Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with icon

They were wrong with Vista - maybe here, too...

Nice Guy Mike — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 21:24:37 -0800

Custom Folder Icons on Network Shares - Microsoft says it can't be done... are they right? I'm trying to figure out how to use custom folder icons in Windows XP*. While getting them working on the local machine drives is fine, I can't get them to work on Samba shares, either on a mapped drive (y:\samba\share) or a standard SMB share (\\samba\share).

Hunting round, I've found an MS knowledgebase article here, which simply states that the option is "not available" under these circumstances.

Is anyone aware of any reg hacks/3rd party software that will enable custom icons on network share folders? Failing that, are there any workarounds - the best I can come up with is a local folder with customised-icon individual links to the samba folders - rather cumbersome, especially when I change the remote folder structure in any way...

* Client machine is XP Service Pack 2, Server is Ubuntu 8.10, in case that's relevant.

I'm tired of pixelated icons in ObjectDock

theichibun — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 07:52:38 -0800

How can I change the icons in the title bar for OpenOffice's Writer, Calc, and Presentation? I'm looking to fix this pixelated icon issue, so even if I can just change the icon on ObjectDock I'd be happy. Hell, at this point I'd be happy if I have to change it so that all OpenOffice programs

I've tried looking from the ObjectDock and OpenOffice end of things. Nothing has come up so far that would allow me to change the icon either on the dock or overall for OpenOffice products. And Google for the past few days has only showed me how to change the icons on the toolbars inside the program. Cool, but not exactly what I'm looking to do.

I also know that normally I could either right click and change the icon under the dock properties in ObjectDock or the executable's properties. The ObjectDock solution doesn't acknowledge the change and there isn't even an option to change the icon if I'm looking at the executable's properties.

I'm using XP, ObjectDock version 1.90 build 536, and OpenOffice version 3.0.1.

How can I launch URLs from the OS X dock (with proper icons)?

SethLeonard — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 14:34:09 -0800

How can I create an app/shortcut that lives in the OS X dock that has an icon of my choosing and launches in the browser of my choice? Difficulty: no @ icons, no SSB. It seemed like a simple task when I decided I wanted to launch Google Docs from my OS X dock. However, after much searching and testing, I have found the following options, none of which work for me:

1) Drag the URL/favicon onto the dock. This works great to launch the web page I want from the dock in my default browser (what I wanted). However, it also has that lame @ icon (which I can't seem to change to anything but a file type preview icon) AND it is forced to live outside of the app section.

2) Use a tool like Fluid (fluidapp.com) to create an application to launch the URL. This works great by using the icon of my choice and being able to be placed in the app section (solves above problems). But it also forces these links to open in an SSB (site specific browser) that loses all of my cookies, etc. I'd rather it just open in Firefox.

So, does anyone know of a way that I can combine these and have a URL launch from the dock:

- with the icon of my choice
- in Firefox
- from the app section of the dock (optional)

???

Thanks,
Seth

Profiting from the Feed Icon ?

querty — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:58:54 -0800

Profiting from the Feed Icon ? graphics.design.legal.filter.dot.dot.dot...

If I wanted to do a design that includes the Feed Icon as the main focus (but not as the main subject) and the icon is only seen in less than ~25% of the design as a small element or if the Feed Icon is broken up in half or in a few pieces, would that be "okay" with Mozilla's Feed Icon Guidelines? The design would then be sold for profit of course.

If you read the last 3 answers/paragraphs on their guidelines, it is really loosely written. So what is stopping people from making Feed Icon designs and selling them as t-shirts and mouse pads on CafePress?

If you check iStockphoto, there are people who sell the actual icon file with little to no accompanied designs/artwork: http://www.istockphoto.com/file_search.php?action=file&text=rss+feed+icon

What icon represents 'Graphic Design?'

stackhaus23 — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 06:24:22 -0800

What icon represents 'Graphic Design?' If you could use one icon to represent a graphic design department within a creative agency, what would it be?

For example -

Sound = Headphones/Speakers,
Video = Video Camera/Filmstrip,
Photography = Camera/Film Canister,
Graphic Design = ?

By Graphic Design, I mean in the broadest sense... Both Screen and Print based.

PS - Not a Mac!

SuperDrive icon is super annoying

BitterOldPunk — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 11:33:51 -0800

Why the mystery icon? Should I eat it? I just upgraded my desktop Mac (2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB SDRAM) to Leopard 10.5.5, attached an external 250 GB LaCie hard drive via USB, and directed Time Machine to back up to the new drive. No problem, works like a charm.

But now when I restart, there's a SuperDrive icon up in the right-hand corner alongside the usual Time Machine, BlueTooth, AirPort, Volume, Date & Time, and Spotlight icons. Clicking on the icon gets me a single grayed-out and unclickable "SuperDrive" menu option. There is no CD/DVD in the drive.

(OK, I just put in a DVD, it played fine, and I can use the icon to eject it.)

Is this just a convenient way of ejecting discs in Leopard? Can I make it go away? (I don't like icons I'll never use cluttering my workspace, and since ejecting the disc doesn't quit the DVD Player, what's the point of this icon?) Apple Help is, of course, no help.

Also, I will accept praise for actually implementing a plan to back up my data after years of saying I'll do it someday.

What are the permitted uses for these icons?

cuban link flooded jesus — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:55:35 -0800

Can anyone explain the use limitations for these icons? I am completely lost in the legalese. What are the permitted uses for these icons? What are the limitations? Basically, I want to know what I have to do to use these icons without getting into trouble.

Also, can anyone point me to icons that are as big and stunning and cover such a breadth of subjects? I am open to licensing if necessary.

What is that printmaking symbol called?

damnthesehumanhands — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:45:44 -0800

What is that symbol one finds at the beginnings or endings of chapters of books called? It's like a little arabesque, but with a (reasonably) flat bottom or top.

Encircled Letter "F"

Tube — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:59:03 -0800

What is this unusual symbol? I have a number of old Popular Mechanix magazines that date from the mid 1950's to the 1970's. Recently I noticed that a number of covers contain an encircled letter "F" within or adjacent to the words "Popular Mechanix". It's not a misprint, as it shows up on a number of covers, some years apart.

Here is a photograph of a cover from 1974. Here is a close-up.

Here is the same symbol from a 1964 cover.

I'm guessing that the encircled "F" is a trademark or copyright symbol of some sort, like an encircled letter "C", but despite some Internet searches regarding trademarks and copyright symbols, I've yet to find any mention of this symbol.

String art project

levijk — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:21:18 -0800

Looking for images of simple continuous line art, such as clipart or icons. Looking for some continuous line art for a craft project made of string, something like these, only without the $239 price tag. Public domain images online or in a book would work. Thanks.

Disable favicon animation?

equalpants — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:04:32 -0800

How can I disable favicon animation in Firefox 3? In Firefox 3 Beta 3, Windows version, is there a way to disable favicon animation on the bookmarks toolbar without turning off favicons entirely? (Or, is there a way to permanently delete or replace a favicon?)

Things I've tried already:
1. Setting image.animation_mode to "none". This stops images in websites from animating, but doesn't affect the bookmarks toolbar.
2. This extension for replacing bookmark icons. It doesn't seem to work on Firefox 3 (nothing gets added to the bookmark manager, and its Options dialog doesn't work).
3. Removing the offending icon data from bookmarks.html (while Firefox is not running). The icon doesn't go away. (I guess there must be another cache somewhere?)

I like having BugMeNot readily available, but that goddamn "no" sign better stop spinning around, or he's out the door...

P.S. Possible substitute question: is there an alternative to BugMeNot that doesn't have a dancing icon?

How to restore a missing drive icon for a external drive in Windows Vista?

randomthoughts — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 08:00:11 -0800

How to restore a missing drive icon for a external drive in Windows Vista? In my need to keep order and visual appeal, how do I install a drive icon for my Western Digital 250GB External Drive in Windows Vista Home Premium which currently shows a generic no icon icon?

I have already tried the Vista Drive Icon program and it wouldn't run for some reason.

