Can I get the black and white 7zip filetype icons back?

Question

I've been using 7-zip for a long time. Any archive that 7-zip recognizes was given a black and white [7z] icon. I just switched from Win7 32 bit to Win7 64 bit, and when I reinstalled 7-zip all of the recognized archives have different icons. They look like folders with a small blue text character on it. I don't like these at all. For me they are easy to confuse with folders and other stuff. The black and white icons from before were very easily distinguishable from other file types and I liked that.

I figured this was due to a newer version of 7-zip so I reinstalled an older version that I've had stored for a long time but the icons still haven't reverted back to the black and white ones that I am used to.

I did find a utility called File Types Manager that can change the icons for specific file types, but it seems as though that still only lets me change the icon for a single file extension at a time (and as of now 7-zip is associated with 35 extensions) rather than on a per-application basis.

I'd like to get the other black and white icons back. Can anybody help me with this?

Answer 1

If you're sure the older version used the icons you liked, you can try rebuilding Windows' icon cache.

Alternately, you can reinstall the latest version (preferable) and use something like the 7-Zip Theme Manager to easily change the icons and much more besides, instead of manually editing the DLLs using Resource Hacker or similar:

I'm sure there are some themes in there with icons you'd like, and perhaps even themes that include the older icons. If not, you can always try creating your own theme using the icons extracted from the older version of the program's DLL.

Answer 2

I ended up here while Google-ing for an answer to the same question, and I've figured it out. I am assuming you were trying to get this icon as the icons on compressed archives.

You get the boring yellow archive files with the blue letter in the corner if you tell 7zip to associate itself with the file extensions. If you remove those associations and then right-click --> Properties on a compressed archive, then click the "Change..." button next to "Opens with:" and select 7zFM.exe (wherever you installed 7zip, C:\Program Files\7zip\ by default), it will associate those archives to 7zip, but it will use 7zFM's icon on those compressed archives rather than the yellow/blue ones you get when you associate 7zip to archives from within 7zip's settings.

Answer two years late on an old question, but if I landed here on the first page of Google trying to find an answer to this, then surely somebody else will, too.

Answer 3

Try what this website says http://www.techsnack.net/how-to-modify-7zip-file-extensions-icon The website has pictures.

Before you start, you need to know the path to 7zip. Normally, it is “C:\Program Files\7-Zip”. After that, you need an application called “Resource Hacker”, which is free. You can download Reosurce Hacker from here. After you prepare everything, lets start to modify the icons.

Steps 1

Open Resource Hacker. Click File -> Open. Browse to your 7zip folder. Mine is “C:\Program Files\7-Zip”. After that, choose “7z.dll” and click Open.

Step 2

Expand the Icon Group. You will get around 16 nodes.

Step 3

Expand the first node (0). Click “1033″. You will see the 7zip icon appear. Right click “1033″ and choose “Replace Resource“.

Step 4

Click “Open file with new icon” to select your icon file.

Step 5

After that, You can select icon to replace from the right listbox. Press “Replace” when done. Repeat this step to change the other icons.