Change Vivaldi icon in the task bar

stardepp

@Hadden89 How did you manage to insert my gif?

Hadden89

@stardepp Like the external emojis

Right click on imgur picture > copy image address
Posted above with ![Hello](https://i.imgur.com/plBmzNn.gif)

Primokorn

I don't want to pin Vivaldi in the task bar but I tried your idea. It doesn't work even after restarting Windows Explorer:

stardepp

@Primokorn Bild Text

Primokorn

@stardepp No, it doesn't work either. Are you using the standalone version of Vivaldi Snapshot?
I'm on Windows 10 Pro.

stardepp

@Primokorn I also use Windows 10 Pro...see my signature. The new image must have the format .ico, but you can see that in my gif.

Primokorn

@stardepp Of course the new logo is a .ico file.
Are you using the standalone version of Vivaldi Snapshot?

Pathduck

@Primokorn You can change the icon of the shortcut used either on the taskbar or desktop/start-menu, but this won't change the icon in the executable, which is what decides what is used to show the running program icon in Windows. That's just how Windows does things.

AFAIK the only way to change the icon for a running program is to change the icon in the executable itself, this can be done but has to be done on every update...

There's probably a ton of third-party taskbar managers out there you can use for this purpose.

Primokorn

@Pathduck Is it hard to change the icon for the executable file?
I have no admin rights on my Windows Pro desktop so I'll give a try to portable task managers, thank you.

EDIT: actually it's a windows manager that I need and I've never found a good alternative.

Pathduck

@Primokorn said in Change Vivaldi icon in the task bar:

Is it hard to change the icon for the executable file?

Well, that depends on your level of technical skill. You could use a tool like Resource Hacker and change the icon used for the icon group:
http://www.angusj.com/resourcehacker/

However, I don't think it will work for Vivaldi as it uses some other code to show its icon.

So yeah, I think a window manager/launcher that allows you to set custom icons would be the solution. But TBH, I use a dark task bar as well as start menu and I've never had an issue with the dark icon. I certainly wouldn't go through all that trouble just to have a "prettier" icon show...

STALL0EVAN

I just had a major breakthrough on this topic!

So, a few months ago, I discovered how to add websites as a sort of mini application (on Brave browser). I wanted to do the same on Vivaldi, so I looked up how to do as such.

Here's how to add a website to your desktop for Vivaldi:

Create a bookmark for the desired site
Open vivaldi://apps
Drag the bookmark into the apps page
Right-click on the icon
Select 'Create Shortcuts'
Choose either 'Desktop' or 'Start Menu'

After succeeding in adding a site to my desktop, I wondered if I could have Vivaldi launch in this way. Turns out, you can.

Here's how to change the icon for Vivaldi

Open vivaldi://apps
Right-click on the Vivaldi icon
Select 'Create Shortcuts'
Choose 'Desktop'
Right-click on the shortcut
Click 'Properties'
Click 'Change Icon'
Choose your custom .ico file
Click 'OK'
Click 'Apply'
Watch as the (stubborn) taskbar icon you currently have for Vivaldi instantly change.

Kind of annoyed that this took so long to figure out and changing the app icon doesn't work like every other app, but hey, I finally did it.

stardepp

@stall0evan Thank you for this very valuable tip

Welcome to the Vivaldi Forum. You may find the following links interesting:

Vivaldi Help (F1) https://help.vivaldi.com/

Vivaldi Tools https://vivaldi.com/features/tools/

Local Vivaldi Forum https://forum.vivaldi.net/category/38/local-forum

Vivaldi Code Of Conduct https://vivaldi.com/privacy/code-of-conduct/

Vivaldi Company https://vivaldi.com/en/company/

Vivaldi Business Model https://vivaldi.com/en/blog/vivaldi-business-model/

Vivaldi Bug Report https://vivaldi.com/en/bugreport/

Vivaldi Ad blocker https://vivaldi.com/features/ad-blocker/

Vivaldi Email Client https://forum.vivaldi.net/category/191/vivaldi-mail

Vivaldi Privacy https://vivaldi.com/privacy/browser/

Vivaldi No Tracking https://vivaldi.com/zero00tracking/

Modding Vivaldi https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/10549/modding-vivaldi

Show Me Your Web Panels https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/11564/show-me-your-web-panels

Vivaldi Color Schemes https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/20106/post-your-color-scheme-at-vivaldi

Vivaldi Favorite Extension https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/12540/vote-for-your-favorite-extension

Vivaldi For Android https://forum.vivaldi.net/category/147/vivaldi-browser-for-android

Vivaldi Comparison Snapshot Vs. Stable Vivaldi https://vivaldi.com/en/blog/snapshot-vs-stable/

Vivaldi Status https://vivaldistatus.com

Vivaldi Download https://vivaldi.com/download/

Vivaldi search engine collection

https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/46609/guide-vivaldi-search-engines-collection

Support or donate to Vivaldi https://vivaldi.com/contribute/

stardepp

@stall0evan Feel free to post this in the Vivaldi Forum under Tips and Tricks:
https://forum.vivaldi.net/category/144/tips-tricks

If you don't want to do that, I'd be happy to publish your post in Tips and Tricks.

demonnoises

@stall0evan This worked perfectly, what a strange solution. Thanks!

Pathduck

@demonnoises Hello and Welcome to the Vivaldi Community

You can do this directly in Vivaldi now.
https://help.vivaldi.com/desktop/miscellaneous/progressive-web-apps/

vmtxx

@hadden89 up

patman0227

@STALL0EVAN Thank you!!
I didn't know about vivaldi://apps
I've been wanting to manage my website shortcuts, and found this is the place to do it! This is where the website shortcuts live that are created when you right click a tab and click 'create shortcut.'
I meant to mark a shortcut to open in a new window, and tried deleting the shortcut. I then found that I was unable to right click the tab and select 'create shortcut,' which was frustrating.

I found your post and it lead me my website shortcuts, and I was able to right click and go to Settings to manage my shortcuts, and update my desired shortcut to open in a new window.

So thanks again!

KulaGGin

@stardepp said in Change Vivaldi icon in the task bar:

@Primokorn

This doesn't change the icon in the task bar. This only changes the icon of the shortcut.
When you double click on the shortcut, the browser is launched with the icon of the executable in the taskbar, not with the icon of the shortcut.

KulaGGin

@stardepp said in Change Vivaldi icon in the task bar:

This is my very first self made gif

Same here. This only changes the icon of the shortcut in the taskbar that you use to run the actual browser, this doesn't change the icon of the running program when you launch it.

KulaGGin

@Pathduck said in Change Vivaldi icon in the task bar:

AFAIK the only way to change the icon for a running program is to change the icon in the executable itself, this can be done but has to be done on every update...

What can be created is a program that changes Vivaldi's icon dynamically during runtime. Then we wrap it in a proxy DLL.
So, what happens then:

User drops ntdll.dll(our custom icon-changing proxy dll) and Vivaldi.ico in the same folder with the executable.
User runs Vivaldi.exe.
Windows loads our custom ntdll.dll, which changes the icon at startup but also works same as the original ntdll.dll that Vivaldi.exe imports.

That's it. Also, works after Vivaldi.exe updates for as long as it uses ntdll.dll.

This way we should be able to get different icons for different standalone versions and won't have to update icons with every update.