Create your own icons in Paint

This is good. You don't need any icon creating programs, just MSPaint.

Launch Paint from the All Programs | Accessories menu.
Pull down the Image menu and select the Attributes command.
In the Attributes dialog box, type 32 in both the Width and Height boxes and click OK.
To make the image easier to work with, click the Magnifier tool and select the level 8 magnification setting.
Press [Ctrl]G to add gridlines.
Use the tools and colors to create your icon.
Press [Ctrl]S and save the file with an ICO extension.

Source: *articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877_11-6134550.html?tag=nl.e064

Thanks Blackperl for such a good tut

thanx bro for a nice , simple and effective tut.

Does it have to be 32X32? I once tried this method, my pic was big, and I couldn't set it as an icon.

32x32 shouldn't be big. Thats the normal size.

^^ What I meant was, my pic was bigger than 32X32. I didn't say 32X32 is big.

^^
32x32 is default icon size, every icon must be 32x32 or 16x16 (as required).

I got it now....