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Windows integration tutorial

Installing an icon pack from this site will change the titlebar icon of Firefox. But the icon in the Windows Start Menu and the icon that appears in the taskbar when Firefox windows become grouped together remain the same. We'd like a quick fix (and hopefully there'll be one soon) but for now you can follow these incredibly fun instructions in order to change your Firefox icon 100% completely.

Software you need

For this adventurous task, we need some adventurous software. First off...

Getting your icon files

OK, first we're gonna get our icon files. Find the icon pack you want on this site, right-click the install link, Save link as, and save the XPI file somewhere you'll find it.

Now open that XPI file with a compression utility such as WinRAR, WinZIP or ZipCentral. You'll probably want the file 'main-window.ico'. It's in the 'default' folder.

Hacking the Firefox executable

Before we start here, please remember that you are modifying the Firefox executable and so *technically* you could corrupt the thing. However, this hasn't happened to me and so er I hope it doesn't happen to you. If it does, well you'll just have to reinstall Firefox or you could restore the original from the backup you just made right NOW of firefox.exe !

Let's fire up Resource Hacker which you just downloaded from the link above. Extract the ResHack.zip file you downloaded, and run 'ResHacker.exe' to start.

Now let's play: File -> Open, and locate your Firefox executable, probably C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe . Open it.

Go to the group 'Icon' then '1' , right-click '1033' and choose 'Replace Resource'.

Now choose 'Open file with new icon', locate the main-window.ico icon file you extracted, and click on 'Open'. Click 'Replace'.

Now here's where you're left to your own device... basically just go through everywhere and wherever you see the Firefox icon in Resource Hacker, just replace that resource with your own icon. Once you're done, click on File, Save and we're done modifying the Firefox executable!

And then we click on the Start Menu and... shock horror, the icon hasn't changed! But Fear Not! We'll now run ItweakU, which you've just installed...

While you're here, note all the interesting things you can do with ItweakU, even in the unregistered version...

Click on 'Desktop' on the left, and then click on the button that says 'Rebuild Icons'. Note that there'll probably be a bit of a pause. Don't freak out, your computer hasn't frozen up on you.

And finally hit OK... and take a peek at your start menu:

And there we have it! A very cool start menu with your very cool icon. Note that the icon in Quick Launch has changed as well. The icons on your desktop and in your 'Programs' menu should have changed as well.

To get your icons back to normal, a reinstall of Firefox should suffice. And finally, *technically* the same should be possible with Mozilla ThunderBird and Mozilla Suite.

Your feedback on this little tutorial and any problems/additional tips you have with regards to it are very welcome and in fact recommended. Let us know how you got along...

User Notes: [?]

If you do not get a response to a question posted in this forum, please try sending a message to the project's mailing list or to the project owner directly.

[1] Submitted by: kotcom on Friday 7th October 2005 at 22:28 -0400

nice ! dude this is very cool toy, thx

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050915 Firefox/1.0.7
[2] Submitted by: Shlomik on Monday 14th November 2005 at 14:12 -0500

Very Cool! thnks

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050915 Firefox/1.0.7
[3] Submitted by: Josh on Tuesday 6th December 2005 at 22:15 -0500

What Windows XP theme is that?!

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5
[4] Submitted by: vallarino3 on Thursday 15th December 2005 at 12:41 -0500

very cool

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win 9x 4.90; en-US; rv:1.7.5) Gecko/20041220 K-Meleon/0.9
[5] Submitted by: - on Friday 16th December 2005 at 14:36 -0500
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5
[6] Submitted by: Gino on Monday 16th January 2006 at 06:12 -0500

Bello!!!

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)
[7] Submitted by: tyzin on Sunday 5th February 2006 at 13:27 -0500

hey!
how to uninstal this?

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; pl; rv:1.8.0.1) Gecko/20060111 Firefox/1.5.0.1
[8] Submitted by: Tyzin on Sunday 5th February 2006 at 13:34 -0500

I've installed xpi file. Now I want to uninstall it but I cannot find it in extensions list. Can anyone help me? How can I uninstall this icon?
Thx!

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; pl; rv:1.8.0.1) Gecko/20060111 Firefox/1.5.0.1
[9] Submitted by: - on Sunday 5th February 2006 at 15:54 -0500

Use uninstall link on the home page of this website

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8) Gecko/20051111 Firefox/1.5
[10] Submitted by: tyzin on Monday 6th February 2006 at 04:09 -0500

thanks I havn't noticed that:)

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; pl; rv:1.8.0.1) Gecko/20060111 Firefox/1.5.0.1
[11] Submitted by: Buck65 on Monday 6th February 2006 at 21:46 -0500

I followed the prodedure to the letter but I keep getting "cannot rename the original file. Saving cancelled" can someone please tell me what's going on. I've evn tried to use differnt files but I get the same error message.Thanks a bunch.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050915 Firefox/1.0.7
[12] Submitted by: Buck65 on Monday 6th February 2006 at 21:47 -0500

Oh....and these icons are awesome, I hope to some day make a contribution of my own. Good work!!

