When using Internet Explorer in Windows, you can click and hold on the favicon in the address bar and drag it to the desktop to create a shortcut to that page. Usually, it picks its own icon – IE’s ‘E’ icon, Firefox’s fox, and so on. If a site doesn’t provide a favicon, it’s up to the browser to pick one. (“ico” is the file format used for icon images.) Some browsers, like Internet Explorer, display the favicon in the browser address bar when you visit a page on that site. When you bookmark a site, or add it to your Favorites, the favicon is typically used as the icon that appears in the Favorites toolbar or menu – hence, the name: favorites icon. The icon, often called “favicon.ico”, is placed in the root of the site.
Websites have the ability to provide a custom icon in the form of a “default icon”, which can be used for several purposes. In fact, there are a couple of approaches. It’s not that difficult to provide a custom icon for a shortcut at all.
