Change the Icon of Removable Drives

Does your USB flash drive have a boring, generic icon that you would like to change? Do you want the new icon to show on whatever computer you use, so registry editing is not an option? Using an Autorun file is your solution.

Steps

  1. Create your icon, or find one online. A good size is 34 pixels square.
  2. Open Notepad to create your Autorun file.
  3. Type [AutoRun] in the first line.
  4. Name your drive in the second line: label=Name
  5. Specify your icon in the third line: ICON=your-icon-file.ico. If you wanted to call your drive "My USB Drive" with an icon named "myusbdrive.ico"
  6. Click File, then Save As. Change the file type to "All" and name it AUTORUN.inf
  7. Your autorun.inf file would look like this:
    • [AutoRun]
      label=My USB Drive
      ICON=myusbdrive.ico
  8. Keep in mind that the ICON name should match the name of the icon you wish to use.
  9. Note:
    • Depending on the label you choose, and the location of your icon file, you may need to wrap the label and folder names in quotes (") to handle long filenames.
    • It has been reported that on some systems your ".INF" file extension may need to be capitalized in order to work.
  10. Ensure that both your autorun.inf and any .ico files are in the ROOT of your removable drive, instead of a folder, unless you have specified the correct folder for the icon in your .inf file.



Tips

  • You will need to remove the drive, then plug it back in to see the changes.
  • If the AUTORUN.inf and icon files are an eyesore, you can hide them (right click, click Properties, check the "Hidden" box).
  • This also works on internal hard drives, cd-rs, and any other drives that support Autorun.
  • This is a great way to get past the "11 Character Drive Name" restriction.
  • If you have a .PNG image which you wish to set as your drive icon, visit an icon conversion site, upload the file, then download the converted file in .ICO format. Use the converted file as the icon of your drive.

Warnings

  • Ensure that the icon is saved in the root of the drive, with the autorun file.
  • Make sure you save the autorun file as .inf instead of the default .txt.
  • This Autorun.inf file will not work on a drive where Autorun mode is turned off or where an antivirus program can rename or remove it (ex: Autorun.inf.ren).
  • This does not work on floppy drives, because they have no Autorun feature.

Things You'll Need

  • A removable drive
  • An icon for your drive
  • A text editor, such as Notepad/Notepad++

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

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