﻿IconChanger 2026 - Short-Description - 0.97.10 BETA

IconChanger 2026 creates icon packages and manages Windows icons. The Create packages workspace starts without live changes and provides responsive tiles. Change system is explicitly selectable; applying a package requires confirmation.

- Two workspaces in one application: Create packages and Change system
- Package workspace with precise recursive search, 72-pixel tiles, actual targets, manual selection and drag and drop
- Search one category or all categories; edit package name, description and complete assignments
- Add wallpaper variants and cursor INF without applying them; select a default wallpaper
- Save PNG package overviews; Apply to Windows is a separate confirmed action
- Taskbar, shortcuts, folders, system, Control Panel, apps and file types
- Separate target groups for Nexus/Winstep, Start11, QuickStart Dock and FlickDock
- Precise recursive search with names, aliases and manifests; up to three suggestions with ICO/PNG priority
- Shared packages, Package mode without live changes, Start from zero, wallpapers and cursor INF
- Unassigned filter, focus on the last edited target, Undo and complete reset
- WinUI 3 with previews, activity indicator, German/English, system/light/dark themes and on-demand UAC elevation
- Taskbar also detects running apps without classic shortcuts; a background helper updates window icons and assignments are saved
- Start the target app first, then refresh Taskbar. Store apps may keep their pinned package icon; custom launchers are accessible through Open launchers
- Explorer folder view offers icons instead of content thumbnails at all sizes. This also affects file thumbnails and the previous setting can be restored
- Folder assignments preserve other desktop.ini settings and write Unicode with consistent IconResource/IconFile entries; existing icons can be reassigned
- Windows 11 live-folder layers cannot reliably be replaced globally through arbitrary named Shell Icons values
- Visible previews load asynchronously, cancel when scrolled away and use a bounded image cache; image loading errors are logged locally
- Native title bar follows system, light, and dark themes; Windows 11 retains rounded corners for normal windows and high contrast uses system colors
- Previews retain the largest available image up to 1024 pixels without artificially enlarging small icons; the image cache is limited to 64 MiB
- Dialog previews survive opening and temporary reparenting of WinUI content
- General folder icons: Folder and Directory default associations are updated in addition to Explorer icon slots; previous values are backed up and restored
- Reopen existing Explorer windows if needed. Individually customized desktop.ini folders and content thumbnails may keep different icons; Windows security settings are not globally relaxed
- Tile previews reload after a new search, category changes and scrolling; manual icon replacement refreshes the native-resolution image
- Start11: all saved pinned groups, including the Start group, are discovered. IconChanger uses consistent identities while preserving existing assignments
- Start11 and FlickDock use exact app identities for all applications, including Office executable identities and complete installed app names; generic suffixes such as App or EXE do not generate matches. These targets receive PNG suggestions only
- Explicit structured system names such as sys-system-this-pc, sys-system-recycle-bin-empty and sys-drive-fixed are recognized; unknown subgroups are not guessed. sys-settings names require a matching supported target; a classic export slot does not automatically represent a live-editable Windows 11 setting
- Packages retain all assignments even when their targets are absent on this PC; package name and description survive saving again
- Package import stores icons in the permanent data directory instead of the temporary .NET program folder; included wallpapers and cursors survive opening and saving
- Load package opens the complete draft without changing Windows. Edit all assignments under Packages, enter name and description and choose Save package draft. Save current configuration is a separate Windows snapshot
- Apply loaded package applies the edited draft only after confirmation; unavailable targets are ignored
- Repair old temp references checks existing assignments and backs up their paths before making changes. Missing source files cannot be recovered automatically; protected targets may require administrator rights

Copyright © 2026 Carl-Gerhard Wieners
E.Mail: c.g.wieners@diskomo.de
