Try making the icons larger to accommodate the picture. For example:
How do I get Classic Folder Icons Back?
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Anonymous
How can I get back the folder icons from windows xp? I need my folder icons to be flat square folders, which I can customize with one photo from inside the folder shown on the front? These open folders sitting sideways with documents and pictures falling out, are driving me crazy. I work with thousands of photos every day and need a quick simple way to identify what is inside each folder. Now I have to spend hours opening each folder and looking through the photos...such a waste of time. Why is such a simple folder icon gone in Windows 7? I need it back!
Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage
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Anonymous
Periwinkleblue,
Hello, I’m afraid that changing the file displayed/icon would be the closest choices for customizing the folder in the way you would like, short of possible third party tweaks.
If this is a feature you would like reinstated, please leave your suggestion at Windows 7 Feedback.
Lisa
Microsoft Answers Support Engineer
Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.
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Anonymous
2012-01-26T05:16:38+00:00 Yes! I agree with this Tufte remark!
I just switched to Windows 7 from XP, and the folder icons have been extremely inconvenient. Echoing the opinions of many others in this thread, I am also an artist with a large number of images. Oftentimes I need to rapidly scan folders for an image.
It's not about how large the folder icon is (as the Microsoft tech support staff keep reinforcing), it's about the faux-3D effect adding too much visual clutter and hampering the ability to do a quick visual search. Is it that hard to understand that it's more difficult to search for something when everything is slanted vs. flat?
I like Windows 7 a lot, but this new folder icon is a big design fail in terms of functionality (and quite frankly, aesthetics as well imo).
Any chance Microsoft will yield? Or is it time to look for 3rd party plugins?
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@CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator2012-01-26T14:35:22+00:00 Even in XP, how in the world are you doing a quick visual search of so many hundreds of images when all the preview shows is a single random image from the folder?
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Anonymous
2012-02-25T03:39:55+00:00 I've got ONLY ONE COMMENT to Micro-BRAIN : Have YOU ever heard the OLD comment : A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS ????? THIS is what these REAL WORLD working stiffs are trying to get across to you, and get you BACK ON REALITY TRACK ! This attempt to mirror the image of those little hand-held TOYS everyone carries in their pockets, has NO value when compared to a MAJOR WORKING COMPUTER INSTALLATION ! With the MESS that has replaced XP's near PERFECT File & Folder structure being just a silly YELLOW 3-D counterfeit BOOK ( not even an actual FOLDER ! ) , you may as well just reduce that STUPID-BOOK-IMAGE with a YELLOW BULLET-LIKE REPRESENTATION ( thing Power-Point "bullet" ) , and expand the adjacent area for some of those THOUSAND WORDS that we have NOT had to use since DOS FILE DESCRIPTIONS !
DOS : going back to THAT mode ---- REVERSE PROGRESS !
What OTHER BACKWARDS INNOVATIONS ARE WE GOING TO SEE NEXT ????
///MRB