We’ve written about a program called Candy Bar before, a program that allows Mac users to change their system icons. I love similar programs, especially on Mac, especially since I’ve been using Linux for a couple of years. Why? Because in Linux, there are built in mechanisms to change what are called “icon themes” from the default to whatever I want.
With a Mac, unfortunately, there’s not much to change other than the individual icons. Sure, if you want to change the icons of any folder or file or application, you can. But what if you want to change the things that affect how each new folder looks? You can’t, not without a third-party application or a little knowledge system and where it stores.
Now there’s a program called LiteIcon, and while it’s not quite as handy as Candy Bar, it does pretty much the same thing, and completely aware of the change.
When you open LiteIcon, you will see six columns of icons, icons for each type including Document, App, Font, Other, Delete and New Folder. These are the general icons. Above are the general icons, Folders, Devices, Dock and others. Each icon you see can be changed. To change it, all you have to do is drag the file icon from somewhere on the hard drive, and the default. type will be replaced by a new one. You can do this for just one icon (like all regular icons except one), or you can change them all to a completely new look.
When you’re done with different icons in one area (for example General Icons), just go to another tab to change more, or use the button at the bottom of the window to apply your changes. This can take a while, and when you’re done, you’ll need to restart the Finder for the changes to show. When you do this, you will see all the new icons.
What’s great about LiteIcon is that it affects everything. As you can see from the screenshots, LiteIcon can access all system wide icons, so whether you create new folders, browse through your hard drive via Finder, or CD / burn, the icons you see will no longer be the same old default icons. All you have to do is change them here, and every time the application wants to use one of these icons, the new one will be displayed, at least until you change it.
Because never fear, removing your new, custom icon theme is as simple as changing it in the first place. For even the easy ones! If you want to change just a single change, simply Control-click (or right-click, if using a three-button mouse) on the icon you want to restore, and select that option. You’ll be prompted for an Administrator password, and when you’re done, simply tap the Apply Changes button, restart Finder, and your old icon is back.
If you want to change the entire system back to the way it was used, all you have to do is select the Reset All Icons option in the menu bar. They will restore all this.
Simple!
As I said before, LiteIcon is not quite as full-featured as the Candy Bar program. The main reason for this is that Candy Bar has the advantage of iContainer (icon container), which includes all the icons in a particular theme. With this, you simply open the Candy Bar, drag the iContent into it, and all the icons in the container will be restored to their default equivalent. It’s much faster and more convenient, to be honest. However, if cost is the primary motivator, you’ll need to pay a subscription fee like Candy Bar, while LiteIcon, as mentioned, is completely free.
Despite the added functionality/ease-of-use for Candy Bar, LiteIcon is still the best. It gives every user, not just the techno-savvy, an easy-to-use, totally free way to change your icon theme. So grab a copy with some icons and go crazy. You can always cancel.
