In this tutorial we show how to “Pimp Up” your USB Drive, by adding a display Icon for the device, as well as a cool background for the folders in the top level directory of the USB.
Once you have completed the steps given below, then in “My Computer” your chosen icon will show up for your USB Drive:
Then when you double click on this icon, it will show your main USB folder with a desktop background of your choice:
However to get the folders to appear like above, we have to set the layout to “Tiles” rather than thumbnails:
Your icon will also show up on the bottom of screen task bar:
Click here to get expanded options.
Okay so let’s first look at how we set up the background, and then we will look at doing the icon.
Setting Up a Custom Background for a USB Drive
First we need to find a nice big desktop background. If you use a small background, then it will be tiled across the screen, and so it is best to use a 1920x1080 pixels image.
In Google Images, Google on : "desktop background 1920x1080" to find a background for your USB main top level folder.
We found we had to try a few images out before we found one that was dark enough for the white writing of the names of our folders to show up clearly.
Save the desktop image into the top level main part of your USB.
We now use “Notepad” or a similar text editor to create a “desktop.ini” file. There is a good description of how to do this at the following site:
http://www.rakshitk.com/blog/2008/05/04/how-to-give-your-usb-devices-a-background-image/
This may not work on Vista or Windows 7, but works on Windows XP. Here is the code we put in our desktop.ini file on our USB:
[{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}] iconarea_image=./guitar1920x1080.jpg IconArea_Text=0x00FFFFFF
where “guitar1920x1080.jpg” is the background file that was saved onto the USB. Save the file with name as “desktop.ini” and file type “all files” not .txt.
Refresh your USB or replug it in and it should now have the background on it.
We can then right click each of these files (image and “desktop.ini”), and change their attributes to “hidden” by checking the box.
Making Your USB Icon
First we need to get an icon as a .ico file. You cannot use a JPG, PNG, or BMP for this. Use Google to search the Internet to find one of the many .ico images that are available. If you want to make your own icon like we did, then page down to the “Creating Your Own Icon” section in this document.
Once we have a .ico image then this image needs to be copied into the top level directory of the USB.
The next step is to make a file using Notepad editor and call it “autorun.inf” and save it as “all files” not as .txt. Into this file type the following:
[autorun]
icon = .\Passy3.ico label=PASSY 2011
Substitute in the filename of your own .ico file, and a label of your own into the above code. If you want to know more about “autorun.inf” files, then check out this link:
http://www.samlogic.net/articles/autorun-usb-flash-drive.htm
You can make the “autorun.inf” and the “.ico” files “hidden” by right clicking on them, and then choosing “properties” and then ticking the hidden box, and clicking apply, then click ok.
Creating Your Own Icon
First you will need to get a picture and using Adobe Fireworks or Photoshop, modify the size to 128x128 pixels, and use layers to make a rounded rectangle around your picture, and then the Eraser tool to rub out the square corners of your photo like this:
Note that the rounded rectangle has no color as the fill, and a pencil outline thickness of 10. You can use the Vector tools to find the Rounded Rectangle shape.
Save your picture as a Fireworks .PNG file.
Now use the free Online PNG to ICO file converter: http://www.convertico.com/ and click on the browse button and navigate to your PNG file:
Then click on the “CONVERT” button. (This may take a minute or two). It may give an error message like:
Warning: imagedestroy(): 16 is not a valid Image resource in /home/convico/public_html/app.php on line 251 But don’t worry about this, and on this screen, click the Download option blue arrow:
This will open up another window, with your .ICO icon image as a tiny picture in the top left hand corner:
In Internet Explorer, right mouse click on this image and save it into the main top folder of your USB stick, and name it as a .ico file like this:
Now go edit the Autorun.inf file in Notepad to contain the name of your .ICO file as shown below:
If you now remove and plug back in your USB stick, the icon should appear in Windows like this:
Remember in Windows Explorer to set the view to “Tiles” as shown previously in this document. So that’s our USB all pimped up.
Enjoy, Big Passy
