Default Placemark Icon

I would like to change the default icon for new placemarks in Google Earth.

I know that within a GE session it will remember the last icon used and use that for new placemarks, however on closing down / restarting GE it reverts to the yellow pushpin (based on maps.google.com/mapfiles/kml/pushpin/ylw-pushpin.png).

Any ideas if this is possible?

Many thanks

As far as I can see, you can't change the default icon (the yellow pushpin). If you could find where the installed icons are stored in the program code, I should think you could modify it, but that would be a violation of the Terms of Use Agreement.

But if you have one you'd like to use, just save a placemark which uses it somewhere close to the top of your My Places. When you open Google Earth, just right-click it and select Properties. All subsequent placemarks you create will have that placemark's icon, including icons you have created yourself. They will also have copied all the style setting, like size and color of icons and labels, and any style elements you have added by editing the KML file, like background color and default font color.



If you had multiple user-defined icons and styles you'd like to reuse, you could put them in a folder of placemarks near the top, where it's easily accessed.