Add an Icon to your Flash drive

[Midknyte]

Ever have a hard time figuring out which drive is your flash drive? This is especially true when you're working on someone else's computer. Many systems come with multiformat card readers now. Sometimes there are 5 or 6 removable devices! So how do you know which one is your flash drive?

To remedy this, you can add a custom icon.

1. Create a autorun.inf file with the following lines:
[autorun]
ICON=youricon.ico

2. Create the icon file:
Download one or make your own from a bitmap. I recommend an icon of 32x32 at 256 color for general compatibility. You won't be able to see much detail anyway, so just keep it simple.

@iconsushi (http://www.towofu.net/soft/e-aicon.php) and IcoFX (http://icofx.ro/downloads.html) are good freeware icon editors.

3. Put both files on the flash drive. You must keep autorun.inf in the root directory. You can put .ico files in a folder. Just change the path to ICON=foldername\youricon.ico

You can grab some free icons here:
http://www.iconarchive.com/
http://iconfactory.com/freeware/
http://www.iconspedia.com/

It's just a little tweak to make your life easier. :t

[PhoenixCo]

I did everything you said to do in the Thread, but mine doesn't work. Do you know the source of the problem?

Thx

[naptownman]

Too cool!. Thanks, Midknyte.

[Midknyte]

I did everything you said to do in the Thread, but mine doesn't work. Do you know the source of the problem?

Thx

what did you do exactly? you need an ico file and an autorun.inf file. put both files in the root of the drive first. the path in the autorun.inf should be [autorun]
ICON=youricon.ico

what OS are you using? it works well in XP, but doesn't always seem to work in win2k for some reason.

[PhoenixCo]

I got my icon from the net and downloaded it straight to my Flash Drive (B:\), then I put it into a folder called "Icons" (B:\Icons). Next, I typed up the file:

[autorun]
ICON=Icons\Fry.ico

and saved it as "autorun.inf" (without the "). Maybe it's because I hid the "autorun" file?

Thx

[Midknyte]

what do you mean you hid the file? autorun.inf has to be in the ROOT of the drive. you cannot put the autorun.inf in your icons folder

are you sure saved it as an inf and not a txt?

[PhoenixCo]

Thx for your help but I works now. I removed my flash drive and put it in again and now the icon is there.

Thx

[Midknyte]

uh yeah. you have to allow windows to run the autorun.inf. if the drive is already plugged in, it won't run the autorun.inf.

[AllGamer]

On a related note.

Anyone Knows how MAC does it?
i've had my portable drive used in MAC/PC

and after you finish using the drive in MAC and connect it to the PC
those folders keeps the MAC icon, yet you check the directories/drive

there are no images files anywhere.

Where are those pictures stored at???

and more importantly how does the MAC does that?, cuz it's a lot cooler than the way Windows works :D

[fizur2002]

worked for me, thanks