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By which I mean the files which are referenced as chrome://theme/IDR_PROFILE_AVATAR_X

I have identified the icon used as being %APPDATA%/Local/Chromium/User Data/Profile X/Google Profile.ico

But what I'm looking for is the image used in the top left.

Chromium User
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  • Same question (unanswered) for Ubuntu: http://superuser.com/questions/383980/how-to-set-upperleft-corner-icon-to-google-profile-avatar-image-for-chrome-on-ub – Chromium User Jul 15 '12 at 20:08

3 Answers3

13
  1. Quit Chrome (ensure you don't have any running)
  2. Find the Chrome application directory (e.g., on windows, it is %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data
  3. Put your new avatar png file in the "Default" subdirectory.
  4. Edit "Local State" in a good text editor

  5. Find the "profile" section; it resembles this:

       "profile": {
      "info_cache": {
         "Default": {
            "avatar_icon": "chrome://theme/IDR_PROFILE_AVATAR_7",

  6. Ignore the "avatar_icon" line - it's not what you want!

  7. Edit the "Default" profile section and add the following lines (I put them in the right alphabetical order amongst the other lines; I'm not sure whether that matters):

                "gaia_picture_file_name": "your-icon-file-name.png",
            "has_migrated_to_gaia_info": true,
            "use_gaia_picture": true,

  8. Save the "Local State" file.

  9. Start Chrome.

If you want to do this for other profiles, just do the above steps for a different directory besides "Default" (for example, "Profile 1").

I had run chrome with the --gaia-profile-info switch before I tried the above, so you may need to do that first, but I'm not sure.

You may want to star the Chrome issue 91230 http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=91230 to get a proper UI for this type of thing again.

mtd
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    It seems that it is necessary to enable Gaia profile info, however (at least in Chrome Canary) you can now do this from `chrome://flags` rather than having to run the app with the dipswitch on the command line. Also, on OSX the path looks more like this: `~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome Canary/Default/Preferences` – jrz Sep 08 '13 at 15:24
  • Is this not working anymore? – laggingreflex Jul 20 '14 at 16:52
  • It works for me. – awe Aug 31 '16 at 07:39
4

The icons are in the file C:/Program Files (x86)/Chromium/chrome.dll

You can use an application such as 7-Zip to browse the contents.

(You may need to close Chromium before you can access the file - or create a copy.)

Go to chrome.dll/.rsrc/BINDATA/ and you will see a bunch of numerically named files.

Files 6167 to 6192 are the avatar icons, in PNG format.

Unfortunately 7-Zip doesn't seem to support putting changed files back into the DLL, so need to find other software to do that...

Warning: modifying the chrome.dll does change the image, but also appears to stop keyboard shortcuts from working...

Chromium User
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  • Would you happen to know where they are located on MAC? – Joseph Marikle Dec 31 '12 at 15:21
  • Editing the binary dll would possibly cause all kinds of unexpected behaviour. Stopping keybord shortcuts is a minor thing. There might also be more hidden stuff that is not working, like security issues etc... – awe Aug 31 '16 at 07:45
  • The [aswer by **mtd**](http://superuser.com/a/639248/10342) is the best way, as this just tweaks configuration for supported functionality. – awe Aug 31 '16 at 07:47
2

Answer 1 totally does work. However, there are caveats.

  1. It puts a strange square around your image. I can deal with that but it's not as nice as the ones in the .dll.
  2. It stretches the image vertically. You'll have to "squish" it a bit to get the correct proportion.
  3. You'll have to go back into "edit" to select your new image
  4. Bob's your uncle. I'll attach a picture below so you can see the results.

You can see the results here:

enter image description here

pabouk - Ukraine stay strong
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user307553
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