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How to Change an Icon in Dynamics CRM within a Custom Entity

Post Author: Joe D365 |

CRM 2011 allows you to customize your environment. We cover many of the ways to personalize Dynamics CRM in our How-To Portal. In this post, we'll focus on how to change an icon in Dynamics CRM within a custom entity.

When creating a custom entity in CRM 2011, an icon is automatically attached to the new entity. The default Microsoft Dynamics CRM icon is a gear.

The custom Microsoft Dynamics icon is a gear

If you’re not crazy about the gear, have no fear—a new Dynamics CRM icon can be copied or created! If you are feeling creative, you can design your own. You can also get an image from the internet, as long as there are no licensing issues on the image or icon. If there are multiple versions of the graphic you’re looking for, grab the best looking one at the highest resolution, which should be above 256 x 256 pixels. A smaller resolution icon could give you a low resolution icon once it has been resized!

You will need to make three sizes of the icon to use within Microsoft Dynamics CRM.  One of the easiest programs to resize icons is ‘Paint’, which is typically installed on every PC.   You can locate Paint under ‘All Programs’ then choose ‘Accessories’ and ‘Paint’.

Change an icon in dynamics CRM step 1

Open the high resolution icon, click on “Resize” and select the size needed.

This is how you resize/change an icon in Dynamics CRM

Maintain the aspect ratio when resizing your CRM 2011 icon

You will need to uncheck the ‘Maintain aspect ratio’ and select ‘Pixels’ as the ‘Resize By’ option.

Perform a “Save As” for each of the required sizes.   In Microsoft Dynamics CRM, icons require three format sizes:  16x16, 32x32, and 66x48.

The best naming convention to use is the ‘icon name’ and ‘size’.  For example, name the sized icon   grain16x16, grain32x32, grain66x48.   That way, the icon name identifies the size of the icon.

Save each of the icons in a convenient location on your computer for use in the next step.

Within the custom entity, choose ‘Update Icons’ from the ribbon.

Upload your resized icons for Dynamics CRM

Click on ‘Find’ for the Web application icon.

Select your new icon for Dynamics CRM from the drop-down

Click on "New"

how to change dynamics CRM icons

Provide a Web Resource Name and a Web Resource Display Name for your CRM 2011 icon.   Import the file type into the web resource.

You will need to complete this process for all three icon sizes.  The example below uses an .ico file type for the 32x32 icon file.

Note: The icon size cannot exceed 10 kb.

Now, all three of the new icons are located in the web resource view.

You can view your CRM 2011 icons in the Web Resource view

After all three icons are selected within the Web Resource, click "Ok."

Assign those three icons within the Web Resource

Publish the Entity.

Now we publish!

The new icon is displayed in the left navigation area within Microsoft Dynamics CRM and in the Outlook client, if the Outlook client is being used.

See your new icon in Dynamic CRM and the Outlook client

Congratulations! You’ve just updated your first icon in Microsoft Dynamics CRM .

Want to know what else you can do to personalize your experience? Try customizing your dashboard to make it more "social" by adding an activity feed, or explore conditional formatting options in the Outlook client.

Happy CRM’ing!

Joe CRM
By Joe D365
Joe D365 is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 superhero who runs on pure Dynamics adrenaline. As the face of PowerObjects, Joe D365’s mission is to reveal innovative ways to use Dynamics 365 and bring the application to more businesses and organizations around the world.

5 comments on “How to Change an Icon in Dynamics CRM within a Custom Entity”

  1. I'm getting an error message when I attempt to upload my icons. "Icon has incorrect dimensions. The shortcut icon must be 32 pixels by 32 pixels"
    I've created the icon in Illustrator, and believe me, I'd triple-checked the dimensions...it's 32x32. There is nothing outside of the 32x32 artboard dimensions, and the first icon I uploaded worked fine. Now, it won't even work uploaded a test icon with a single dot in the center of the square.
    Help!

    1. Hi - triple check that the image type is correct. Is your crm on premises? if so, restart the async services in case something is stuck there.

  2. In Dynamics 2013, some of the built-in icons (like Workplace, Resource Center, and Reports) were not updated with the new white/gray design. I can't customize the icon from the list of entities, as they exist outside of it. What do I need to do to update them? Thank you!

  3. Updated the entity with the icon as you mentioned but unable to see the same in mobile form. Please help.

    1. Hi Arun,

      We have seen a couple things cause this. Potential fixes: do a publish all instead of publish entity, clear cache in your mobile device, and sometimes we do find an image/icon that does not work in the mobile device. Are you using mobile in a phone or the iphone/android/windows tablet client ?

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