Make your folders easier to identify
What you need: Folder Painter; Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 Time required: 20 minutes
When you have a File Explorer window full of folders, each coloured the same default yellow, it can be tricky to work out which is which. And while Windows lets you change their appearance, it’s a convoluted process (right-click the folder, Properties, Customise, Change Icon, then choose from a limited range of icons). Worse still, you can’t set a batch of folders to use the same icon – you have to change each individually. As we show you here, Folder Painter lets you quickly customise all your folders, including applying a different colour and assigning a new icon.
STEP 1
Download Folder Painter by going to www. snipca.com/34927, then scrolling down the page until you reach a grey Download button 1 . Click this, then wait for the download to complete. Open the
ZIP file, click ‘Extract all’ 2 , then choose where to save the files. Next, double-click ‘Folderpainter_x64.exe’ - if it doesn’t run, it’s probably because you’re running 32bit Windows, in which case double-click the ‘Folderpainter. exe’ file instead.
STEP 2
The main Folder Painter window will now appear. It features a variety of folder styles, split into three sets of icons. Each set has up to 14 folder styles. By default, only the top set is selected 1 , but if you want a greater choice scroll down and tick the other two. Confusingly, these all have the same name (Change Folder Icon). To change this, click each set in turn, typing a new name in the Context Menu Name box 2 for each. When you’ve finished, click Install 3 - this adds Folder Painter menus to your right-click menu. You’ll hear a beep when the installation process has finished.
STEP 3
Open a File Explorer window (press Windows key+e), then navigate to the folders you want to change. Rightclick one and you’ll see a new Change Folder Icon option (or whatever you renamed it in Step 3). If you installed the other sets in Step 3, you’ll also see these options 1 . Select one, then choose which colour/style/icon you want to use for your folder 2 . If the folder’s appearance doesn’t change, press F5 to refresh the File Explorer window. And if you want to apply the same style to multiple folders, just hold down the Ctrl key while selecting them, right-click, then choose an option.
STEP 4
Folder Painter includes two additional options. If you like to keep your right-click menu as tidy as possible, tick the ‘Use Shift Key…’ option 1 . This means you’ll only see the Folder Painter option if you hold down the Shift key while right-clicking a folder. The ‘Copy icon while in folder’ option 2 means Folder Painter will save a copy of the icon in the folder you’re changing. This is particularly useful for USB sticks as it means they will keep their new icon styles even when used on other computers. Note that the settings only apply to the icon set currently selected, so you’ll need to repeat them if you use more than one set. Click Install to save your changes.
STEP 5
Folder Painter lets you create your own icon sets. To do this, first click Add New Menu 1 from the main Folder Painter window, then rename the menu as explained in Step 2. Next, you need to find suitable icons. There are plenty available for free online, including at www.iconarchive.com. Just make sure you download these as ICO files 2 (the format used by Windows and Folder Painter).
STEP 6
Once you’ve collected your icons (remember, each menu can have up to 14), return to Folder Painter and select the first icon in the set 1 . This will have a default name of Icon 1, so change this to something more suitable in the Context Menu Name box 2 . In the Target Icon section, click the three horizontal dots 3 , then locate the appropriate icon from those you downloaded in Step 5. Repeat this for the remaining icons you downloaded, then click Install to save your changes. You’ll now see a menu for your new icon set when rightclicking a folder.
STEP 7
Don’t worry if you regret changing some of your folders. To return any folder to its original Windows style, right-click it, select the Folder Painter menu, then click Default Folder Icon 1 (you can do this on a batch of folders if required). Alternatively, to reset all folders to their defaults, click Uninstall 2 in the main Folder Painter window (if you later reinstall the program, your icons will return). Note that this won’t change folders that have the ‘Copy icon while in folder’ setting enabled (as described in Step 4). For these, you’ll need to right-click them and select Default Folder as above.