You probably already know how to create custom icons for your local hard drive or CD, but did you know that there is also an easy way to create custom icons for USB drives? You can set up your USB drive so that whenever you plug it into your PC, it displays with a custom icon and custom label instead of the default removable disk icon that Windows uses.
In this article, I will show you how to create your own USB drive icon. Please note that this procedure will work for anything that uses the AutoPlay feature in Windows, such as CDs, DVDs, external hard drives, etc.
Step 1. The first thing you need to do is either find the .ICO file on your computer or on the Internet that you would like to use, or create your own ICO file from the image. If you want something really fast, you can open File Explorer and just search for * .ICO.
It’s also worth noting that Google search has some great icon search functionality. Go to google image search and enter the keyword filetype: ico where the keyword is the kind of icon you are looking for.
You will get many results for icons of all sizes and types, but the great thing is that you can filter the search results by size, type, time, color, etc. In this case, you need to select “Exactly fit ”and then enter 64 for the width and height. I tried to use a size less than 64×64, but it didn’t work on Windows 7. It looks like the minimum icon file size should be 64×64 pixels.
Step 2: Once you have an icon file that can be used for a USB stick, then we need to create a so called Autorun.inf file. Basically, this is a configuration file that is automatically recognized by all versions of Windows and which will be used to configure the connected device. To create a file, first open Notepad.
Step 3. Now copy the below text and paste it into the Notepad file.
[autorun]
label = Aseem Drive
icon = autorun.ico
If you are only interested in a custom icon, you can simply completely remove the second line that starts with the label. Otherwise, you can just enter whatever you want here. It seems you can also add a label with spaces or even an apostrophe and it still works. If you’re having trouble using a complex label, try enclosing it in quotes.
As you can see from the third line, the file simply tells Windows the name of the icon file it wants to use as the drive icon. In fact, you can change the name of the icon file, if you like, to anything, if you put the same name in the third line of the autorun.inf file.
Step 4: Now that you have the file ready, we need to save it correctly as an INF file. To do this, click File – Save. In the Save dialog box, you need to change two things. First, click the dropdown next to “Save as type” and select “All Files.” Then enter autorun.inf in the File Name field.
Now don’t forget to save this file to the root of your device. Once you’ve done that, copy the ICO file to the root of your flash drive. That’s all you need to do to set it up. Go ahead, remove the USB stick and then plug it back in. If everything is working correctly, the new custom icon and custom label should now appear in Explorer:
Also, if you don’t like the fact that both of these files are automatically displayed when you open the flash drive, you can simply right-click them, select Properties, and check the Hidden checkbox at the bottom.
This is it! Now, when you plug your USB drive into your computer or any other computer, you will see your own icon and label! You can also try this technique for other auto-start devices like cameras, MP3 players, CD / DVDs, and more! If you have any questions, please leave a comment. Enjoy!
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