I wrote this App using AutoHotkey for fast and easy changing of folder icons thur a quick and simple GUI.
Github download link at the bottom of the post.
It was written with using the .ico format in mind. You can push .dlls through it, but the dll support is limited and i don't plan on developing that any further.
I got tired of wasting time clicking thur the 3 sets of windows and buttons that windows makes you jump through to set a custom folder icon from the folders properties window.
I have posted about this before and here. Then after a year of playing with AHK i found the magic combination to make this simple and made a GUI for it.
I posting about this here because i tapped into Dopus great ability to to use dopusrt to view and load active tabs into the gui for speed and convivence! Thank you dopus team! Any one can use this but these dopus menus only appear when the dopusrt.exe path is set in the settings.
Its lightweight and changes no system files or settings except for the desktop.ini files that you tell it. Here's me installing it and change its own folder icon in about 30 seconds... 
It also has a handful of dynamic menus to make it quicker and easier to use, Live hotkeys being read form the settings file, save your history options, toggles for extra options, etc etc ...
How I use it inside of Dopus...
I use it combination with Dopus button for on-the-fly folder icon changes. Its on my tool bar and context menu (for folders only)
This Option Sends the Selected Folder Path to Program as a parmater without changing your clipboard (Recommended)
@disablenosel:dirs
@dirsonly
@nodeselect
@async:"C:\Users\<YourUsername>\Update the path to\Change Folder ICO.exe" {filepath}
// important update the path to where you have this installed here.
This Option Uses Your Clipboard
@disablenosel:dirs
@dirsonly
@nodeselect
Clipboard COPYNAMES=unc
@async:"C:\Users\<YourUsername>\Update the path to\Change Folder ICO.exe"
// important update the path to where you have this installed here.
This button will copy the full folder path, then run Change Folder ICO.exe.
Then inside my app I keep the option to "Automatically check Clipboard on Startup" turned on. It will find the folder path in your clipboard and load it automatically.
Provide it an a path to .ico file and click Set New Icon! Simple! it will write the icon path into that folders desktop.ini and apply the attributes that windows looks for to change the folder icon.
To Download
You can download it from the Releases page on its Github Webpage.
I hope some of y'all check it out and find it useful!
-Xavier
Update Notice 09-30-2025
if anyone has been using this little app I wrote I just want to bring to your attention I made some improvements that I recommend updating for.
Thanks && Enjoy!
Changelog Symbols Key: + NEW|ADDED, - REMOVED, ! FIXED, * CHANGED, # TODO, $ ISSUE|BROKEN
;------------------------- v.2025.10.01
! Fixed an Error where paramaters being sent by dopus were causing errors when sent with quotes
* Code Cleaned up & condensed. There's now only on gui shareing both dark & light mode settings.
;------------------------- v.2025.09.30
++ added the ability to send a directory to the script as a parameter without messing with your clipboard! this is great option for Dopus users! if you have a button that launches the program via Dopus you can update the cmd, remove the Clipboard COPYNAMES=unc line and replace it this single line...
@async:"X:\the path to\Change Folder ICO\Change Folder ICO.exe" {filepath}
!NOTE! -- The AutoCheckClipboardOnStart is still an option as it is very handy.
! Fixed\Updated support for Everything 1.5a as they've change their file names in recent updates.
*+ The GUI now automatically reloads when changing between Light & Dark Modes
;------------------------- v.2025.09.28
! Fixed Custom IconError= Icon not being seen when set in the .ini
++ Added drag-and-drop capability to the gui! .ico files will automatically be loaded into the icon path field. folders ( or any other file that's not an ico ) will be split at the last Directory and loaded into the folder field. Note this only work on the EXE version. it's a limitation of AHK that won't work if your running an a non-compile source-code script.
Which to Download???
The .zip file contains the AutoHotkey source code, the exe, extracted icons and this repos readme.md files. The Full Package.
The exe is a self extracting portable installer. it will extract itself in place into own folder after which you can place it any where except in the C:\Program Files\ folders. It's the same as the zip without the source code and and readme.md. The Simple run and go Package.
and waay to big of an icon collection.
. what i have up on github is a year out of date. my own menu has...
