Using Customizer God to change system icons

The old version of Customizer God I am using doesn't automatically open the dll files, you have to manually open them. Instead of opening the imageres.dll in System32 folder I modify a copy of the imageres.dll.mun in the SystemResources folder. This contains all the system icons, you don't have to mess with shell32.dll which will make you unable to load Windows! If you modify the shell32.dll and you cannot load Windows, don't panic. Boot in recovery mode, open Command Prompt and use the sfc command to restore the original shell32.dll file Been there, done that.

Tip: Customizer God saves a copy of each file before modifying it. So you can just delete the damaged shell32.dll and rename shell32.dll.bak to shell32.dll Of course to do that you still need to boot in recovery mode and open a Command Prompt.

How to replace the system icons without restart:

You copy the .MUN files to another folder since you cannot modify them directly (see previous posts). You change the icons with Customizer God or similar utility. Now you open the C:\Windows folder, navigate to the SystemResources folder and right-click, select Properties. Go to the Security tab. I don't remember to guide you exactly, but you have to change the owner of the folder from TrustedInstaller to Administrators. Then you change access rights for Administrators from Read-list to Full permissions. Having done that, open the SystemResources folder and find the .MUN files you want to replace. In each one of them repeat the above, that is change the owner to Administrators and then give full access to Administrators. This will allow you to modify the files. The files are used by Windows Explorer, so you need a third-party file manager or use the Command Prompt. End task Explorer in Task Manager so the files are released . Then from a third-party file manager or Command Prompt you have to rename the original files (to keep a backup copy) and then copy the modified files into the SystemResources folder. Once ready start a new task, Explorer, and voila! Without restart plus it can be done remotely, confirmed with AnyDesk!

More customization is discussed in this thread: How do you see OEM logo? There we discuss how we can see the good old System Properties (not the modern System Info), so the custom OEM logo is also visible. We change the OEM information, including the logo with Winaero Tweaker and we also modified two .DLL files to replace the blue Windows logo with a custom Windows 11 logo. The second .DLL files shows the Windows 11 logo in winver tool which we also can customize.





The screenshots are from by father's unsupported PC running Windows 11 in Legacy BIOS (MBR) mode, no Secure Boot. no TPM 2.0

spapakons said:

Unlike the .DLL files in C:\Windows\System32 Customizer God cannot modify directly the . MUN files in C:\Windows\SystemResources. So I copied the file imageres.dll.mun to another folder and replaced the icons. Then I restarted in Command prompt to rename the original file for backup and replace it with the modified file. Upon restart, success! Now I have Windows 8.1 system icons in Windows 11. I have not yet figured out which system files I must modify to replace the network and battery icons. Any help appreciated.

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could you please go into detail about how to copy, rename and replace the files? once i've customized them on the copied file on CG, how do i make them Windows use it? do i paste it into C:\Windows\SystemResources?

You first copy the files C:\Windows\SystemResources\Batmeter.dll.mun (power icons), imageres.dll.mun (most system icons), SndVolSSO.dll.mun (sound icons) and stobject.dll.mun (device remove icon) in another folder, such as C:\Temp so you can modify them. You open each file you copied in Customizer God (press CTRL+O) and replace the icons. Click on an icon and use SHIFT or CTRL to select multiple icons for modification. Press CTRL+A to select all the icons. With any changes the file is saved automatically. Now you must change the default owner TrustedInstaller in both the folder C:\Windows\SystemResources and each file in this folder separately (right-click, Properties, Security, Advanced). And you must also change rights for Administrators group to full access. Now you can open a Command Prompt or PowerShell as Administrator. In order to replace the files you must terminate the Explorer process first. Use the appropriate commands to rename the original files and copy the modified ones from C:\Temp. Then execute Explorer to launch File Explorer and close the Command Prompt or PowerShell. You may have to restart to replace all icons.

spapakons said:

You first copy the files C:\Windows\SystemResources\Batmeter.dll.mun (power icons), imageres.dll.mun (most system icons), SndVolSSO.dll.mun (sound icons) and stobject.dll.mun (device remove icon) in another folder, such as C:\Temp so you can modify them. You open each file you copied in Customizer God (press CTRL+O) and replace the icons. Click on an icon and use SHIFT or CTRL to select multiple icons for modification. Press CTRL+A to select all the icons. With any changes the file is saved automatically. Now you must change the default owner TrustedInstaller in both the folder C:\Windows\SystemResources and each file in this folder separately (right-click, Properties, Security, Advanced). And you must also change rights for Administrators group to full access. Now you can open a Command Prompt or PowerShell as Administrator. In order to replace the files you must terminate the Explorer process first. Use the appropriate commands to rename the original files and copy the modified ones from C:\Temp. Then execute Explorer to launch File Explorer and close the Command Prompt or PowerShell. You may have to restart to replace all icons.

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oh! thanks so much for replying to such an old post! could you help me run the commands to replace and rename the files? (i genuinely have no idea what to do there). thank you!

Assuming that all modified files are in C:\Temp and you have granted full access rights to Administrators group, here is the code:

Hello guys.

I would like to replace the complete win11 icons with win7 icons. The topic with the icons is difficult for me to understand. That's why I was hoping to get help from you specialists in this great forum. I copied the corresponding .dll with the images from my earlier win7 system. what is the easiest way to get win11? Extract all .ico and losslessly convert them to .png and then paste them into .mun? I opened a few .dlls from win7 with the resource hacker, but the name of the images as a number is the same for the many .dlls... I also found a program, IPackbulder v2.2, with which you can have everything patched automatically as .exe if you created it. Is that maybe the better option if a Win update should reset the icon?


