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Windows 7 Folder Background Changer personalizes Explorer views
Ages ago (Hello, Windows 98!), changing individual folder backgrounds in Windows was possible using a built-in tool. While the Customize Folder Wizard is long gone, Windows Club has a free, portable download you can use to give your Explorer views a more personal feel.
Download Windows 7 Folder Background Changer, browse for the folder you want to customize (I've pointed it to my Pictures folder), and then choose an image you want to use. You'll probably want to stick to something light, otherwise you might not be able to read your file and folder names -- unless, of course, you're already using an inverted color scheme.
FBC can also apply your image to all the subfolders and enable drop shadows beneath text. The effect doesn't work with Libraries, unfortunately -- even if you drill down to an included folder for which you've set a background. The image will only display if you access the folder directly (C:\Users\Lee\Pictures\).
That shortcoming aside, it's still a nice way to personalize your Windows 7 install. Windows 7 Folder Background changer works on both 32 and 64-bit Windows 7 systems.
Download Windows 7 Folder Background Changer, browse for the folder you want to customize (I've pointed it to my Pictures folder), and then choose an image you want to use. You'll probably want to stick to something light, otherwise you might not be able to read your file and folder names -- unless, of course, you're already using an inverted color scheme.
FBC can also apply your image to all the subfolders and enable drop shadows beneath text. The effect doesn't work with Libraries, unfortunately -- even if you drill down to an included folder for which you've set a background. The image will only display if you access the folder directly (C:\Users\Lee\Pictures\).
That shortcoming aside, it's still a nice way to personalize your Windows 7 install. Windows 7 Folder Background changer works on both 32 and 64-bit Windows 7 systems.
Comments
5
Subscribe to commentsRuben SchadeJun 7th 2010 11:32AM
I seem to recall Microsoft officially introduced similar functionality with Windows Me in the Explorer shell, then removed it in subsequent versions for some reason. OS X has been able to since the public beta, AFAIK.
At my school we used to go around changing all the backgrounds to black so other people couldn't read the folder names :).
StormtrooprDaveJun 7th 2010 12:48PM
What I really want is to be able to change individual folder icons like I could in linux
robin_rosengrenJun 7th 2010 2:55PM
There might be other programs who can do this, but the only one I know of is TuneUp Utilities. It's a neat function but certainly not worth the 50$ they want for the program. But they have a free 30 day trail...
danielkzaJun 7th 2010 4:39PM
You can do it with a bit of patience.
1) Convert your image to an ICO (I recommend IcoFX for the task). From now I'll assume it's called 'folder.ico'.
2) Create 'desktop.ini' in the target folder, and give it the following text:
[.ShellClassInfo]
ConfirmFileOp=0
IconFile=folder.ico
IconIndex=0
3) Give the folder the read-only attribute. It won't actually prevent you from creating, deleting or modifying files, but it's needed for the icon to show up. What I do is open a command prompt in the folder through Explorer, and run the following command:
attrib +r .
4) Sometimes Explorer takes a while to catch up on the new icon. If you're impatient, you can try logging off.
Here's an screenshot showing it:
http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/3512/57147117.jpg
StormtrooprDaveJun 7th 2010 4:57PM
i Just discovered a totally simple way of doing it with no extra programs at all. Open your folder, right click anywhere inside and click customize this folder. On the customise tab you can simply click change folder icon at the bottom and point it to the new .ico.
Here is a quick shot I did with the utorrent folder to illustrate:
http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/361/capturesqm.jpg
This is on Windows 7 by the way.