Level of Technical Difficulty- Intermediate
Howdy Howdy y'all! I hope everyone is having a great day. But, off chance you're not, I truly hope that your day improves, or this little tutorial will at least be a welcome distraction.
Have you, like myself, long been tired of the standard windows desktop icons, possibly making you mildly grouchy? If so, in this tutorial I will show you how to change them in Windows 10 and 11.
Now, you can be a super cool guy, just like myself.
(Legal Mumbo Jumbo Fine Print)
Actual cool level unmeasurable, if not nonexistent. This tutorial will not guarantee improved coolness, make you male, or improve your life in anyway, but hopefully you had fun, learned something, and enjoy Oscar;)
Now, onto the meat and potatoes.
• First, let's download the Oscar the Grouch Recycle Bin icons from the link here.
• Save the folder containing the Oscar.ico files to your Downloads Folder
( The location you choose save the icon files is your choice. Just remember the location, so you can easily browse to locate the icon files)
• After, finishing downloading the new icons, right-click on the desktop and chooseÂ
• Personalize > Themes.
• In Windows 10 - On the right pane, scroll down and under Related Settings, click Desktop icon settings.
• In Windows 11 - Scroll down, on the bottom pane, and under Related Settings, click Desktop icon settings.
• In Desktop icon settings window, choose the Recycle Bin(full) icon.
• Click on Change icon and browse the location where you saved the Oscar the Grouch Recycle Bin icons folder.
• Choose the Full Oscar icon and click OK.
• Now repeat the same steps for Recycle Bin (empty) icon.
• Click Apply > OK.
•Now you will see Oscar the Grouch appear as your Recycle Bin icon on your Windows desktop.
I wish this was where I say, enjoy Oscar and adieu, but now there are a bit more technical steps to get Oscar to refresh and go back in his can after you empty the trash. "Dagnabbit, Windows update."
Editing the Registry
• Launch Run by pressing the Windows key + R hotkey.
• Input regedit and click OK in Run to open the Registry Editor.
• Next, open this registry key path:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\DefaultIcon
• Select the DefaultIcon key.
• Next, double-click the (Default) string on the right of the Registry Editor to open the window below.
Then repeat the above steps for the empty and full strings in the DefaultIcons key. Then, the empty and full strings should also include ,0 at the end of their value data paths, much the same as the (Default) string as in the image directly below.
You now have a custom Windows Oscar the Grouch Recycle Bin Icon. I hope you enjoy his grouchy company on your desktop. If you have any issues applying the Oscar the Grouch Recycle Bin, feel free to ask any questions you might have. I will try to help as soon and as much as I can. Thanks for stopping by y'all. Until next time, stay healthy, stay safe, Byyyeeee!
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