Many thanks in advance for hopefully a lot of great advice

If you have the respective .dll files (such as imageres.dll) from Windows 7, open them in Customizer God. There is an option to extract all icons from the .dll file to a folder. Create a separate folder for each .dll file, don't mix them because most icons have the same filename and they will be replaced. Now that you have the Windows 7 icons extracted in respective folders as .ico files, you can open the respective Windows 11 .dll file with Customizer God and replace the default icons with those that you extracted. You can press CTRL+A to select all icons and replace them at once. This is possible because each icon was a number such as #1024.ico which is the same number in all Windows versions. Customizer God compares the default icons with those in the folder and replaces as appropriate. As explained in my earlier posts, some .dll files are protected and cannot be modified directly. So you have to make a copy of these files in another folder, modify the copy and then change the owner and access rights of the original files so you can replace them with the modified files. Read my previous posts for instructions. I have successfully replaced most system icons, the sound, network and power icons with the respective ones from Windows 7. Where there are no Windows 7 icons equivalents, I used the Windows 8.1 icons which are also nicer that those of Windows 10/11. A few icons that don't have a Windows 7/8.1 equivalent will remain unchanged, unless you manually change them one by one.

Known issue: By default the network, sound and power icons are grouped together in Windows 11. When they are grouped the modifications don't take effect and you still see the original Windows 11 icons. You must use Explorer Patcher or other tool to ungroup the icons. Also some Windows updates replace the modified .dll files, so you have to change the icons again on the new files. For example after some updates you may see the network or sound icons to be reverted to the original Windows 11 icons. No problem, such repeat the procedure to have the Widows 7 icons back.

Thx for the fast answer


I thought that in win11 the icons are .png in .mun files in to Ressources folder instead being .ico in .dll files and the .dll only links to the .mun?

So i dont have to convert them to .png?

I mean the respective files with .dll.mun extension. These also contain .ico data for the icons, not png. png and bmp are reserved for large banners and logos. The icons are still in .ico format.

I'm in the process of transforming all Wi7 .dll with icons into .res with the "resource hacker" tool to make it easier and more comfortable, especially when a windows update has reset many icons, and to create an easy-to-execute .exe with the program to build "ipackbuilder 2.2". it should be possible to take over the rights for the resource folder with a program like "take ownership" so that there are no problems there. Also, win11 seems to have the option with the ungrouping itself in the settings. but I haven't tried it yet. I'm currently trying to make win11 look like win7 in all areas and I'm slightly overwhelmed.

short question to your post 37. in which .dll is the empty icon 1301?

Windows Update usually affects the network or sound icons. The others are reverted to default only after a major upgrade such as from version 21H2 to 22H2. Which empty icon do you mean? It is probably in imageres.dll.mun in the C:\Windows\SystemResources folder. This cannot be changed directly. Copy it in another folder, modify it and then take ownership and full access of both the folder and the file to replace it.

PS: Don't make the mistake to change all these icons one by one! Select them all and click on Change, then select the folder with the new icons. As long as they have the same numbers, Customizer God replaces them correctly.

spapakons said:

Which empty icon do you mean?

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I want to get rid of the pin arrows from 5100 and 5101. So i wanted to replace them with empty icons

Atom99 said:

I want to get rid of the pin arrows from 5100 and 5101. So i wanted to replace them with empty icons

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I only needed to get rid of those hideous push pin icons in the Navigation Pane!
Just apply a blank ico..., Google it, you'll find one!

Edwin said:

I only needed to get rid of those hideous push pin icons in the Navigation Pane!

Click to expand...

Thats exactly my Plan^^ I figured it out, thx for help.

I think there was a relevant thread in this forum.

Thank you for the many suggestions. customizer god would be the manual and last option for me, so i wanted to try the much simpler automatic ipackbuilder first. It's intended for win10, but works with win11 too. To do this, the .dll must be converted into .res files using the reshacker. then they have to be renamed manually to .dll.res, otherwise the ipackbuilder will patch, but nothing comes out. The great thing about the program is that you don't even have to do take ownership. the program automatically closes the explorer and patches the corresponding files, tested with imageres.dll for the first time. Works perfectly. I don't know how it works without take ownership. The systray icons will still need to be ungrouped, otherwise this won't work. I'll try the rest of the stuff now:

Also, I want to monitor the installation with the logging function of an uninstall tool to make sure that the ipackbuilder is also safe and not messing around

Btw. which .dll did you guys exchange the icons for? There are many, but often with icons that you never see in normal use.

Almost all system icons are in shell32.dll, but DON'T TOUCH THAT! If you modify this file you tamper with the signature and Windows won't load until you restore the original version! A large subset of these icons are also in imageres.dll.mun That you can modify, but not directly due to access rights. You must copy the file in another folder, such as your desktop, modify it and then take ownership of both the containing folder C:\Windows\SystemResources and the file. After you take ownership you must grant Administrators group full access to both the folder and the file. Then you must load a Command Prompt as Administrator, end the Explorer task so it doesn't use the file, and use commands to rename the original file for backup and replace it with the modified file. Once you load Explorer again you should see the replaced system icons. The same procedure must be done for batmeter.dll.mun (power/battery icons) and the sound icons (snd...dll.mun I don't remember the exact file name).