You can store icons wherever you want.  The "system" icons are in the Windows XP folder, most installed programs have their icon in the program's folder,  but user icons can be anywhere.  I have some user icons and I made an "Icons" folder in "My Documents" and store them there. When you click "Change Icon" for a desktop icon just click the browse and you can "browse" to whatever folder you want and in my case I browse to My Documents\Icons and I can choose whatever user icon I want.

Thanks. I was aware that I could do that, I just wondered if I could save them into the system folder and if so where is it? Thanks for your help

CharlesCollins,

Most system icons are contained in shell32.dll. You cannot add to them there. Note that when you click on the "Change Icon..." button the path to the icons displayed is shown under "Look for icons in this file" at the top of the window that opens.