| Forcing the MacOS 8.5 and up to use 8 bit System Icons.
The new 32-bit System icons that arrived with MacOS 8.5 and above are very attractive, but if you want to use some of the other 8-bit replacement sets that are available, here's a little trick to make the OS use your icons.
 While they are not used, a nearly complete set of 8-bit System icons is stored in the System suitcase.
Nearly complete? In many cases, there is an 8-bit icon for every 32-bit version except the following:
Stop Sign
-3822 |
Note Icon
-3820 |
Contextual Menu Items
-3942 |
Extension (Disabled)
-3950 |
Caution Sign
-3821 |
Appearance
-20723 |
ColorSync Profiles
-20792 |
Control Strip Modules
-3962 |
Favorites
-20729 |
Scripting Additions
-3959 |
Internet Search Sites
-20801 |
Text Encoding
-3955 |
Application Support
-3944 |
Scripts
-20797 |
Help
-3960 |
Control Panels (Disabled)
-3951 |
In most cases, this won't be a problem. From the email ResExcellence receives, it appears most people want to change the Trash, CD, Floppy, and default folder icons, but if you want to replace every Sytem icon with an 8-bit version, simply create them with the appropriate ID numbers.
What exactly is required to replace the icons?
 Open a copy of the System Suitcase in ResEdit and find the icl8 resources.
Open them with a double-click.
For this example, I snagged a floppy disk replacement from The IconFactory. I copied it to the clipboard, opened the original icl8 floppy resource, and pasted it into icon resource ID -3998 - making sure to drag it to the other bit depths and Mask windows of ResEdit's Icon Editor.
 Here you can see my new icon in the System Suitcase. After you have made your choices and modified the icons, save your work and close the System suitcase.
 Next, open a copy the System Resources file and find the icns resources.
Open them with a double-click.
 For every 8-bit icon that you added to the System suitcase, remove the 32-bit version from the System Resources file.
In this example, I want to use my new 8-bit floppy folder, ID -3998, so I need to delete -3998 from the System Resources file.
After you have removed all of the appropriate ID numbers, save the System Resources file and quit ResEdit.
Replace the original System Suitcase and System Resources File and restart the computer. You will now see your new 8 bit icons.
Previous Edits relating to System icons:
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