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050915 Firefox/1.0.7
[13] Submitted by: - on Tuesday 7th February 2006 at 12:43 -0500

Is Firefox running when you do this? Also check firefox.exe isn't running by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete, then choosing Processes. Glad you like the icons :-)

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.1) Gecko/20060111 Firefox/1.5.0.1
[14] Submitted by: Erdam on Wednesday 8th February 2006 at 21:13 -0500

Much thanks worked without a hitch. I muchly enjoy the new icons!

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.1) Gecko/20060111 Firefox/1.5.0.1
[15] Submitted by: Chris on Wednesday 12th April 2006 at 09:41 -0400

I did this with Firefox, very nice. I then tried the same with thunderbird and it worked fine except in the start menu the icon didn't change. Any ideas? The desktop changed fine and I've redone the process yet the start menu icon stays the same?

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.1) Gecko/20060111 Firefox/1.5.0.1
[16] Submitted by: Chris on Thursday 13th April 2006 at 07:51 -0400

I solved the problem. Thunderbird was being saved twice for some reason, one with the original icons. It was this version that was still in the start menu. I just deleted this version of thunderbird and the problem was solved. :)

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.1) Gecko/20060111 Firefox/1.5.0.1
[17] Submitted by: Domino on Saturday 25th November 2006 at 03:17 -0800

I used this protocol on my former version of Firefox 1.5 and it worked great. I just upgraded to Firefox 2.0 and the process worked great and easy again. I'm not sure but I thought that when I used this process with 1.5, the little icon in the taskbar changed as well as the desktop, start menu, and 'programs' menu. All of my icons have changed to the desired icons except for the taskbar icon. Was I just imagining that this icon changed when I did it to 1.5?

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0
[18] Submitted by: Domino on Saturday 25th November 2006 at 03:19 -0800

Oh, yeah....This process worked great for the stubborn Microsoft office icons as well. I've been trying to change those for awhile. Thanks again!!!

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0
[19] Submitted by: - on Saturday 25th November 2006 at 09:53 -0800

Hi Domino,
If you have several Firefox windows open and they become grouped together in the taskbar, the default Firefox icon appears. Does the icon change if you only have one Firefox window open?

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0
[20] Submitted by: Kyle on Tuesday 6th February 2007 at 12:02 -0800

Thanks man that does the trick!

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20061204 Firefox/2.0.0.1
[21] Submitted by: Antonio on Tuesday 6th March 2007 at 16:57 -0800

Awesoem! but now I have a firefox icon on my desktop and I can't deleat or rename!?! Some help will bbe very usefull.:(

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727)
[22] Submitted by: - on Wednesday 7th March 2007 at 07:20 -0800

What do you mean you can't delete an icon on your desktop? Do you get any error messages?

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.2) Gecko/20070219 Firefox/2.0.0.2
[23] Submitted by: kobefan24dimo on Friday 22nd June 2007 at 09:35 -0700

how do you change your icon

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; America Online Browser 1.1; rev1.2; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
[24] Submitted by: - on Saturday 23rd June 2007 at 13:53 -0700

re: comment 23, you must use firefox or seamonkey browsers, not AOL

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070515 Firefox/2.0.0.4
[25] Submitted by: jannah on Tuesday 3rd July 2007 at 20:15 -0700

Hi, my taskbar icon didnt change. Is it suppose to change?

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070515 Firefox/2.0.0.4
[26] Submitted by: - on Sunday 8th July 2007 at 14:57 -0700

Yes it is. Did you rebuild the icon cache with ItweakU?

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070515 Firefox/2.0.0.4
[27] Submitted by: ken on Friday 17th August 2007 at 22:31 -0700

thanks. nice tut

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.6) Gecko/20070725 Firefox/2.0 MEGAUPLOAD 1.0
[28] Submitted by: tiago on Wednesday 28th November 2007 at 07:21 -0800

hi, great job! just a simple to a probly complicated answer!

i opened firefox and the main window in google home page the original firefox icon did not change :(
how do i change this to the new icon so i change it complitly?? thank! tiago_alexandre@hotmail.co.uk

Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1)
[29] Submitted by: EternalZero2b1 on Tuesday 25th December 2007 at 15:42 -0800

Hmm...It works perfectly for a while (about 30 minutes), then for some reason my desktop icon always reverts back to the default. The browser and start menu icons stay though; it's just the desktop icon that changes.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071127 Firefox/2.0.0.11 Creative ZENcast v2.00.14

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