Create a free ico icon file for your Windows programs with MS Paint

Sometimes you may want to create a specific icon for quick launch or desktop. For example I have website links that I use a number of times a day and wanted a quick launch button for them, but did not want to use and Internet explorer icon.

To create the icon go to start\run and enter mspaint

In the Image menu go to attributes

For a normal small icon for your quick launch set the width and height to 32 pixels (see specifications of an ico file below)

In order to view the icon you are creating at a reasonable size you’ll want to go to the view menu select-