In System 7, what decides which icon bundle is used?

[olePigeon]

I accidentally mounted a CD with an OS 8 style icon for a Stuffit installer, and it's infested my crispy clean System 7.

Is there a way to force System 7 to use a specific icon bundle? I like older System 7 style Installer Maker icon.

 

[choongng]

Rebuilding the desktop database should do it. Restart and hold cmd+opt during boot.

 

[olePigeon]

I already tried that. I wonder if there's a rogue installer somewhere.

 

[Crutch]

Yeah, you have a bundle conflict somewhere, meaning you have two applications with the same creator code with different icons (presumably one is the newer version with the icon you don’t like) so the Finder is picking one randomly and using it for both instances.

As you surmise, one fix is to find the rogue installer hiding on your HD and delete it.

The other is to do a manual override … find the older installer, open it with ResEdit, and copy the ICN# or (if you’re using a color display) icl8 resource image you like to the Clipboard. Then paste it into the icon box in the Finder’s Get Info window.

 

[olePigeon]

Hmm. Seems like a pretty useful Control Panel would be one that lets you choose the default icon bundles.

 

[Crutch]

I think that would be possible with careful study of the Desktop Manager chapter in Inside Macintosh Volume VI! It‘s likely a pretty rare problem though. Most users probably didn’t have bundle conflicts or, if they did, didn’t care much which icon got displayed.

 

[olePigeon]

I tacked it down to a Stuffit 7 installer. I compressed it, rebuilt my desktop, and everything is good again.

 

[olePigeon]

It's back again. Must be on one of my archive disks. Argh! Out damn spot, out!

I don't want your filthy OS 9 era Stuffit icons infiltrating my System 7 desktop.

 

[cheesestraws]

A reasonably easy way to do this would be an application that you could sit on the desktop and would accept other applications being dragged onto it. When an application is dragged on to it it would iterate through its BNDL and FREF and use PBDTAddIcon (IM: More Toolbox p. 9-17) to forcibly insert its icons into the Desktop DB.

Upside: no memory-resident gubbins, no patching, high compatibility, use only normal Toolbox calls.

Downside: have to redo it if you rebuild the desktop.