Windows 10 - how to change desktop icon for URL shortcut?

Question

In Win7, one could give a desktop shortcut to a URL (website) any image one wanted, but that seems not to be the case in Win10. It forces the same image, in this instance the Firefox icon, for all URL shortcuts. Can this be changed? Thank you.

Solution 1

I tried this on Win10. Works. Created a Facebook shortcut, pasting in the URL. Got the standard browser icon first. Then I did a right click on the icon, checked "Properties". Looked for "Change icon". The system has icons. OR, you can go to a web site and create your own from anything. https://icoconvert.com/ This will take items and turn them into .ico formats so you can use anything you wish to make a suitable icon instead of boring stuff. Save your icons in a selected folder for handy reference. The site allows an upload of your pic, then download to your folder. Simple. I've used this many times without difficulty. Running latest version of Win10 (2004).

Solution 2

If you have the website pulled up, click on the three dots in the upper righthand corner of the page, click on "More Tools" and one of the choices will be "Create Shortcut." I found this to work to change my desktop icons to match the actual website and not the browser (Chrome) icon.

Comments

[KargWare]

How do you create the link to the website on your desktop? a) With page --> Save As ... b) with drag and drop c) with pin tp taskbar?

[David Fisher]

That works, as it did in Win7, for ordinary shortcuts. Win10 appears to treat URL shortcuts very differently. The properties of the shortcut do NOT include the icon change option. Also, one cannot change the coding of a website on a remote server.

[David Fisher]

That works for ordinary shortcuts, but NOT for URLs. The "Properties" dialogue window does NOT have the "change icon" feature that appears normally. Note: when using Firefox Developer Edition, it works as I have described it. If I change the default browser to Win10's choice/suggestion, the properties window does offer the icon change option, as you describe it. The truly bizarre aspect of this is that BOTH browsers are the same one. There are circumstances at work here that defy understanding, and fairness demands that the question be marked as answered. But not understood...

[Joseph]

Hi, instead of linking another article, please try to synthesize what the gist of that text in a series of concise steps. :)