We'll change the icons of various disk drives (hard drives, CD-ROM ...) and their denomination. It is very easy to change the name (label) of a hard disk: it can be done when creating the partition or thereafter with just a click Rename right then. As against it is impossible for any other unit as a CD-ROM for example. We will also have the opportunity to change the default icon of these units.


  • Open Regedit (Start menu, select Run ... and type regedit)
  • Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion / Explorer
  • In the left column, create a new key and name it DriveIcons
  • Go to this new key and then create another key
  • Give the drive letter you want to customize this key (C for C drive for example)
  • Again, go to the newly created key and create a new sub key name DefaultLabel
  • Select the key DefaultLabel and in the right column, double-click the value chain (default)
  • In the fields Value data:, specify a value ( "My drive me" for example).


We have therefore to change the name of the drive. Now see how to change its icon:

  • Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SOFTWARE / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion / Explorer / DriveIcons
  • Then in the letter to the reader to change (for example C)
  • Create a new key in the name of DefaultIcon (which is the same as DefaultLabel)
  • Select the key DefaultIcon and in the right column, double-click the value chain (default)
  • In the fields Value data:, enter the path of the icon of your choice ( "D: \ Icons \ Icon.ico" for example). Think of course to place your file. Ico in the specified directory.

Restart Windows so that the changes are taken into account.