Creating custom bookmark icon on Windows

They have: 100 posts

Joined: Sep 1999

When I book mark some sites using iExplorer on Windows a custom icon is created for it in the favorites list. The same icon also appears in the address bar.

Anyone know how?

They have: 42 posts

Joined: Sep 2000

I think the address for info on this is http://www.favicon.com/

I've been looking into this slightly, but I haven't done any real work on it yet - the idea of trying to create an icon puts me off!

D Reuby

He has: 688 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

You should both do it. It's worth the effort. It really helps you stand out in somebody's favorites list (if you can get them to bookmark them in the first place). After you check out http://www.favicon.com for background and instruction, there's a great free icon maker called Goldicon you can download at http://www.goldshell.com./goldicon/main.htm. (I've tried others and this one is good)

The Webmistress's picture

She has: 5,586 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

This is great if your isp host server actually supports it!! Mine is currently looking into how to support it but as I'm the only person who has suggested it, it isn't top of their list of things to do today!!!

Julia - if life was meant to be easy Michael Angelo would have painted the floor....

He has: 688 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

Your host does not need to support it. As long as you can upload that favicon.ico file to your directory, you can use it. If you can't get the file into the root directory, there is a snippet of code that you can put on all of your pages that will tell the browser an alternate location to find the file. I can't remember the code, but you can find it in the Stupid Webtricks section of Builder.com

The Webmistress's picture

She has: 5,586 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

I have uploaded the icon to the root folder of my site but it doesn't work!

He has: 688 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

Have you tried adding that code that redirects the browser to download the favicon.ico file from an alternate location? This may be especially important if your html files aren't in the root directory. If this doesn't help, I don't know what else to try. Sorry Sad Good luck.

One other possiblity could be if it was uploaded in ASCII rather than Binary.

The Webmistress's picture

She has: 5,586 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

What redirect code would that be then??
All the files are in the root directory for the domain.

He has: 688 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

Put this code in the HEAD section:

now you can put the icon file anywhere you want, and even give it a name other than favicon.ico.

One last thing, make sure it is an ico (icon) file and not a bmp (bitmap). People sometimes think they are the same and just rename the extention of a bmp file, but that won't work.

They have: 100 posts

Joined: Sep 1999

Thanks

The Webmistress's picture

She has: 5,586 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

Glad you got yours working doren, mine still wont! It has to be something with my server who is hosting the site. But they don't know what they have to do at their end to make it work! Confused

Oh well, my sites will just have to look boring in favourites then! Mad

Julia - if life was meant to be easy Michael Angelo would have painted the floor....

Jaiem's picture

They have: 1,191 posts

Joined: Apr 1999

If you don't use the redirect as shown above besure tocopy the icon file to all your page sub directories too.

If your host gives you 404 stats you should see the number of missing calls to FAVICON disappear.

The Webmistress's picture

She has: 5,586 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

I have put the redirect on & still it doesn't work Sad

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