Customize Windows 7 HomeGroup with a new name and a new icon

In a recent blog post, “Remove HomeGroup from Windows Explorer in Windows 7,” I showed you how to remove HomeGroup from the navigation pane in Windows Explorer by disabling the HomeGroup services. Before I did so, I provided you with links to several articles that I wrote extolling the HomeGroup feature in the hopes that after reading them you might begin to see that the HomeGroup feature is a valuable asset to the operating system from both a security and efficiency standpoint. For those of you who decided to keep or to reactivate the Windows 7 HomeGroup as well as for those of you who have always appreciated this new feature, I’ve discovered a few ways that you can customize the HomeGroup networking tool with a couple of registry edits — you can rename it and you can change its icon. Read more.