Why can't I change the icons on my desktop?

Try rebuilding the Windows icon cache:

1. Open the Command Prompt as an administrator.
2. Type the following commands. Once done reboot.

      ie4uinit.exe -ClearIconCache
      taskkill /IM explorer.exe /F
      DEL /A /Q "%localappdata%\IconCache.db"
      DEL /A /F /Q "%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer\iconcache*"
      shutdown /r /f /t 00
      
   

Hello,

May I know if the zip file you downloaded has been unzipped? Try to extract the.ico file into a separate folder, and then select from that folder. Make sure the file path is correct.

If that still fails, you can try the following steps to set the icon for a specific application:

Step 1:

Create a subkey named DefaultIcon :

For an application assignment, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT_ProgID_

Step 2:

Assign the DefaultIcon subkey a default value of type REG_SZ that specifies the fully qualified path for the file that contains the icon.

Step 3:

Call the SHChangeNotify function to notify the Shell to update its icon cache.

The following example shows a detailed view of the registry entries that are required for an application icon assignment. The .myp file name extension is first associated with the MyProgram.1 application. The MyProgram.1 ProgID subkey is then assigned the custom default icon（.exe file）.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
   .myp
      (Default) = MyProgram.1
   MyProgram.1
      DefaultIcon
         (Default) = C:\MyDir\MyProgram.exe,2

For more information please refer to: How to Assign a Custom Icon to a File Type - Win32 apps | Microsoft Learn

Best regards

Jacen

—————————————————————————————————

If the Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.