Add Change Icon to Library Context Menu in Windows 10

You can add Change Icon to a library's context menu in Windows 10. The Change Icon command in the right-click menu will allow you to change the icon of a library without having to open the library's properties dialog. Here is how you can do this.

The Change Icon command can be added to a library's context menu in File Explorer with a simple Registry tweak. Once you apply the tweak, you won't need to open the Properties of the selected library to change its icon. Instead, you can change it directly from the context menu.

Add Change Icon to Library Context Menu in Windows 10
Note: In Windows 10 and Windows 8.1, the ability to change the icon of a library is limited only to custom libraries created by users. Out-of-the-box, the operating system doesn't allow the user to change the icon of its built-in default libraries. To bypass this limitation, refer to the following article: Change Icons of Default Libraries in Windows 10.

In our previous article, we saw how to add any Ribbon command to the Context menu in Windows 10. See

How to add any Ribbon command to the right click menu in Windows 10

In short, all the Ribbon commands are stored under the Registry key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CommandStore\shell

You can export the desired command and modify the exported *.Reg in order to add it to the context menu of files, folders, or any other object visible in File Explorer. In our case, we need the command named "Windows.LibraryChangeIcon".

Here are the contents of the *.reg file that you need to apply to get the Change Icon command in the Library's context menu.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell\Windows.LibraryChangeIcon]
"CommandStateSync"=""
"ExplorerCommandHandler"="{6aa17c06-0c75-4006-81a9-57927e77ae87}"
"Icon"="imageres.dll,-5357"


[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell\Windows.LibraryChangeIcon]
"CommandStateSync"=""
"ExplorerCommandHandler"="{6aa17c06-0c75-4006-81a9-57927e77ae87}"
"Icon"="imageres.dll,-5357"


[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\LibraryFolder\background\shell\Windows.LibraryChangeIcon]
"CommandStateSync"=""
"ExplorerCommandHandler"="{6aa17c06-0c75-4006-81a9-57927e77ae87}"
"Icon"="imageres.dll,-5357"

Run Notepad. Copy and paste the text above into a new document.

In Notepad, press Ctrl + S or execute the File - Save item in the menu. This will open the Save dialog.

There, type or copy-paste the following name "LibraryChangeIcon.reg" including quotes. Double quotes are important to ensure that the file will get the "*.reg" extension and not *.reg.txt. You can save the file to any desired location, for example, you can put it in your Desktop folder.

Now, double-click the file LibraryChangeIcon.reg that you created. Confirm the UAC prompt and click Yes to merge it into the Registry.

The command will appear in the context menu of a library. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, it won't be available for default libraries:

But for custom libraries, it will allow you to change the library icon with just one click.

It will also be available in the library's background context menu.

The command will open the following dialog:

There, you can select a new icon for your library.

Note: If you click the Cancel button or close the dialog, it will show the following error message:You can just ignore it.

To save your time, I made ready-to-use Registry files. You can download them here:

Download Registry Files

The undo file is included, so you can avoid manual Registry editing completely.

Alternatively, you can use Context Menu Tuner. It will allow you to add any Ribbon command to the Library context menu.

Select "Windows.LibraryChangeIcon" in the list of available commands, select "Library" in the right list and click the "Add" button. You can get the app here:

Download Context Menu Tuner

That's it.