It’s no secret I have an icon fetish, and it makes me smile every time a new high-resolution device icon appears in Windows 7’s “Devices and Printers“. It wasn’t very long ago that most devices appeared in Windows with indistinguishable device descriptions and icons, but with Windows 7, devices not only work well, but look great.
A new feature in Windows 7 allows the operating system to display unique device icons alongwith detailed product information it downloads from the Microsoft-hosted device metadata web service.
If you’re wondering where Windows 7 keeps these high-resolution photorealistic icons it downloads from the device metadata service, then you’d be glad to know you can easily find them as ICOs under the “%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Device Metadata\dmrccache\” directory. Inside the folder appropriate to your region (ex. en-US), there should be individual folders with GUIDs for each of the devices with metadata associated with it. The icon resides in the “DeviceInformation” folder of each device.
As it turns out, the GUIDs for each device can also be used to download the metadata package directly from Microsoft’s Metadata servers. For example, the metadata package for the Sandisk Micro flash drive is available here. Rename the file to a .CAB extension and you can simply extract the resources.
Some of you may have also noticed that out-of-the-box, Windows 7 supports a broad gamut of devices with generic device icons. For this, I stumbled across the “System32\DDORes.dll” resource file which appears to be the goldmine of device icons. Here’s a collection of all the icons I extracted with Anolis Resourcer.
By looking at the icons alone, Windows 7 natively distinguishes at least an 81 different types of devices. Of particular note are the 14 different types of sensors, as indicated by the icons that resemble a multimeter, that Windows 7 seems to support.
As with any hardware-related feature in Windows, it’s ultimately up to the hardware vendors to take advantage of them, however they don’t always have the best track record for fast adoption. Along with Device Stage, I think this is a great opportunity for hardware vendors to help distinguish their premium products from cheap generic counterparts with very little investment.
Share what devices (and their GUIDs) you have that’s got some cool icons show up!
43 Comments
Matheus Bonela
I loved it.
Windows 7’s “Devices and Printers“ is a really good and eyecandy resource!
Thom
Great work Long, I think, sadly, I share your icon fetish and have spent many hours scouring through dlls for hidden gems.
I love how Microsoft have actually stuck to the same style, for once, for great consitency.
Is it sad to go looking here every time you install a device just to see if it got a cool high-res icon? Probably but I don’t care. My heart gave a little leap of joy when I saw my Microsoft Mouse icon #geek
Let’s hope all hardware vendors do take advantage of it, especially right through to the device stage if necessary, or at least linking to it’s control panel applet.
It does surprise me that there is no link to Device Manager in the toolbar.
Andrew
IPhone icon!? Me wants! Shame on you, MS.
Matt Sharpe
Very nice, I just hope hardware manufacturers support it well. I can easily imagine some hideous 16-colour nightmare stretched to the same size as the other icons and being a real eyesore.
Long Zheng
I think I should kickoff the GUID sharing game, if anyone was interested in the icons I have:
b1d19749-0599-4bd7-8745-eff61804b48f
Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 v2
b3004f87-774a-4cc6-9c51-89264da4ed5a
Sandisk Micro USB flash drive
cbf0483a-3c36-4130-9bfc-ef5b6e42011b
Microsoft Wireless Keyboard 6000 v3
de7898e7-58f1-4426-803e-e8b6597ad4fb
Microsoft Wireless Notebook Presenter Mouse 8000
Thom
The only one I’ve got is
http://download.dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/dp/winqual/bd269c05-d32 5-4c38-88f0-3dea4604f827.devicemetadata-ms
Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse 4000
Andre F.
http://download.dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/dp/winqual/397ffeea-ddc 9-49a8-8268-9bb846a8f901.devicemetadata-ms
MX™518 Gaming Mouse
http://download.dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/dp/winqual/a042693f-091 6-4fac-8ed0-1cd36147cc7b.devicemetadata-ms
Xbox 360 Controller for Windows
Thom
Does this mean we can replace these icons, or generate them for hardware that doesn’t implement them?
I had a quick try but didn’t get any success
Mictateur
With the latest LifeCam drivers, I managed to get this one for my LifeCamVX-3000 !
http://download.dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/dp/winqual/a735b3db-849 3-4dad-a6d3-c81b6a5432cc.devicemetadata-ms
Leo Davidson
Thanks for pointing out Anolis Resourcer. Much better than the ancient Resource Hacker that I was using to grab icons from things.
People interested in these icons may also like my HDD Letter Icons which take the Vista HDD icon and add A-Z letters over it, so that each drive can have a unique icon. (Particularly useful if you want to see just the icons in a toolbar, to save space.) Looks like they’ll still fit in with the Win7 icons:
http://www.pretentiousname.com/HDDLetterIcons/index.html
Yert
Still admiring that keyboard? Tsk, tsk!
Huseyin Tufekcilerli
My devices:
Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000
http://download.dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/dp/winqual/1e0ead7a-e0c e-4d40-bf1e-74cb43a14ff2.devicemetadata-ms
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/2412/naturalergonomickeyboar.png
SanDisk Ultra® Cruzer® Titanium
http://download.dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/dp/winqual/a8fe4043-b10 e-480d-baf7-3c826611df2d.devicemetadata-ms
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/5763/sandisktitanium.png
Microsoft Habu
http://download.dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/dp/winqual/e150d319-f79 b-4608-ba3a-c20e73f9ce20.devicemetadata-ms
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/3248/habu.png
James Greenough
I miss that in the beta my sony mp was recognized and had a customized icon and lots of info – from the RC onwards it’s basic info and looks very generic
rajo
@Andrew: the iPhone icon is really low-res in Win 7 (guess why
Have you folks succeeded to see a real dedicated Devices and Printers customized window? Every device I have plugged in so far had a generic icon and no special customization, iPhone included (it at least has a custom icon).
speedycars
Here is my customized hardware:
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/5306/devicestagert0.png
Unfortunately I didn’t got success incorporating them since the first 6801 build.
