While there may be a few who do not like the new ribbon in Windows 8 Explorer, most simply love it for the value it adds. Now lovers of the Ribbon will be able to change even its default icons, with a click using our Ribbon Icons Customizer for Windows 8.

Ribbon Icons Customizer for Windows 8..1/8

Once you have downloaded the zip file, extract the contents. From the RIC folder, first, run the Resources.reg registry fix and add its contents to your Windows Registry. The .reg fix basically only takes ownership of some registry key/s and does not add any new ones. Now run the Ribbon Icons Customizer .exe file as administrator. Its UI will offer you options to change the icons of almost all the options offered on the explorer ribbon. These include options to change icons of Copy, Paste, Cut, Edit, Fax, Email, Eject, New Item and more! Ribbon Icons Customizer allows you to change icons of Home, Share, View and other icons. To use the Ribbon Icons Customizer, click on the desired button and browse to the icon on your computer, that you want to replace it with. In the first tab, you can click the respective button of the icon which you want to change. For example, if you want to change the icon of copy, click “Change ‘Copy’ Icon”. Select the desired icon from the dialog box and click ‘Open’ to change the icon. Once the icon is changed, you will see a message Successfully changed. You may have to restart your explorer to see the changes.

Using Ribbon Icons Customizer, you will be able to get a cool looking customized ribbon for your Windows 8 explorer!

You can create your own icons or search for some free ones on the Internet. The ones we have used in the above image have been downloaded from here. You can also easily restore the defaults back from the Restore Icons tab. In the second tab, for example, if you want to restore the copy icon, click “Restore ‘Copy’ Icon”. The third and fourth tabs have been created to change and restore icons of some other tabs in the explorer ribbon.

Ribbon Icons Customizer has been developed by TWC developer Paras Sidhu and has been tested on Windows 8 Consumer Preview – but should work with the RTM version too, once it is released. It is always a good idea to create a system restore point first, before making any changes to your system. If you have any feedback to give or need help, you may comment below – and its developer will be happy to help you.