No more bounce! Damn ye, Mac dock!

grumblebee — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 08:42:45 -0800

Does anyone know a way to stop icons from bouncing on the OS X doc? I'm NOT talking about unchecking "animate opening applications" in the dock preferences. That only stops opening-app bounces. I want to stop warning bounces, too. They drive me crazy. Please note that I'm using an INTEL Mac (Leopard). I've only been able to find solutions for PowerPC Macs.

get rid of icon in mail

cg2 — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 13:24:51 -0800

How do I get rid of my flower "icon" in Mail? It only shows up in my own messages when I bcc myself, but it is really annoying.

Changing file-types icons in OS X?

chudmonkey — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 23:26:37 -0800

In OS X, how can I change the icon associated with a specific file type/extension? I'm shocked and embarrassed that I have to ask this question here. I apologize in advance if I'm ignorant of something really basic, but I've Googled this problem 5 ways from Sunday with no useful results.

I'm running 10.4.10. I have CandyBar. I use MPlayer to play .rmvb (RealMedia Variable Bitrate) files, but when I changed the default application for the file-type, the icon changed from the RealPlayer icon to the OS X default/blank-terminal-window-looking icon rather than the MPlayer video icon that all other video file-types display. I know how to change an individual file's icon, but I have no idea how to change the icon for all .rmvb files.

I know how to use CandyBar to change the document icons associated with a particular app, and I tried changing MPlayer's "video" icon a few times, but that didn't affect the .rmvb files, only the file-types that already show the proper icon.

When I consider that this process takes about 8 clicks and 20 seconds in Windows, I feel like a moron for not figuring it out in OS X. If you can help, I sure hope you will. Thanks in advance!

Rebuild Vista icon cache?

phaded — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 20:18:12 -0800

Why is Vista showing the wrong icon for Windows Photo Gallery? This is a question that really amounts to nothing more than cosmetics, but it's still nagging me, and so I am choosing to burn my question for the week by asking it. I had previously asked about changing the default program for video playback. That question was answered rather quickly, but it came with an unwanted side effect: the icon for Windows Photo Gallery in Vista's Set Default Programs screen has been replaced by a generic one, as can be seen in this image. The same icon is shown if I go to the Set Associations screen.

In XP, I'd just fire up TweakUI and rebuild the icon cache, which would fix problems like this. I don't know what would do that in Vista, though, and while it's not hurting any part of my system, it's bugging me, and if there's a way to fix this, I'd love to know what it is.

Orange clashes with my colour scheme...

Solomon — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 04:23:59 -0800

How do I give Firefox 2.0.0.4 a custom executable icon? In a previous install of Firefox, instead of the fox/earth icon, I had an earth only icon. It was like a little globe, and it was shown instead of the fox/earth icon, wherever the executable was run - in the main window, on the taskbar, in the systray, etc.

I seem to recall getting the icon from a site that had several of these "themes" that you could download. I seem to remember a Thunderbird theme on the same site that looked like the bird was made of crystal. It wasn't an extension I used, but I'm pretty sure it was something to do with editing a .css file?

Where is this site?

iTunes annoyance

Aloysius Bear — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 16:38:46 -0800

When I right-click the iTunes icon in the Windows system tray, often the taskbar context menu will pop up at the same time and interfere with the iTunes menu, like this. How can I fix this? The iTunes taskbar toolbar works, but it takes up much more space than the system tray icon. The problem seems to happen mostly when an application has focus, rather than the taskbar. TIA!

Vista System Tray Icon Weirdness

chaosscontrol — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 10:24:02 -0800

I'm running Vista on a Toshiba Satellite A105-S361 and the icon I've highlighted at this link keeps showing up in my system tray. Setting to "Hide" gets rid of it for the current session, but upon re-starting Vista, it shows up again. Does anyone know how to get rid of this and/or what it is?

