Fun with IconPackager

A lot of people don't realize how cool IconPackager is. Heck, a lot of people don't even know what IconPackager is.

Let me start at the beginning:

IconPackager is a program for letting you change virtually all your Windows icons. Microsoft's "themes" can only change a handful.  IconPackager was the first program to go beyond that to change nearly all your icons. It was actually quite difficult to develop because early on Windows did not cooperate with that sort of thing but it has gotten better over time. But because it was first and supports all the versions of Windows, IconPackager is by far the most popular and most complete and most supported way of changing your Windows icons.

Put simply, if you are sick of your standard Windows icons, IconPackager is the way to change them.

IconPackager's main interface

But like I said, most people don't realize just how cool IconPackager is. Most people who use it just use it to apply icon packages and stop there. But the full version also adds an "Icon" tab to every file on Windows. So seamless was this that it took me a bit to verify that this wasn't just a "native" part of Windows. That's probably why so many people don't realize that it's IconPackager adding this, it looks like it's part of Windows:

Right click on a file in Windows from Explorer and you will see a new tab "icon"

One feature I suspect very few people are aware of is that IconPackager can actually change the icons of individual programs. I'm not talking about short-cuts (Windows lets you change the icons of shortcuts). I'm talking about changing the icon of an actual program. As someone stuck with tons of nasty looking program icons (what is it with software developers and ugly low resolution icons in the year 2004???) this is a big deal to me. I don't like nasty looking icons. I don't like having my system just so and then see some 32x32 icon made by some coder that is being resized to 48x48 that looks just awful.

Here it is in action. Okay, Contego is something we're working on and so it's our ugly icon. But look, I can go and browse and find something else and replace it. This is the actual directory, not a short-cut.

Many people who use IconPackager day in and day out probably have no idea just how much it has advanced. With the release of IconDeveloper, things have gotten even better because now it's easier to just create your own icons and then replace them via IconPackager.

Lemme give you an example of the type of thing that drives me nuts, even with icon packages -- FILE TYPES. I'll be browsing through my stuff and I'll see .WBA files or .CDR files or whatever and they will look incredibly awful. I.e. you will get the standard Windows file icon with a 16x16 version of the program pasted on top of it. What's up with that? That sucks. But with IconPackager and can go and change all that and it definitely makes things nicer.

I'm sure you've seen what I mean. Take my new system. I installed Corel Draw and opened up a folder with some .CDR files...

Yikes that's nasty. This is exactly the type of polish thing that Mac users point to when saying why they prefer Macs. Of course, Object Desktop (let alone IconPackager) is a lot cheaper than buying a Mac.

IconPackager lets you just right-click on one of those files and choose a different icon for them.

Much better...

I don't usually write about IconPackager because it's such a staple. It's been around for so long and its evolution, while dramatic overall, has been gradual when you're dealing with this stuff day in and day out. But it's really one of those basic utilities that many (if not most) PC users who are in front of their machines all day may find useful for them. Changing your icons to ones you prefer is a very basic customization option. Those who would scoff at such customization should be reminded that everything else in our lives comes in different sizes and shapes based on our tastes, why shouldn't our desktops?