How to Change Icons in OS X
Posted on May 25th, 2007. 22 Comments so far. You next?
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Since I’m fresh off the boat of Windows, and have arrived in my new home of Mac OS X, I’ve run into some troubles as everyone will. Luckily I know some people who know pretty much everything about the OS, so I won’t be too bad, but here is something I’ve learned.
Changing your icons in OS X is something that is really easy to do once you figure it out. Especially with the new Adobe CS3 icons, a lot of people are wondering how to do it. So I present to you, my guide, on how to change your icons in Mac OS X.
Step 1 - Navigate to your Macintosh HD, then through Applications find the program you want to change the icon for. Double click to open the folder. Click the picture below for the full view.
Step 2 - Find the folder where your new icon is, and copy it (command + C).
Step 3 - With your program selected (don’t run it), press Command + I for the program’s info. The dialog that shows up is below (click for full view).
Step 4 - At the top left of that dialog, you will see the app’s icon that is currently in use. Click the icon. It should get blue border around it, meaning it is selected. If you don’t get this border right away, click again, or try opening the dialog (Cmd + I) again. The highlighted icon is shown below (click for full view).
Step 5 - Next, with your icon selected, you’re going to paste the new one right over it by pressing Cmd + V. The new icon should appear in both places shown in a second or so. The new dialog should change to look similar to below:
Step 6 - You’re all set! Run the new application and maybe click on the desktop a couple of times and your Dock should update the new icon too!
So as you can see to the left, replacement icons can be very cool. The Illustrator, Dreamweaver and Photoshop (CS3) icons I’m using there can all be found at Adam Bett’s website, under his CS3 Replacement Icon set. Now you can change any icon you feel like. Maybe you’ll want to switch around some stuff, or whatever, but now you know how to do it!
22 comments
May 26th, 2007 at 7:49 AM
Jesus there HOT. Can’t wait till i get my mac (only £250 to go)
May 26th, 2007 at 10:27 PM
Sweet, I’ve had my Powerbook for three months now and I had no idea you could do that.
June 2nd, 2007 at 5:46 AM
Whoa thats easy! Just tryed it on my new mac!
September 16th, 2007 at 5:31 AM
Hey, I tried this step by step a few times and it still doesn’t work. The icon changes, but just to the generic file icon. What else can I do?
September 16th, 2007 at 10:56 AM
This method does work. Make sure you’re doing each step right, and selecting the right file type for an icon. What’s the file extension of your icon that you want to use?
October 24th, 2007 at 11:37 PM
I already knew about doing this, but that Icon set is slick. Way better than the CS3 defaults.
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:15 PM
I changed my icons the other day but i’ve changed my mind now, i went to change them back and went through the contents folder of the apps and found the icon but when i changed it back it just goes to the Preview image icon :S
Can anyone help?
January 25th, 2008 at 5:51 AM
Great, easy to follow tutorial.
I found it easy to change my icon, but it didn’t work.
I’m using a basic 128 x 128 .png icon.
I changed it, but to the .png preview file icon.
I’m wondering whether its the file type that did this.
So it seems Derek and I are in the same boat.
January 28th, 2008 at 4:45 PM
is there any way to mass change the icons in a similar way?
i ve been looking and couldn’t find this feature or command since 10.3.0
and i don’t want to use 3rd party software for this
January 28th, 2008 at 4:47 PM
for creating icons from image files check coco thumb x
been using for 1.5 years now
new version is even better
enjoy
February 25th, 2008 at 12:35 PM
Ok, great, but how do you copy the icon from a website? (the icon that shows to the left of the URL)
March 9th, 2008 at 3:41 AM
I too am getting a generic picture and not an actual icon?!? I used Icon Composer to make an .icns file, but it doesn’t work. Can anyone help??
March 10th, 2008 at 10:20 AM
I can only change the icon on the top of the info box, the one on the bottom stays the same, and so does the icon in the actual folder.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:21 AM
Very useful information for me. Thanks a lot.
March 24th, 2008 at 1:02 PM
Sweet resource, just what I have been looking for.
I have added you to Stumbleupon.
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:36 AM
Very nice info about changing icons.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:38 AM
How can I change them back? I mean where are the system i cons? Can I back them up?
May 21st, 2008 at 6:41 AM
How to change icons of folders in my system
May 21st, 2008 at 11:07 PM
Hey great article - I’m in my new mac home too and love how all my worries with mac are usually solved through simple little processes like this!
I see a lot of people are asking about backing up the default icons, and I will be interested to see what the story is there.
Thanks for the article Connor, I’ll stay tuned
Anthea
May 31st, 2008 at 1:07 AM
Thanks for the great article. Here is a link to CocoThumb X (converts graphic files into icon files)… http://www.stalkingwolf.net/software/cocothumbx/
June 26th, 2008 at 12:31 AM
Thanks for writing this up. I’m a recent convert to OS X as well, and it takes a while to get used to everything. The things I took for granted when I was using XP. LOL.
July 1st, 2008 at 2:02 PM
Thank you, you really helped me out here! I love clear and coherent step by step instructions like this.
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