press apply(you can change it back after)

[CsqU4r3d]

Another way to deal with the grey box (If you like clean title bars with no text) is to install Adobe Blank font and set it as your title bar font with winaero tweaker.

[J-Sickness]

Modern Frame support can be enabled as well, however there's a workaround I had to use to make it work properly in Creators Update. If you use modern apps and want the window frames on those themed as well you'll probably need that workaround.

That would be great... If you find the time, please link me to the workaround if previously posted (as i could not locate it).
However, TBH i just noticed the watermark over the desktop background and while i understand the promotional value... if there is no way to remove it then id rather just deal with the gray box issue :silence:

So at this point i installed AeroGlass then uninstalled it for the time being as i figured it would be the easiest way to attempt CsqU4r3d's idea... i then noticed that it appears (after uninstall) the gray box is now gone :cheeky: not sure exactly how... but ill do a restart to ensure it dosent revert before chalking this up as solved!

78888

@Nimbi Thanks again!

Also, @gsw953 thanks for the info... it finally changed over after using the winaero icon reset function.
&@ CsqU4r3d thanks... i will look into your suggestion as a possible fix if things revert after restarting...


Edit: Update... did a restart... seems like all my issues are fixed... Thank everyone for commenting!

[Nimbi]

That would be great... If you find the time, please link me to the workaround if previously posted (as i could not locate it).
However, TBH i just noticed the watermark over the desktop background and while i understand the promotional value... if there is no way to remove it then id rather just deal with the gray box issue :silence:

So at this point i installed AeroGlass then uninstalled it for the time being as i figured it would be the easiest way to attempt CsqU4r3d's idea... i then noticed that it appears (after uninstall) the gray box is now gone :cheeky: not sure exactly how... but ill do a restart to ensure it dosent revert before chalking this up as solved!

78888

@Nimbi Thanks again!

Also, @gsw953 thanks for the info... it finally changed over after using the winaero icon reset function.
&@ CsqU4r3d thanks... i will look into your suggestion as a possible fix if things revert after restarting...


Edit: Update... did a restart... seems like all my issues are fixed... Thank everyone for commenting!

No prob. Glad to help. As for the watermark. That can be removed with a small donation to BigMuscle. around $3 or $5 is what I've heard is the best to ensure you get your donation key. Once you get that you'll have an account on there that you just paste your machine code into to get your specific symbols. Place the symbols in the AeroGlass install directory and the watermark and startup notification will be gone. As for the workaround you can find that here: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/176668-when-will-there-be-a-version-for-windows-10-1703%EF%BC%9F/?page=9&tab=comments#comment-1143592

The mediafire link in the second post has the files you will need, and instructions on how to apply them. You will also need the Windows Software Development Kit installed for it to work but that's not really hard to find. If you decide you want to use AeroGlass the workaround on that post is what I used. Also, that file generates the appropriate symbols for your system as well so if you use that you will only need the donation key to remove the watermark.

I'm pretty sure it's the symbols that fix the ModernFrame issues tbh. But the watermark is removed by the donation key. I simply don't have a donation key at the moment so that workaround fixes the ModernFrame issue for me. It just doesn't remove the watermark and startup notification since it can't provide a donation key, lol.

Now i was unsure if the latest Windows Software Dvelopment Kit would work with the Windows 10 1703 CU build of AeroGlass since it had something that was removed in favor of something else so I got the version designed specifically for Windows 10 1703 CU.

P.S. Also not to nitpick, but looking closely the grey box is still there, it's just a dark grey box now, lol. But if that works for you then so be it. The ModernFrame support from AeroGlass is simply the only way to get the Universal Apps themed. [so long as your NOT on the Fall Creators Update as it's not supported by AeroGlass yet and there's been suggestions already of ModernFrame being support being dropped in that one, lol.]

[Nimbi]

It seems Winaero Tweaker doesn't apply the Blank font the same way as a reg fil does, lol. The text was removed, but the wierd background stayed behind for me, lol:



78943


I'm guessing reg files are more effective than Winaero Tweaker for this. I've actually seen a few cases where reg files were actually better, lol.

[CsqU4r3d]

I found that if I used "Adobe Blank" it works but if I used any other "Blank" font it wouldn't.

[BobbyJake]

I found that if I used "Adobe Blank" it works but if I used any other "Blank" font it wouldn't.

That's good to know, mate! I actually just updated the 'Nite Shift X (http://virtualcustoms.net/showthread.php/78913-Nite-Shift-X-for-Windows-10-v-1703-1709)' theme with the Adobe Blank font due to the issue Nimbi above is having in the post above yours, so thanks! :-D

[CsqU4r3d]

:Peace:No problem...glad I could help!:smile: