Running
without a restart.

Rename The Trash and Give It A New Look in Mac OS 8.1
by Michael Coyle, 04-12-1998

Renaming the Trash Icon on the Desktop.



Open a copy of the Finder with ResEdit, and scroll down to the STR# resources.

Open them with a double-click.

Scroll all the way down to ID# 4700, and open it with a double-click.

The very first item, NumStrings #1, is the name of the Trash. Feel free to change it to whatever you wold like.

The rest of the strings represent the various dialog boxes that are associated with emptying the trash. Change them if you wish, but be careful not to change any of the special characters.

Changing the Trash icon.



Most of the icons you'll download off the net have the icon pasted into a folder. We need to get that icon into the Appearance Extension using the following steps.

Click once on the icon you want to use (in my example, the Shredder). From the Finder, select the menu option "Get Info" and the window pictured above will appear.

My red box shows the area you need to click in to select the icon. It will then be surrounded by a thin black box.

Copy the icon to the Clipboard with Command-C. (You can leave this window open for now incase you inadvertently clear the Clipboard).

Open a copy of the Appearance Extension in ResEdit, and find the icl8 resources.

Open them with a double-click.

Scroll down to ID# -3993 and -3984.

These are the Trash icons (I've outlined my replacements in Red).

Double-click on -3993 to open the built in icon editor.

Just to be certain it's selected, click on icl8 to select it (I've outlined it in Red).

Paste in your replacement icon with Command-V.

By clicking and dragging, move your new icon into each of the remaining icon styles:
ICN#, ics#, ics8, icl4, ics4, and both Masks.

The icon editor will automatically resize and recolor the icon as needed.

Repeat the procedure for the full trash icon (-3984), and you're all set.

Close and save your changes. Replace the Appearance Extension in the Extensions folder, then Restart to admire your work.

Additional Trash Icons



I renamed these icons to show the possibilities when combined with the edits shown above.

This group of icons is by Ilicon.

Besides dozens of Trash replacements, she also has hard disks and matching folders. Get them here.

This set is representative of the "Ikthusian Alternatrash Icons".

And finally, these icons were culled from various other collections on the info-mac icon page.