Can I change folder icons permanently on external 2TB hard drive?

Question

Any way to embed (or permanently change) folder icons (or folder thumbnail images) on file folders on an external hard drive so that the picture will be shown on all computers that access the drive and not just the computer that made the icon change? i.e., I change the folder icons on my computer, then want them to stay with the folders on the drive and not in the root sys 32 batch defaults folder icon in Windows.

I have a few folders on an external drive that I want to save folder icons for. By using Paint save as .ico bmp image, then embed these onto the drive and assign these icons to the folders and have whoever accesses these files be able to see the embedded folder pictures.

I tried all the approaches listed. It works great on the computer that I default with. When I plug the external hard drive into my wife's computer, everything is defaulted to her Vista defaults (or Windows icons and images).

Solution

To change the folder icon for a shared resource so that everyone views the same icon, you need to place the actual image you want to appear in each folder, and name it as folder.jpg.

Edit: Customizing a folder via Properties also helps. However I noticed a problem when using Desktop.ini. It references the absolute path to the folder icon/logo.... and the drive letter for the external hard drive may not be the same when viewed from other computers.

Comments

[TJJ]

That's not true, Usually the folder-icon will be saved as a hidden file together with a desktop.ini, so the folder will show with custom icon on any computer.

[w32sh]

My mistake. Tested it, and I'm removing my answer. However, I does store the setting in the "Bags" key in addition!

[w32sh]

I've instead edited it, and added the desktop.ini part. Thanks @TJJ

[w32sh]

Afaik, it works only if the thumb image is named "folder.jpg" or "folder.gif", if desktop.ini doesn't define a logo. I'm referring to folder thumbs, not icons.

[TJJ]

Yes. And I am also a bit wrong. I used mainly icons from the default windows library. So the absolute path is fine across different windows computers. If you use truly custom icons, they must be manually copied and the desktop.ini adjusted to reflect the relative path.