Changing the (Taskbar) icons in Windows 8?

Question

I want to change the icons in my Taskbar to square tiles, but I can’t for the life of me figure out how you change icons in Windows 8.

What is the easiest, snazziest way of changing the Pro (non-RT) icons in Windows 8? Is this even possible?

Solution

On any shortcut you can right click and enter its properties.

Then just click on the "Change Icon" button and select any icon you wish, or browse to any custom icons you have downloaded and created.

once this change is made, re-Pin it to the taskbar to update the icon.

NOTE: This will change the icon as shown on Start Screen as well, but will not fill the tile like RT icons do. At current, there is no way to get a Modern-UI-esque Tile appearance on a Desktop App. Instead, it generates a plain tile with the Classic icon centered. This Icon can be changed as described above.

Comments

[Noah]

So how does this change the icons to square tiles exactly?

[Shellmode]

Thanks for the shortcut tip! That’s a nice way to get around it. Although it’s a bummer that the program icons outside the Taskbar can’t be altered, this is what I ended up with after making a shortcut folder and replacing their icons: i.imgur.com/YDYf0.png. Shame they can’t be grouped closer together, though.

[Shellmode]

Before anyone asks about where I got the icons from: dakirby309.deviantart.com/art/….

[Jared Tritsch]

You can copy your modified icons into C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs and they will create a new start screen tile with the new icon. Or, if a shortcut is already there, just right click on en existing tile, Select Open File Location and edit the icon from there.

[Jared Tritsch]

@kiwi Nice find on the icons!