Since then device stage is deleting all the custom content in “AppData\Local\Microsoft\Device Metadata\dmrccache\en-US” and downloads only the official ones.
speedycars
Firstly published in NeoWin comments under the Device Stage Review:
http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/01/10/windows-7-device-stage-overvi ew
Orion
Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse 5000:
http://download.dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/dp/winqual/6bbd4982-5ab 8-4e2e-af16-88f776c65858.devicemetadata-ms
Microsoft Wireless Laser Keyboard 5000:
http://download.dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/dp/winqual/b284e386-b82 4-4d00-94a0-3caef16bba13.devicemetadata-ms
Javier
Did anyone get the Logitech Rev and the divia edge keyboard icons working… no luck here:(
AboKevin
Great post Long!
And no, you are not the only one with this fetish..
Could you please post a detailed step by step instruction on how to enable the icon for the Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 v.2?
I am using the 7100 RC build.
Thx
Glen
I agree with James above about the beta showing the correct (and more) icons than the RC. My HTC Touch Pro looked GREAT in the beta but now its just the generic icon?!
How do we change them??
Speedycars – you seem to have this working for you?
Zurz.
wow even big oversized noob icons can’t make that Explorer junk look useful.. what a shity looking UI (Useless Interface..according to Microsoft)
Long Zheng
@AboKevin: I think you need to install the WIndows 7 Microsoft Intellipoint drivers for the Laser Mouse to show up.
David
ok, but how does one change an icon one doesn’t like?
Fred
Hi koogle!
Stephen Edgar
Also check out this Powerpoint file (~500kb) “Authoring Device Experience For Multifunction Printers” and WHDC – Windows Device Experience
Anthony
now if only they could fix the win95-xp era icons in system32.dll
speedycars
As I said before, you can’t create customized devices in Devices and Printers, because Windows is deleting all of them first, and then re-downloads the info for the devices from Microsoft’s metaservice, which is not quite full right now.
That screenshot above is from build 6801, which is pretty old now.
Kieran Mann
Good article but I can’t help in thinking that Microsoft should be concentrating on improving the mess that is the Windows source code. Don’t get me wrong I’m into Windows 7 but I don’t understand how Microsoft have the audacity to make us pay for the upgrade from Vista. What they are essentially saying is that Vista was Millennium Edition and “we’ve now sorted it out”, so upgrade. Windows 7 is just a feature pack for Vista that improves it a whole lot.
anon
@Kieran Mann: have you ever used Vista? Idiot.
Jessica
The BD icon – they should have colored the disc blue – that would have made it better and more obvious.
AboKevin
I have done that Long, but I still get the generic mouse icon… Strange
Gee
How do you update the individual icons please? Ive checked the dmrccache folder, and it only has one entry, tho I have loads in the Devices and Printers.
I also want to update the info shown when you right click the PC icon, and choose properties. At the moment it just shows ” Manufacturer: System manufacturer” without any proper entries.
Thanks in advance.
nyp
For the screenshot, you should right-click > View > Hide file names so that there won’t be gibberish like “14-2001-1033.ico” appearing.
Andrew
I cant get any non generic images. Help? Using RC 7100
slimshady
Wow thats cool. How do you guys find these icons on the MS server?
Well, I have that black Sandisk cruzer with 4GB and I can only find the icon with 16gb for black and the icon with 4 gb for the silver platinum one. Is there also a icon for the black 4 GB one?
Thom
Since Windows 7 RTM’d a proper Device Stage for my Lenovo laptop has appeared!
Instead of the generic laptop icon I have a photo-realistic ThinkPad icon (not quite identical to my model).
You can get the icon here http://download.dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/dp/winqual/43afeccc-d69 5-4e75-9772-345af494b874.devicemetadata-ms
I’m not sure if it downloaded automatically or if it was part of the latest Microsoft Update I did.
doomangel
Cool icons!Does anyone know if they can be downloaded manually?
Can anyone post a list of known GUID’s?
Paul
how do you find the icons and guid’s?
deep
after dowload the metadata file, how to use it?
Thom
At the Microsoft tri-launch in Wembley Stadium, UK I got a free Arc mouse.
I plugged in the tiny transceiver and after a minute I got a lovely new icon! I thought it would give a generic black icon but it actually showed the red version that I had plugged in.
Microsoft Arc Mouse (Red)
http://download.dmd.metaservices.microsoft.com/dp/winqual/ef920254-159 2-4c6f-8179-c5d2945db96a.devicemetadata-ms
Carl Harris
For those saying that Windows replaces icon back to the generic, you should be able to stop it. In devices and printers, if you right click your computer SOMETHING-PC and select “Device Installation Settings”, and can select there to not update icons.
Why is it that in the betas and RC’s this worked fine for me, but now I got the RTM version, my Microsoft Wireless Keyboard 8000 wont show up!! This kinda stuff really annoys me!!!
John Ferguson
Hi…I’ve seen request for a step by step on how to get to these icons and further, change or manipulate them. Does anyone know how? I’d like to change the standard cell phone icon to my enV2
Thanks!
John Ferguson
OK, I can view some of the icons with Anolis Resourcer, but after I create an icon how do I add and replace so that it becomes a default?
feel free to email me jfergus1 (at) tampabay (dot) rr (dot) com
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