Why are so many icon and bitmap resources stored so many times?

[Doctor Trout]

I've been trying to reghack some windows files to change icons. At the moment I'm trying to swap my recycle bin icon for a new one.

Anywya, I've been through shell32.dll and swapped all the recycle bin icons for my new one. But, it still isn't working? Is there something else I need to swap? Or do I need to delete iconcache.db in C:\Documents and Settings\USER\Local Settings\Application Data to make it regenerate or something?

Also, while I'm here, I was wondering - why on earth are the icons stored so many times in the dll files? I mean, take the background for the shut down button. That' stored in msgina.dll twice and shell32.dll twice as well. Why isn't it only there once? Do we have to keep all these multiple resources? I've always replaced all of them, but, would it be possible to remove some of them, and, if so, which ones?

[coyotewrw]

Try changing the Recycle Bin icon in explorer.exe, that might work. BTW, if you've changed your "closed" and "open" folder icons in shell32.dll, be sure to also change the "closed" folder icon in explorer.exe, otherwise you'll keep seeing the default yellow folders in dialogs, etc.

I've also often wondered about why the same icons are scattered throughout the system files, especially after modding close to a hundred of them. I suspect the MS engineers would say it's a programming thing.

I think those same engineers would strongly advise against removing duplicate icons, bitmaps, etc. Good or bad, they probably put them there for a reason.

[c0ncept]

Not sure if you are still having trouble changing your Recycling Bin icon, but here's an easy way to do it:

Right-click on your desktop, go to Properties, Desktop tab, then click Customize Desktop. Under the General tab, you'll see a sidescrolling list of icons. Select your Recycle Bin and click Change Icon (for both Full and Empty). Simple!

[mazin]

Under the General tab, you'll see a sidescrolling list of icons.

They want to replace that list of icons.

[c0ncept]

They want to replace that list of icons.

After you replace the icons in shell32.dll (and possibly explorer.exe) use TweakUI to rebuild the icon cache and then your icons will change.