moxwel / winlabeler

Tool for creating custom Windows folder icons and labels.

WinLabeler

The easiest way to create your own custom Windows folder icons.

🚧 In development 🚧

This project is still in development. But there is already a working prototype.

How to use

💡 You need ImageMagick installed on your computer. You can download it here.

First install Wand:

pip install Wand

Then, run the script:

python winLabeler.py "C:\Users\User\example.png"

Output name will be "out.ico" by default. Program will use a folder for the small icon by default

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python winLabeler.py "C:\Users\User\example.png" -ns

Output name will be "out.ico" by default. Program will not use a folder for the small icon

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python winLabeler.py "C:\Users\User\example.png" -ns -o "my_icon.ico"

Output name will be "my_icon.ico". Program will not use a folder for the small icon

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What -ns does

-ns stands for "no small folder". It means that the program will not use a folder for the small icon.

Here is an example of the difference:

⚠ Expect some bugs. This is sill a proof of concept.

winlabeler's Issues

Make one-line console application

The program prints texts and prompts. The final program must be a one-line console program, using CLI arguments.

Possible arguments

• First position: -p --path Icon path (Required)
  Not necessary to have a flag associated with this.

• Second position: -ns --no-small-folder (Optional)
  "small-folder" refers to the style of the small icon resolution.
  
  If not specified, defaults to "small-folder".

• Third position: -o --output Output file name (Optional)
  If not specified, defaults to "out.ico".

Examples

python winLabeler.py "C:\Users\User\example.png"

python winLabeler.py "C:\Users\User\example.png" -ns

python winLabeler.py "C:\Users\User\example.png" -ns -o "my_icon.ico"

Make icon shadow adjustable

Make the shadow adjustable through CLI arguments.

Example

python winLabeler.py "C:\example.png" --shadow 5

python winLabeler.py "C:\example.png" -sh 5

Add shadow with 5 gaussian filter (Image.shadow(alpha=50, sigma=5, x=0, y=0))

python winLabeler.py "C:\example.png"

No shadow

FileExistsError when trying to save a file with same name

Steps to reproduce

Execute one time.

python winLabeler.py "C:\example.png"

No problem. Execute again.

python winLabeler.py "C:\example.png"

Python throw FileExistsError because out.ico already exists.

Possible solution

Rename the new out.ico to out1.ico. It means there must be a check before saving to output folder.

Image don't preserve aspect ratio in icon

When using a non square image, it get stretched in the final icon.

Example using a 350x80 image:

Windows 11 folder labels version

Make a version for Windows 11 folders.

Save more resolutions into icon file

The program saves the following resolutions: 256, 48, 32, 16.

The Windows folder icon has many more: 256, 64, 48, 40, 32, 24, 20, 16.

File Explorer normally renders only 256, 48, 32 and 16, but for compatibility reasons, maybe is necessary to have all those resolutions saved too.

Extract folder icon from Windows system files

The icon is located at C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll and C:\Windows\System32\imageres.dll. It can be extracted inside Windows.

Why?

A script that helps extract the icon can help to not have the images in the repository (avoiding potential copyright).

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Research

• In some Windows installations, the icons are relocated to C:\Windows\SystemResources\shell32.dll.mun and C:\Windows\SystemResources\imageres.dll.mun. Reference

• The software IconsExtract from NirSoft can extract icons from .dll files. It is freeware, although is not open source.

• The project icoextract can extract icons from .dll files. It's open source too.