How To: Change Icons – The easy way!
Posted: September 21, 2007 | Author: Paul | Filed under: How To, Organization, Pimp My GUI | Tags: Application, Change, Icons, Mac, Replace |29 Comments »My How To: Change Icons guide is perhaps one of my most popular posts I’ve ever made. It shows you how to change icons manually. However, lots of people complained about how it was time consuming to change all of your icons, and people were getting pissy about how the only application which does it for you automatically is CandyBar, which you must buy.
While CandyBar is an excellent application, I have bumped into the freeware, almost equivalent version of CandyBar! Allow me to present to you LiteIcon! Almost has all the features CandyBar does. However, one fairly big thing which it lacks is the ability to change application icons (but you can go ahead and do that manually).
Get LiteIcon here.
Check out CandyBar
Check out the How To: Change Icons guide
[...] How To: Change Icons – The easy way! [...]
How do you change them back?
Click the icon and press ‘delete’
Hello, I’ve read your article and I found out how to change the
icons, but now I need to know how to change the “Finder”
icon and the “Trash full” and “Trash empty” icons, what do I
need to do to change them and they change automatically
when I make the “empty trash” command…
Please help me. I appreciate you take the time to read my
comment. Thank you.
CLaudia Gutiérrez.
Get liteicon or CandyBar (linked in post) and it’s somwhere there. For Liteicon, I think you’ll find the icons to replace by clicking on the dock tab.
hi
first time that i see your side, and i like it, but well, i will show you some other stuff, that i love an my mac too
http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/next/
i use it for a long time, and every day i see some new, and now they are really on the top
regards from vienna/austria
Hello Paul,
i changed the Icon of my trash but i’d like to change the name too.
Do you know have another “easy way”?
Thank you so much.
T
I don’t even know if there’s a hard way to do it! Normally, when you want to rename a file, you just click on the name and type what you want, but the Trash is a deep system file, there is no actual ‘file’ to click on.
Hi I got CANDYBar and changed icons like safari, textedit.
However, the files that open w/ safari/textedit are still using the original icons.
I also tried to use GetInfo, changed the program that open to Firefox for all(icons changed) then changed back to Safari, yet rather than using the new Candybar Icon, it still has the default.
Any suggestions or ideas of where I can change or edit the original?
Hmmm, the files that open with Safari won’t change because you didn’t change those files, you only changed Safari as an application. As for changing them, I’m not sure how, unless you do each one manually – I can check as soon as I’m done studying for my Physics test
Good luck on your test.
What is odd is, using getinfo, open with, and change all, if I set it to open w/ textedit, it changes the icons to what I have textedit set at rather than the original/default.
However, if I go back to safari, it changes it back to the old safari!
I am using the samurai collection of icons btw.
Hey there, thanks, I got a 91%
I’m not sure what you mean, what is the ‘it’ you’re talking about? The Safari icon? You’re changing it but it goes back to the default icon?
Hello, I have read your article and it´s very good of you to find an free one, but one question: It says it´s for leopard and tiger only! What should I do? I have 10,5,4! Is it possible to use it anyway? HELP, I want that software!
Then you’re good to go! 10.5.4 is a leopard OS!
Another question: Do I risk anything by using Litelcon? It says: ¨LiteIcon is distributed “as-is” and without warranty. I’m not in any way responsible for software or hardware damage that may result from its use¨.
There’s always a risk, in no matter what you do. You never know when some weird stuff might just freak out on you. I think liteicon is pretty safe though, but they have to put a message up like that because when some weird thing does happen, they can’t afford to be held responsible.
I’d say it’s safe, but you can always change icons manually if you prefer.
I use this program to change the trash can, regular folder and so on. Thanks for the help! And: Do you use it?
Yes, you can use it for changing the generic folder and trashcan, along with other system icons. I have used it before, but I bought CandyBar 3, so I’m using that instead
Is there a free really good dock-changing-program? I would really like to know!
I´m about to change everything !
http://www.dockulicious.com/download
Thanks a lot! Works perfectly
The problem I’m having that some, but not all of the icons I want to change will not highlight (blue halo). Thought it might be a permissions thing but I worked through all that. I’ve unmounted the drive and remounted. Restarted until I’m blue in the face. Also, I tried to change the icon on a DVD was fixing to burn and it worked just fine at first but after the burn it reverted to it’s original stock. The name change did work, however.
Many thanks.
Hello, again, now I need an answer, I previously have changed an icon (without an app) and now I shall replace it with a new icon, but when I do so, it only becomes the previous icon! What shall I do??
Try opening the ‘get info’ window, clicking on the icon that was previously modified, and deleting. It should revert to the original. Then go back on LiteIcon and change it to whatever you want it to become.
hi paul,
I changed my Safari icon to a Domo Kun but now i can’t change the icon to another icon nor the original one! I change the icon and in finder it comes out as the new icon I placed, but not in dock, not even when i turn off and on my mac. It Stays with the Domo Kun icon. i alrready tried with several icons and even the original one!
HELP!
btw im using OS X
Hey sorry I found the answer to my last comment on how to change it back. I am now wondering why it wont paste. I brought up the two “get info” windows and I copied the icon i want and tried to paste it but the paste isn’t working. Have any ideas?
Thanks Jackson
hello! since the LiteIcon people has rebuild their website (i guess!) your link is broken now… thank you for that article! ‘CandyBar’ for free was what i was looking for since ages!
the blue girl
Ever heard of google? <3
It does not work as smoothly as expected. After changing several of my desktop folder icons, it just stopped working. I’ve tried hundreds of times, and nothing seems to work. Instead of a dull blue folder I get an even duller white page con with an extension that describes the image I chose to try to personalize my folders (jpeg, png, etc) but the images are nowhere to be seen. Any thoughts??