Ugly icons (17.4) - can they be changed?

Had the same reaction.   Worse, "reset the UI to default" moves everything around.  There is a save function we need to use after getting it arranged the way we want.  View> UI> SaveSettings>

Another surprise going from 16.6 to 17.4, the Edit mode buttons on the toolbar are replaced with the mode/indicator button at the bottom of the UI near the DRC indicator.

So the Icons do take a bit of getting used to but there is no way to change them back. They do follow a "windows" standard now though so many tools are starting to look like this. The app modes icons are still there (just not green anymore). If you don't see them then look at View - Customise Toolbar and make sure App mode is turned on. There has always been a few ways to invoke app modes (icons, bottom of the UI, right click - application modes or Setup Application Modes) so no change here (even in 16.6).

App Mode checked but..   oh, there they are.  I didn't recognize them.  Used the button at the bottom.

Have to rant.  Due to average salary in the bay area, this industry has moved past the era of full time designers needing a comfortable guest chair, management now expects engineers to start layout while I'm dealing with last-minute changes on the current project.   They don't.  A dozen icons and two dozen keyboard commands to remember and anyone can use PADS.  They just can't meet schedule.  Other software wastes hardware and software debug time..

IMO, 17.4 took too much detail out of the icons.  Delete isolated shape copper:  Rectangle with a red X.  Datatip toggle.  Rectangle with two dots and an arrow.  

There is an icon image format (*.ico or *.icon) if you are writing visual studio code or assigning an icon to a file in Windows.  Most seem to be in the 17.2 install directory but for java routines that I don't recognize.  It looks like 17.2 had some java code that I may not have installed for 17.4.  That's about it.

An option to use the old icons would have been nice but we may have conquered that point for everyone (not having to run 16.6 and 17.2 in parallel for workflow.)

(thank god we can convert 17.4 back to 17.2...)

I agree -- this is a worthless change that skewed the tool towards the gutter as did a lot of the buggy updates in the last version (17.2).  I don't think anyone at Cadence is actually using the user opinion to drive the tool.  Sigh...  Tried Altium (yikes). Pads (back to the 80's).  What's left?  Mentor Expedition?  :(

Have to agree, and the dark grey background, really? Change for the better is sometimes hard to adapt to but there is a reward, this just seems to be change for changes sake. If it doesn't add to the experince, feature set or users productivity what's the point?