In Windows 7 I cannot change icon of VBS file from wscript icon And put multiple ones on the taskbar

Question

note- I have solved this and will post my answer, though other answers are welcome of course.

I have a VBS file, the contents doesn't matter but it acts as a wrapper and runs another program. The point is I want to change the icon of the VBS file to anything e.g. to the icon for windows calculator.

Another VBS file I might want to change to the icon of another program. So I don't want to change all VBS files to the same icon.

As a demonstration, I have a directory C:\blah that has blah.vbs and blah.lnk I try to drag either of them to the taskbar, but I get a Wscript icon.

I've tried shift-right clicking the wscript icon, going to properties, and choosing another icon, and clicking apply, but the taskbar icon doesn't change.

See below, I told it to change to the icon for That pinned vbs file to \windows\system32\calc.exe and clicked apply - notice at least a calculator icon in the properties window, but the taskbar icon has still not changed.

Note- there was one time I managed somehow to change it to a VBS icon(though I can't even manage that now), but I want to change it to the icon of any EXE like calc.exe

I am able to right click the taskbar, choose toolbars...new toolbar...and I can change the icon of a particular shortcut, but when I drag it , the icon doesn't stay for the taskbar.

Solution

1)Make a shortcut to Wscript.exe

2)Set the target adding the vbs file as a parameter e.g. c:\windows\system32\wscript.exe c:\blah\a.vbs

3)Drag the shortcut onto the taskbar.

You could change the icon between steps 2 and 3, or after step 3.

You can drag multiple on, but you must ensure that you change the target of the shortcut.

If you tried to drag the vbs file itself onto the taskbar you should find it won't work but the above method should work

If you try to drag the exe itself, it's a bit of an issue 'cos you're not changing the target of the shortcut. And anyhow since dragging makes a shortcut anyway, it makes sense to drag a shortcut.

You can see the path to these pinned shortcuts here (change username accordingly)

C:\Users\name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar

And you can get that path by shift right clicking a pinned icon after all its windows are closed, and you get a menu with properties which is the shortcut properties, and in the general tab you see the location of the lnk file - the directory it's in being that one I mentioned.