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Customising your website's Icon in IE5

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27 Nov 2000CPOL 195.5K   71   20
Replace the boring IE logo in your readers browser with an icon customised for your site.

Introduction

It's always nice to differentiate your site from others, and there a couple of places in particular that allow you to make your site stand out from the crowd.

Dragging a URL from the address bar of Internet Explorer onto your desktop creates a shortcut with the familiar blue and white IE shortcut icon: Image 1

Adding a site to your favorites brings a similar result.

If your readers are viewing your site through Internet Explorer 5.0 or above then you can make your site stand out for them by simply creating a 16 x 16 pixel bitmap called favicon.ico (using the Visual Studio icon editor, for example) and placing this icon in your web site's root directory.

As soon as the user adds the site to their favorites then IE will scan that website for the favicon.ico and use it instead of the standard IE icon for desktop shortcuts, the address bar, the 'Favorites' drop down menu in IE, the shortcut bar in the taskbar (Win 98+ and Windows 2000), and in the Office Shortcut bar.

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

You can associate a different icon with a specific page by adding a LINK statement to the HEAD of your page:

<HEAD>
  <LINK REL="SHORTCUT ICON" HREF="http://www.mydomain.com/myicon.ico">
  <TITLE>My Title</TITLE>
</HEAD>

Click here to see the icon for Code Project.

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Founder CodeProject
Canada Canada
Chris Maunder is the co-founder of CodeProject and ContentLab.com, and has been a prominent figure in the software development community for nearly 30 years. Hailing from Australia, Chris has a background in Mathematics, Astrophysics, Environmental Engineering and Defence Research. His programming endeavours span everything from FORTRAN on Super Computers, C++/MFC on Windows, through to to high-load .NET web applications and Python AI applications on everything from macOS to a Raspberry Pi. Chris is a full-stack developer who is as comfortable with SQL as he is with CSS.

In the late 1990s, he and his business partner David Cunningham recognized the need for a platform that would facilitate knowledge-sharing among developers, leading to the establishment of CodeProject.com in 1999. Chris's expertise in programming and his passion for fostering a collaborative environment have played a pivotal role in the success of CodeProject.com. Over the years, the website has grown into a vibrant community where programmers worldwide can connect, exchange ideas, and find solutions to coding challenges. Chris is a prolific contributor to the developer community through his articles and tutorials, and his latest passion project, CodeProject.AI.

In addition to his work with CodeProject.com, Chris co-founded ContentLab and DeveloperMedia, two projects focussed on helping companies make their Software Projects a success. Chris's roles included Product Development, Content Creation, Client Satisfaction and Systems Automation.

Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralUseful for beginners Pin
thatraja15-Jan-10 23:26
professionalthatraja15-Jan-10 23:26 
GeneralFavicon.ico not working for asp.net page?! Pin
jgilbert5-May-05 9:28
jgilbert5-May-05 9:28 
GeneralRe: Favicon.ico not working for asp.net page?! Pin
Maxim Langman1-Jul-07 3:58
Maxim Langman1-Jul-07 3:58 
GeneralRe: Favicon.ico not working for asp.net page?! Pin
TomB18-Oct-07 5:43
TomB18-Oct-07 5:43 
GeneralOther browsers Pin
yorgato3-May-05 14:46
yorgato3-May-05 14:46 
GeneralAuto Refresh Pin
Anonymous19-Mar-05 10:59
Anonymous19-Mar-05 10:59 
General.ICO Pin
[FHD]Grey_fox18-Sep-04 0:44
suss[FHD]Grey_fox18-Sep-04 0:44 
GeneralHELP ME!!! Pin
Anonymous8-Apr-04 18:15
Anonymous8-Apr-04 18:15 
Generalsimple but useful Pin
Anonymous15-Dec-03 0:13
Anonymous15-Dec-03 0:13 
GeneralWrapper for Refresh Button Pin
6-Jun-02 13:39
suss6-Jun-02 13:39 
GeneralRe: Wrapper for Refresh Button Pin
Anonymous9-Mar-03 4:05
Anonymous9-Mar-03 4:05 
GeneralRe: Wrapper for Refresh Button Pin
monicb4-Jul-05 0:14
monicb4-Jul-05 0:14 
Generalhelp! Pin
14-Feb-02 17:20
suss14-Feb-02 17:20 
GeneralRe: help! Pin
Thomas Freudenberg17-Feb-02 23:46
Thomas Freudenberg17-Feb-02 23:46 
GeneralCool!!! Pin
Nish Nishant11-Jan-02 21:01
sitebuilderNish Nishant11-Jan-02 21:01 
GeneralBleh Pin
7-Oct-01 7:40
suss7-Oct-01 7:40 
GeneralIts different Pin
25-Jun-01 22:20
suss25-Jun-01 22:20 
Generalthis website Pin
15-May-01 4:02
suss15-May-01 4:02 
GeneralGreat tip! Pin
21-Apr-01 12:34
suss21-Apr-01 12:34 
General32x32 for shortcuts(large icons view) Pin
4-Dec-00 23:39
suss4-Dec-00 23:39 
Explorer will show a 32x32 icon for shortcuts when dragged onto a listview set to 'large icons', such as the desktop, or Explorer. Just select image/new device image from withing VC++ a create a 32x32 icon.
Great tip Chris!

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