Windows lets you change a folder icon from its Properties dialog, but drives have no such button. There are two ways round it, and which one you want depends on a single question: should the icon follow the drive to other computers, or stay on this one? An autorun.inf file travels with the drive. A registry entry stays with the PC. Both still work in Windows 10 and Windows 11.
Method 1: autorun.inf, so the icon travels
Best for external and USB drives you move between machines.
1. Put your .ico file in the root of the drive — not in a folder. A file such as drive.ico is fine.
2. Open Notepad and type these two lines:
[autorun]
icon=drive.ico
3. Save it into the root of the same drive. In the Save dialog set Save as type to All Files and name it autorun.inf, or Notepad will save it as autorun.inf.txt and nothing will happen.
4. Restart, or unplug and reconnect the drive.
The icon name in the file has to match your icon file exactly. Older guides insist the file must be called abc.ico — that was never true; the name simply has to match the line in the .inf.
Two caveats worth knowing. The .ico must stay on the drive, because the file is a pointer rather than a copy: delete it and the icon reverts. And this changes the icon only. Windows disabled AutoRun’s ability to launch programs from removable media years ago, for good security reasons, so an autorun.inf cannot make anything execute.
Method 2: the registry, for a fixed drive on this PC
Better for internal drives, and it does not require writing anything to the drive itself — useful if the drive is nearly full or read-only.
1. Press Windows + R, type regedit and press Enter.
2. Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\DriveIcons
3. Create a key named after the drive letter in capitals — D for D:.
4. Inside it, create a key named DefaultIcon.
5. Set that key’s (Default) value to the full path of your .ico file, for example C:\Icons\drive.ico.
6. Restart File Explorer or sign out and back in.
If DriveIcons does not exist under Explorer, create it. Editing the registry is worth a moment of care: right-click the Explorer key and choose Export first, so you have a file that puts things back.
Getting a usable .ico file
A renamed PNG will not work. Windows needs a genuine .ico, ideally a multi-resolution one containing 16, 32, 48 and 256 pixel versions, so the drive looks right in the Explorer list and in large-icon view. Converting a square PNG with a free icon converter takes seconds and gives a much better result than a single-size file, which Windows will scale badly.
Keep the icon somewhere permanent. Pointing at a file on the Desktop or in Downloads is how these setups quietly break.
Putting it back
For the autorun method, delete autorun.inf from the drive root. For the registry method, delete the drive-letter key you created under DriveIcons. In both cases restart File Explorer — end Windows Explorer in Task Manager and it restarts itself — and the default icon returns.
Frequently asked questions
Does the autorun.inf method still work in Windows 11?
Yes, for setting a drive icon. What Windows disabled long ago was AutoRun launching programs automatically from removable media; the icon and label directives still apply.
Why did nothing happen after I saved the file?
Almost always because Notepad saved it as autorun.inf.txt. Set Save as type to All Files and check that File Explorer is showing file extensions.
Can I use a PNG or JPG instead of an .ico?
No. Windows requires the .ico format. Renaming a PNG does not convert it — use a converter and keep several sizes inside the file.
Which method should I use?
Use autorun.inf for removable drives you want to look the same everywhere, and the registry for internal drives on a machine you control.
Will this work on a drive I have no write access to?
Not with autorun.inf, which has to be written to the drive. The registry method works because it stores the setting on the PC instead.
Does changing a drive icon affect anything else?
No. It is purely cosmetic — nothing about the drive’s contents, performance or lettering changes.
Related reading
For more Windows housekeeping, see whether disabling search indexing actually speeds up a PC and seven tools for optimising PC performance.
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