diff --git a/Lib/idlelib/Icons/README.txt b/Lib/idlelib/Icons/README.txt
index 8b471629ecb..d91c4d5d8d8 100644
--- a/Lib/idlelib/Icons/README.txt
+++ b/Lib/idlelib/Icons/README.txt
@@ -7,3 +7,7 @@ https://www.doxdesk.com/software/py/pyicons.html
 
 Various different formats and sizes are available at this GitHub Pull Request:
 https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/17473
+
+The idle.ico file was created with ImageMagick:
+
+    $ convert idle_16.png idle_32.png idle_48.png idle_256.png idle.ico
diff --git a/Lib/idlelib/Icons/idle.ico b/Lib/idlelib/Icons/idle.ico
index 3357aef1488..2aa9a8300d9 100644
Binary files a/Lib/idlelib/Icons/idle.ico and b/Lib/idlelib/Icons/idle.ico differ
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/IDLE/2020-04-22-09-37-40.bpo-38439.ieXL-c.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/IDLE/2020-04-22-09-37-40.bpo-38439.ieXL-c.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d8d59015f20
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/IDLE/2020-04-22-09-37-40.bpo-38439.ieXL-c.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Add a 256×256 pixel IDLE icon to the Windows .ico file. Created by Andrew
+Clover. Remove the low-color gif variations from the .ico file.