In this article you will see how to customize the Windows icons of your hard drives, using autorun.inf. This method works on any version of Windows, including Windows 10.
If usest multiple external drives or have multiple partitions on your hard drives with each one doing a different job and storing different types of data, then you might want to give them your own tags for easy and quick tracking. An even better option besides the name would be to set a custom icon so that you have even faster detection by now having a visual indication of the type of disc.
But let's see how you can do it. Let's take for example a system that contains the C: drive which contains the operating system and preletterthe D: drive which has all your personal data and folders, the E: drive which stores your media files, the F: drive which has backups, and the G: drive which contains a few portable applications that is used occasionally.
To customize the icon of each disk, make one file for each drive and name autorun.inf. Put it at the beginning of each hard drive (or drive if you have partitions) and for each drive specify the name of the icon you want in the following way:
[AUTORUN] Icon = icon_name.ico
The icon can be an .ico file or even an icon contained within an .exe or .dll file. Below you can see a sample autorun.inf file that uses a custom icon named .ico.
Of course at the beginning of the disk, along with the autorun.inf file you will also put the file of the icon you are referring to. Also, if you have a specific folder that stores all the icons, you can type the path of your hard drive within autorun.inf until you reach that folder. But it's better for us to be at the beginning of each disc, especially if it's a removable drive.
If your removable drive already has an autorun.inf file then go to the [AUTORUN] section and simply add (or change if there is) the Icon. Optionally, these two files can be set as "hidden" through the properties of the files so that they do not visually disturb you when viewing the root directory of the drive.
Repeat the above procedure for each Windows drive for which you want to customize its icon.
Restart the Windows and your tray icons need to be changed! Now, see how easy it is to recognize one's discs.
