How to change the Office icons after the new update

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How to change the Office icons after the new update

Perry Gogas 130

After the last update yesterday the Office icons changed to these:

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With a small W, E etc and look really bad. These:

Are hard to see as they are small
Look ugly

How can I go back to the old icon set that looked much better than these?

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Answer 1

Stefan Blom 317.3K MVP Volunteer Moderator

You can change the size of all icons in Windows by choosing some other display option in File Explorer. In a folder, right-click and choose View from the context menu; then choose the option you prefer.

Since the Office update changed the icons, you can't revert unless you uninstall the update. That is not a good idea, though. For security reasons, you should always have the most recent version of Office installed.

Maybe there is some Windows "hack" you can use to customize the icons. I am not sure. It would be better to ask in the Windows forum.

Long-term, I suggest that you send feedback to Microsoft, for example via the portal at https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/forum/fb6d67e3-301c-ec11-b6e7-0022481f8472 .

Perry Gogas 130 Reputation points

2025-10-22T12:07:13.6466667+00:00

It is not the size, it is the actual icons... Looked much better before and was much easier to locate relevant files....
Stefan Blom 317.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2025-10-22T12:28:13.7033333+00:00

@Perry Gogas, you can always send feedback using Help > Feedback in Word and/or you can send feedback via the portal at https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/forum/fb6d67e3-301c-ec11-b6e7-0022481f8472 .
Bogdan 0 Reputation points

2025-10-23T15:42:00.4+00:00

in list or details mode they are looking like shortcuts . bad decision to make letters small

i relay do not understand why this poor design . maybe is time to change the File Explorer with an alternative ....
Bogdan 0 Reputation points

2025-10-23T15:43:13.07+00:00

why to change size ? i need more info in my screen not the size is the issue ...
Stefan Blom 317.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2025-10-23T18:51:34.47+00:00

Bogdan, I'm afraid that nobody in this user-to-user forum can tell you why Microsoft does what it does. What you can do is post feedback so that the Microsoft developers see it. Go to https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/forum/fb6d67e3-301c-ec11-b6e7-0022481f8472 .
Will B 0 Reputation points

2025-10-25T22:42:38.01+00:00

Uninstalling might actually make it safer with how much microsoft is trying to shove copilot ai into everything. I don't want it reading my files

Answer 2

I also don't like the new appearance of Office documents extensions. Although the app icons themselves are quite cool. When there are a lot of files on the desktop, it feels like there's a lot of noise and confusion in my head, possibly because the images are on a white background. The new extension icons stand out strongly against the background of other programs, files, and documents. Additionally, the icons for Word and Excel documents have different heights, with one being taller and the other being thicker. It doesn't look very appealing.

Answer 3

Will B 0

I agree, the icons look awful. For whatever reason, they decided to make a white margin to contain a tiny icon. This makes the icons hard to see, a strain on the eyes, and also makes me want to vomit

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Stefan Blom 317.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2025-10-25T22:51:15.43+00:00

Send feedback to Microsoft via the portal at https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/forum/fb6d67e3-301c-ec11-b6e7-0022481f8472 .

Also, note that the icons with an arrow on them are in fact Windows shortcuts and not the basic icons for the Office file types.
Will B 0 Reputation points

2025-10-25T23:02:29.9433333+00:00

The shortcuts still use the same base icon. If anything, it makes it worse the the shortcut logo blocks a significant part of the original icon lol

Answer 4

Dennis A 0

I think that the app logos look worse than 2019 and 2013, although I think that I can live with them. The file icons look catastrophous and there is no excuse for it. The Designers did a bad job.

Stefan Blom 317.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2025-10-26T14:45:04.19+00:00

Dennis, please post your feedback in the portal at https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/forum/fb6d67e3-301c-ec11-b6e7-0022481f8472 . Microsoft won't see it in the forums.

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How to change the Office icons after the new update

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