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Removing custom Disk Image icons from copied apps Desktop
It seems that most software you download is in disk image format, and of course we all know that dragging a disk image to the Applications folder toolbar icon won't work (it creates an alias). Instead, option dragging is required to copy the program to the Applications folder. But that's not this tip.

The problem then is that the icon in the Applications folder is a disk image icon, not a folder icon which looks quite odd. And if you choose Get Info on the folder, you will find that you cannot cut or clear the icon to get rid of it. Here's the trick - paste any other custom icon on the folder and then you can cut the icon and voila, a folder icon appears. Even better, this works even if the custom icon is the disk image icon and you copied it straight from the folder in the first place!

So basically, select the folder, Get Info (Command-I), hit tab (select the icon), Copy, Paste, Cut. Seems basic and silly, but it's a pain otherwise!

[Editor's note: This hint will save me some time! I had been copying and pasting another folder's icon; now I can do it all in one step from one Get Info box.]
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Removing custom Disk Image icons from copied apps | 18 comments | Create New Account
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What is this for?
Authored by: raider on Feb 07, '03 11:18:33AM

One question... What is this for?

Why not just mount the image, then copy the application from the image to your applicatiosn folder?

Did I miss something?



[ Reply to This | # ]
What is this for?
Authored by: robg on Feb 07, '03 11:22:03AM

Many disk images include the application and several Read Me's floating loosely around. I like to keep all Read Me's with the application. In order to keep all this stuff, I would have to create a new folder, open the disk image, select all, drag it to the new folder. Instead, I just option-drag the disk image onto the destination folder (apps, games, utils, etc.), and I get a nice neat folder with the app and its supporting documents.

And a stupid disk image icon ;-).

-rob.



[ Reply to This | # ]
What is this for?
Authored by: raider on Feb 07, '03 04:39:40PM

So you mount the image first, then option drag the icon of the mounted image to copy it? Or just the "unmounted" .dmg file?



[ Reply to This | # ]
What is this for?
Authored by: robg on Feb 07, '03 05:11:50PM

Mounted images.

-rob.



[ Reply to This | # ]
What is this for?
Authored by: snoozer on Feb 07, '03 11:27:03PM

I also use option-drag for the same reason. My workaround was to manually create a new folder and copy the contents of the disk image to that folder. I much prefer using this tip, though of course I'd prefer even more if it wasn't necessary.

--Andy



[ Reply to This | # ]
Alternatively...
Authored by: gidds on Feb 07, '03 11:21:09AM

If it's anything like copying external drives, then simply renaming the folder is enough to restore the usual icon.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Alternatively... In fact, only rename it!
Authored by: juanfc on Feb 10, '03 07:02:36PM

It seems an funny apple icon association that it is cleared after rename (just edit the name touching the name and adding a char after or before its actual name; press return and, voila! the Disk icon dissappears. After that you may easily recover the original name removing that char)



[ Reply to This | # ]
Log out
Authored by: mm2270 on Feb 07, '03 12:09:10PM

In my experience with this glitch (what else could you call it?) I've found that if I log out and log back in again, the folder shows up as a folder icon, not as the Disk Image icon.

So after I've copied some apps I've downloaded, I just do a quick log out/in at the end of the day, and they're back to normal.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Actually, you CAN drag to Applications...
Authored by: Fanglord on Feb 07, '03 01:32:23PM

You actually can drag anything to an icon in the toolbar in the Finder, and it will copy. The trick is to hold down the <option> key while doing it!



[ Reply to This | # ]
Right...
Authored by: robg on Feb 07, '03 02:02:48PM

That's what the hint discusses - option dragging. When you do this, you get a (temporary?) disk image icon...

-rob.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Right...
Authored by: Eponymous on Feb 07, '03 02:55:58PM

Yes, it's temporary. I've never had them stick around long. I've also never checked to see what exactly makes them go away, but I've done this dozens of times.



