Can I change icon for Recent Documents?

from WinCustomize Forums
Recent Documents (if activated) is located on the Start menu at the top of the Places section. The icon for Recent Documents does not change when Icon Packager applies an IP. If I right click Recent Documents, there is no context menu. I can't locate it in Windows.

Does anybody know where Recent Documents lives or how to change the icon. This feature can be disabled, but I find it useful at times & would rather keep it-- I just want it skinned...
17,424 views 30 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
bear with me, i was surprised it worked so i may screw this up:

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner - right click on recent documents folder and choose properties - make sure it's not hidden - then customize tab, change icon. After changing it, it stayed the same in the start panel until I opened WB configure and just clicked apply changes, then close. went back to start and voila.
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Do you mean the folder named Recent? I don't see a Recent Documents folder. I unhid everything, including the "protected system files"

I do see a folder under Administrator called My Recent Documents-- will try that one...
Start11 - Customize the Start Menu and Taskbar in Windows 10/11.
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
if you go to C:\Documents and Settings\ do you have a folder for you? Mine's labled 'owner'

inside 'owner' i have a 'recent documents' folder - it was washed out until i right clicked on it and went to properties, then under attributes unchecked hidden. then i went to the customize tab to change the icon.

i'll post a shot in a min
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Mine has that folder only under the Administrator folder in C:\Documents and Settings\
I changed the icon in that one, but I don't think it affects me as the user. There's a separate folder under C:\Documents and Settings\ with my name insetad of Owner. It does not have My Recent Documents for some reason.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
are you using 2 accounts?
do you have recent docs enabled for the start panel in the account with your name?
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Recent document is a hidden file. firstly you have to open explorer go to tools folder options and then click on the view tab and tick show hidden files and folders and click ok. The you will find your recent folder in C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Recent. Username is your name.
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top


I've had show hidden on for so long I forgot about it. Thanks Drunken River Rat.
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I already have it ticked. I'm going to try inactivating it & then reactivate it to see if it will jog it a little.
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Actually it's a radio button. I switched it back to hidden & am going to switch back to unhide to see if it wakes it up or something...(doubt it)
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Nah-- I wonder if I changed something that made it reside somewhere else. I set lots of my temp files to be on partitions other than my C drive. Maybe I redirected it
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
could be maybe
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The folder you are looking for is called recent, it is called My Recent Documents in the start menu. Well it is on mine and i'm using xp pro sp2.
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
There is a folder called Recent-- will change the icon for it to see what happens
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Whoa! Recent does it. I didn't think it was that folder because the contents don't look like the items on the Recent Docs list-- Oh well

Thanks River Rat-- that icon bugged me for a long time. Finally I quit noticing it, & then somebody mentioned it yesterday & it started bugging me all over again!
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Strange that it's called My Recent Documents under Administrator, but just Recent under my username.
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Looks great now


Thanks Drunken River Rat & Bichur!!!
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
LOL-- I DL'd Icon Packager 3.1 today. It skins the Recent Docs icon-- changes it to the IP's default folder icon...
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I dl'd it but have restarted yet.
Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top
On second look, after trying a few IPs, I see that 3.1 skins Recent Docs with a specific icon. If that icon isn't there, it goes w/ the Windows default folder icon, but Recent Docs was covered in most of the IPs I tried-- much better than before...
Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top
yes. a lot of the IPs had them, just as they had extras to manually skin if IP didn't do it.
Reply #25 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Ok, I have the same problem with my recent documents icon not changing. Here's the thing, though. I've found the "recent" folder like you describe above and changed the icon for it manually - but the default windows folder icon still sits there unchanged in the start menu!

Is there anything else I can try?