Outlook Taskbar Icon Go Bye Bye?

antifuse — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 07:09:45 -0800

Where has my Outlook New Mail notification on the taskbar gone? Ok - I'm using Outlook 2003 SP2 on my XP machine here at work. It *used* to be the case that whenever a new mail message arrived, a little envelope icon would show up in my taskbar. This was great, because if I left my desk for 20 minutes and a new mail arrived, I wouldn't have to switch to Outlook to see if I had any new mail. However, at some point in the last 6 months or so, this icon just stopped appearing! I still get the "New Mail Desktop Notification" that pops up a little message summary, but that fades and disappears after a couple seconds (and sometimes just doesn't show up at all). I've scoured the settings, and can't seem to find what causes the little icon to show up in the taskbar! Anybody have any ideas?

What's this directshow software doing?

tomble — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 12:44:24 -0800

I recently noticed that some video downloads were failing because the video files were `in use'. Then I noticed that for very brief moments, an icon which turned out to be `Ogg Direct show filter' was flashing on and off in my toolbar. How can I stop it? It seems to be accessing files for no reason, I don't have the directory open, don't have any media players going.

This program shows up in such short bursts that I am unable to see it as a process and stop it. I can only imagine it was part of a codec pack I downloaded a while back, but why it is running so often I don't understand.

This is on a windows XP machine.

Windows XP Systray question: How do I make the systray icons line up in 2 rows instead of 1?

SamFrancisco — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 10:13:54 -0800

Windows XP Systray question: How do I make the systray icons line up in 2 rows instead of 1? My up-to-date windows XP SP2 system Dell Dimension 4600 spontaneously developed a behavior that I like [imagine that !!] But it is intermittent and I would like to make it constant. My Systray area has 16+ icons, and on reboot the icons usually line up in 2 rows. I like this because it takes up less space at the bottom of my screen, leaving more room for the taskbar. Sometimes when I double-click one of the Systray icons, and/or sometime when I minimize an app to the systray, the double row disappears, making the systray icons spread out all across the bottom row, making the taskbar area way small. I should mention that I am running TClockX [a fancy system clock] at the right of the Systray, and when I close TClockX the double row invariably reverts to a single row which stays single even when I reopen TClockX. FWIW, when I make the bottom area double height, the Systray icons line up in 3 rows, but then always returns to a single row when I shrink the bottom area back to the usual single height. I usually get the double row on reboot, but not invariably. Does anyone out there understand the mysteries of the Systray? Thanks for your wisdom, MeFites.

16+ icons, I know: here they are - minimized Outlook, Itunes, Bluetooth software, Hamachi, Network connection indicators for wireless, Network connection indicator for Bluetooth, Sound mixer, Remove hardware icon, Hotsync, Kensington mouseworks, VNC, Atomic Clock, Log Me In, sometimes Windows Security Alerts, sometimes Windows update alerts, ATI settings, sometimes Bluetooth hardware list. [Telling me to gain real estate by reducing the number of icons doesn't count as answering the question.]

Help me put my icon in the menubar!

Alterscape — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 13:23:21 -0800

I want the Java application I'm writing to put an icon in the menu bar (next to the system clock, airport status icon, iChat icon, battery icon, etc), a la Quicksilver and Gmail Notifier, but I have no idea how. Help! I've been googling all afternoon, but the only information I can find relates to a plist entry that directs OS X to place the top-level jframe's menu in the OS X menu bar. While that's nifty, I need the ability to put an icon up there, and not in the dock. Quicksilver's preferences pane calls this a "menu bar icon," but I can't find anything useful in Google with that name. Is there a more proper name for this behavior, and can I achieve it with a Java app?

tiny url icons?

lisaj32 — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 13:54:40 -0800

What are those tiny icons on the left part of the box that shows a site's url? What are they called, how can I get one for my (Blogger) blog, and how do I put it there?

I said 'hunt'

asok — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 04:22:18 -0800

Icon hunt. I am looking for icons related to networking and WiFi on XP and OSX. Just the standard XP and OSX icons, like the aerial with lines coming off it etc. My Google-fu is failing me.
The task bar icons are not .ico files AFAICT, at least Windows isn't finding them when I search for *.ico
I don't want to create icons, replace them, download a new library or mess with them in any way.
Preferably, the graphics will be in a format that I can open in windows.
A screen capture would suffice, but trawling Wifi setup guides has not produced any with the actual icons on.