[ Reply to This | # ]
not needed
Authored by: panicX on Feb 07, '03 05:28:17PM

as mentioned before just logging out or restarting the finder will automatically change
the disk image icon into a normal folder icon

so no need for all this copy paste trickery :)



[ Reply to This | # ]
Well...
Authored by: robg on Feb 07, '03 06:12:01PM

Unless you find it faster to copy / paste / delete than to logout/login or restart the Finder. As I haven't logged out in weeks, that's not an option (it would require quitting the 30ish apps I leave open), and restarting the Finder takes nearly as much effort as copy / paste / delete on the icon.

It's just nice to know there's yet another way to force an immediate update.

-rob.



[ Reply to This | # ]
not needed
Authored by: simsamsep on Feb 07, '03 06:18:57PM

Not only the copy-paste-cut procedure is not needed, but also logging out is not needed. I use a CM Plugin 'FileUtilsCM' <http://free.abracode.com/cmworkshop/> which adds a number of CM items including one called 'Refresh'. Simply apply that to the folder that still shows the disk icon and the icon is updated. I consider the often delayed icon update a bug in OSX. The 'Refresh' CM item is very usefull for updating icons as with files that are saved replacing the original from another application or in this case with disks (from images or otherwise) that are copied to another disk.



[ Reply to This | # ]
Summary of wrong icon when copying disk image
Authored by: noworryz on Feb 08, '03 03:45:33PM

To summarize the thread:

This tip for when you want to copy a mounted disk image by option-dragging it somewhere (such as your Applications folder). When you do so, the copy (now a folder) shows up with the "mounted disk" icon rather than a plain folder icon.

Like robg, I thought this was a "feature" of OS X, rather than a bug, and had been wasting time doing a "Get Info" of another folder, copying the icon, doing a "Get Info" of the newly-copied disk image and pasting the plain folder icon over the "mounted disk" icon.

It turns out that the icon is really a bug, probably caused by the way OS X caches icons. There are many ways to get rid of the unwanted disk icon:

  1. log out and back in
  2. relaunch the finder by clicking on the desktop, pressing Command-Option-Escape, pressing return twice, then pressing Command-W to close the "force quit" window.
  3. refresh the icon using the "refresh" contextual menu item provided by the "FileUtilsCM" tools you can obtain at free.abracode.com/cmworkshop.
  4. do what the author of this tip suggests: do a "Get Info" of the newly-copied image, click on the icon, do a copy, do a paste, do a delete (or a cut).
  5. or finally, just forget about it and wait for apple to fix this bug.


[ Reply to This | # ]
You've got it all wrong
Authored by: nevyn on Feb 09, '03 02:51:02PM

In your applications folder, you want applications. Not a lotta folders. So this is how you do it, if you wanna save the readme. Copy the application to the apps folder, cmd-n for a new view, right click on the app, choose "Show package contents", double click "Contents", drag the readme files to it. Viola, you have the Readme files there, and the app is in the app folder as should be, and you never have to see 'em unless you wanna.



[ Reply to This | # ]
The tip is about unwanted disk icons, not the Applications folder
Authored by: noworryz on Feb 10, '03 01:09:14AM

The tip is about unwanted disk icons, not the Applications folder.
Some people like to make an exact copy of a mounted disk image, which is a common distribution format. When you do so, you also copy the "mounted disk" icon, which looks weird. The tip discusses solutions to that problem.

[If you want to suggest that people stuff read-me files into packages in the Applications folder, you might submit it as a top-level tip and see if Rob likes it.]



[ Reply to This | # ]
You've got it all wrong
Authored by: Krioni on Feb 10, '03 08:02:46PM

Another possible place to put accompanying documentation is either in a folder in your Documents folder, or in ~/Library/Documentation/

Then again, it would be nice if there was some standard way to do this. Currently, I use a crazy mix, depending on how likely I am to want to find the Docs easily, and how long it takes to drag stuff here-and-there.



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