System Icons - Who still changes them?

I am a big fan of Icon customization. However, in Windows 11 it has become increasingly more difficult. I typically change every icon I can to a custom icon. I use the built-in Windows Properties dialog to change what I can, and I use Nirsoft FileTypesMan which allows changing application icons by extension. 

Where I have issues are Windows Apps, Notepad for example, which don't offer a clean way to change the icon. I can use custom icons for Windows Apps in the Start11 menu, context menus using the Registry settings, but not the taskbar. Also, if Windows Photos is the default image application, you can't assign different icons to file types by their extension. I use thumbnails for document and image icons, so that is not really an issue for me. An interesting note here is that if a .txt or .rtf file is in a OneDrive folder, it will show a thumbnail on the icon. However, if it is in a local only folder, they will only show an icon.

Another annoying issue is that a lot of application icons revert to the default when the app is updated, and the icon has to be changed again.

I also insert shortcuts with custom icons into the system folders for apps I want to display custom icons on the taskbar.
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs, and
C:\Users\user name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs

I used IconPackager with Windows 10 and really liked it, but I have been hesitant to use it with Windows 11 for fear of creating an issue with the Icon Cache. I don't want to have to rebuild it and then assign all my custom icons again.

Hope this information is helpful for you.

Great info, thank You!

I still use Iconpackager on Win 11.

I can change individual Icons as needed.

I make full use of Nexus Ultimate Dock getting Icons from the Icon Directory here at WinCustomize.

I still love changing icons often.

"consistent feeling" is something I avoid. 

Good heads up Jeff T. i will have to try it, i like a consistent feel to my skins.😊