I was unnerved by my desktop icon for the game turning into a gross grey creeper face out of nowhere, especially in light of the malware scuffle of not many months ago.
I looked into it and it seems it IS official! Minecraft decided to rejigger all the icons for every version in mid 2023. Just cuz.
So that's (probably) not malware and it's not just you, if you notice it. Nothing blew up and nobody's desktop is in danger. Anyways, here's a .ICO file of a grass block and instructions on how to change the desktop icon (back) into it:
- Download the above beautiful .ICO file (a file type that is used only for Windows desktop icons).
- Alternatively if there's something else you want your shortcut to look like, grab your regular image file (.PNG, .JPEG, .BMP, etc) and hit a search engine up with "BMP to ICO converter" (change BMP to whatever your file is). There will be ten billion free converters, pick whichever one looks least sketchy to you and use it to make a copy of your image that's a .ICO.
- Right-click the Minecraft shortcut on your desktop. Choose Properties.
- Choose the Shortcut tab at the top. Find the Change Icon... button, probably in the middle or the bottom of the pane.
- Choose Browse... and navigate to wherever your shiny .ICO file is living. Pick your superior shortcut image (either double-click, or click to select then hit Open).
- In the Select an icon from the list below: gallery make sure your chosen image is the selected one. Hit OK. Hit Apply. (Windows may bawl about admin permissions. Regular Windows behavior.) Hit OK.
- Admire your infinitely better desktop icon.