Expert's Rating
Pros
- Very easy to set up and use
- Color table available to customize colors
- Lets you remove pre-installed colors you don’t like or need
Cons
- Unable to enter RGB/HEX codes; can be difficult to get a particular shade on the color table
- Folders set to “read only ” cannot be altered, color-wise
- Child folders are not automatically colored (must be done individually)
Our Verdict
If you are bored with the same old yellow folders in Explorer, then try colorizing them. The makeover may make it faster to find the folders you seek, too.
Microsoft Windows has been around since 1985, and one of the only things about it that hasn’t changed is Windows Explorer (File Explorer in Windows 8). We still have the yellow folder tree-like structure, and many people may argue that it is comforting to have something familiar to hold onto, something that we all know, while the rest of Windows goes through dramatic changes. But some people depend on color to navigate successfully between folders, and all-yellow isn’t going to cut it. If that’s you, check out the free Folder Colorizer to add a dab of paint to the place and inject some color and life into the operating system. You may be surprised at the difference in not just your mood, but the efficiency of navigation.
Simply put, Folder Colorizer (as the name implies) allows you to assign a set color to each folder in Explorer. Upon installation (which also requires a system reboot), you are given some pre-set colors to start playing around with, and to install a certain color, all you have to do is right-click on the folder and go to the newly inserted “Colorize!” option in your right-click Explorer menu. From there, you can choose a color and the changes will take effect immediately.
If you don’t like the color change, you have three options: You can change to another color, choose “restore original color ” to completely undo everything, or reveal the hidden files in Explorer to reveal a temporary color file inside the folder. Delete that and your folder’s original color will immediately re-appear.
If you don’t care for the preset colors, you can delete them and start again, courtesy of a color wheel. However, this color wheel doesn’t do RGB and HEX color codes, so nix any thoughts of getting that subtle shade that you simply adore. It only allows you to point to red, green, yellow, and so on, with slight shades of each. It’s not bad, but RGB and HEX support would make it so much better.
So what is the advantage to this app, apart from turning Windows/File Explorer into Joseph’s Technicolor Dreamcoat? Well, look at it this way. It makes navigating Windows folders much easier. A lot of people use color to find their way around, and if you can remember that you placed a file in the red folder and that Dropbox is the green folder (for example), then it may help you to speed up when dragging and dropping files all over the place. At least that’s what happened with me.
Give Folder Colorizer a try out and see if you start to look upon Explorer with a fresh set of eyes. Just remember to make sure that the folders you want to color are not read-only; otherwise this won’t work. To check, right-click on the folder, choose “properties “, and in the “general ” tab, look at the “attributes ” section. The Read-Only box is there–just make sure it’s unchecked and once that’s done, you’ll be ready to give the folder a fresh coat of paint.
Note: The Download button on the Product Information page will download the software to your system.