Custom Drive Icons

Virtual drives created with the CBDisk class can have a custom icon associated with them to better distinguish them in Windows Explorer. There are a few different ways to accomplish this:

Using Additional Files

If placing additional files into the virtual drive itself is an acceptable condition, Windows provides a couple of file-based mechanisms for specifying a custom icon.

To specify a custom icon for the virtual drive itself, an autorun.inf file can be created based on the information in Microsoft's Autorun.inf article.

Additionally, custom icons can be specified for subdirectories of the virtual drive using desktop.ini files, which can be created based on the information in Microsoft's Desktop.ini article. Note that desktop.ini files cannot be used to specify a custom icon for the root directory of the virtual drive (i.e., they cannot be used to change the icon of the virtual drive itself).

Using Registry Keys

If the virtual drive is assigned a persistent drive letter, using registry keys to assign a custom icon may be a good option. To specify a custom icon using the registry, create a subkey like {DriveLetter}\DefaultIcon (e.g., K\DefaultIcon) under one of the following keys:

  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Classes\Applications\Explorer.exe\Drives, if the custom icon should only be used for the current user.
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\DriveIcons, if the custom icon should be used for all users. (Note that manipulating anything under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry hive requires administrative rights.)

Regardless of which key it is created under, the {DriveLetter}\DefaultIcon subkey's (Default) (i.e., "unnamed") value should then be set to the absolute path of the icon file.

Please note that custom icons specified in this manner are only effective so long as the drive letter assigned to the virtual drive remains unchanged over time; if its drive letter changes, the registry keys used to specify the custom icon will need to be updated accordingly.

Using the Class and its Shell Helper DLL

As long as the Helper DLL has been installed to the system using the Install method, custom icons can be assigned to a virtual drive directly using the class. This method of specifying custom icons is especially valuable when project constraints preclude placing additional files into the drive or modifying the registry.

Custom icons assigned in this manner function a bit differently than those assigned using the two methods described above, as they are implemented using Windows' icon overlay mechanism. Consequently, the custom icons are restricted to 25% of the original icon's area (except for 16x16 icons); the tables below describe the required sizes and color levels of the assets in the icon file.

Overlay icon sizes map as follows:

Main Icon SizeOverlay Icon Size
16x1610x10
32x3216x16
48x4824x24
256x256128x128

Icon assets must have the following color levels:

Icon SizeColor Level
16x1616 colors
32x3216 colors
48x48256 colors
256x25632-bit color

Because it's possible to specify multiple different overlay icons (e.g., to represent different drive states), icons are assigned through the class using a two-step process:

  1. Register the desired icon(s) using the RegisterIcon method. (Note that administrative rights are required to execute this method successfully.)
  2. Switch between the registered icon(s) using the SetIcon and ResetIcon methods.

Icons are copied to a temporary location when registered; and removed from said location when unregistered using the UnregisterIcon method.

It is important to keep in mind that Windows limits the number of registered overlay icons to 15 (this is a global limit for the entire system, and it cannot be changed). Since other applications on the system (e.g., OneDrive, Dropbox, etc.) may have registered multiple overlay icons, it's not uncommon to get into a situation where various applications are competing to have their overlay icons registered.

Overlay icons are registered by placing values in the following keys in the Registry:

  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\ShellIconOverlayIdentifiers (64-bit Windows only)
If necessary, it's up to the application (or better yet, the user) to decide whether or not to remove other entries; however, doing so too aggressively will likely have a negative impact on the user's experience with other applications.

 
 
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