Custom Icons Don't Show On Folders? [Resolved]

Nighted · Post by **Nighted** » 21 Jan 2007 23:11

Ok, since you can't view thumbs on folders, I'm guessing there is also no way to view custom icons used either.

I just noticed that I can't use XYplorer to use certain folders to organize things as I cannot see what the image is on that folder. They show in the tree view as tiny little icons, I want to be able to actually SEE them as icons the same way explorer would show them. XY is supposed to replace explorer right? It should at least do the same things. I'm confused as to why it doesn't. It doesn't seem to me that something so well designed with miss such a useful feature.

Is there some hidden way to activate this or is it going to be implemented?

Post by **j_c_hallgren** » 22 Jan 2007 01:05

Given that I'm on W2K, so thus am not that familiar with this option, I'm going to ask why this is so useful...I depend on the XY catalog and an organized folder naming scheme to keep track of thing, so what purpose would an image on a folder serve?

There are some things that Win Expl does that XY doesn't, but in some cases, it's because they rely on features wich are unavailable to XY...and in some others, it's maybe felt that WE is not as well designed for power users, but more for those who aren't comfortable with a real file manager...I know some who think any GUI is worthless, and only use a command line, but they tend to be Unix/Linux types, and that's a bit too far for me!

Nighted · Post by **Nighted** » 22 Jan 2007 01:20

I agree XY adds tons of features for power users. And they are appreciated. What I am saying is that it should at least offer the same basic features found in explorer.

If windows allows you to change the icon on a folder to make it easier to sort things, then XY should mimic this behaviour. One should expect XY to be familiar when transitioning from explorer to this more enhanced application.

lukescammell · Post by **lukescammell** » 22 Jan 2007 02:13

I agree with Nighted on this one. If I used/relied upon folder specific icons in WE and tried an alternative file manager that didn't, it would put me right off. Even though there are other, perhaps better ways instead of using folder icons, users who rely on them will never give the file manager a try for long enough to find them if it doesn't support them.

I say let's have this added

jacky · Post by **jacky** » 22 Jan 2007 04:55

hmm.. can I ask what you mean by "custom icons" ?? Cause I thought it would be that a different icon than the usual one use for folder wouldbe used, like it's done for "My Documents", 'Favorites", etc for example.
Because if so, XY does supports this! I even have a few folders that uses their own specific icon (done using desktop.ini) and they show up fine on Tree, List & Catalog.
Actually, that's not true! I just noticed that it seems they did not work on List anymore! And even a "Refesh List Icons Cache" didn't help, I had to restart XY

Might be a but somewhere here...

Anyways, now it's back to normal. So custom folder icons are supported in XY, fully. It even supports overlays if you want to (Option/Advanced/Show icon overlays)

If there another kind of "custom icons" ??

Nighted · Post by **Nighted** » 23 Jan 2007 00:22

Jacky, by custom icons, I mean when you apply a system attribute to a folder, you can then use a desktop.ini in the folder's dir to point to an icon to be shown instead of the default for that folder. These should show in the list view.

Post by **j_c_hallgren** » 23 Jan 2007 01:13

I've read about this technique but had never tried it before...did some research and tried it...copied an ".ICO" file that I had avail to a test folder...created a "desktop.ini" in the folder with Read-Only/Hidden attrib's containing the following:

Code: Select all

[.ShellClassInfo]
ConfirmFileOp=0
NoSharing=1
IconFile=Folder.ico
IconIndex=0
InfoTip=Output folder for scanner

and then made the folder a System folder...

It shows in my XY tree and list with the custom icon just fine! And the InfoTip text shows in "Comment:" entry when I hover over it in list...

This part of what was discussed above seems to work for me...
And...I didn't have to exit XY to get it to show...just refresh tree and list.

jacky · Post by **jacky** » 23 Jan 2007 01:48

Nighted wrote:Jacky, by custom icons, I mean when you apply a system attribute to a folder, you can then use a desktop.ini in the folder's dir to point to an icon to be shown instead of the default for that folder. These should show in the list view.

Ok, Well then as I said, and jc confirmed, those do show in XY just fine. Never had problem with it in Catalog & Tree, but as I said for List sometimes it seems not to be shown right, and refreshing List icon cache and/or refreshing&resetting List don't do nothing, XY has to be restarted to actually get it to show on List.

So there is definately a bug there, yes.

Nighted · Post by **Nighted** » 23 Jan 2007 02:25

I'm not sure what you guys are doing. No matter what I do I cannot get the icons to show instead of the default system folder icon in my list view. Also, there is no icons view as the one in explorer. In explorer these icons would show in the Thumbnails view also, yet in XY there is nothing but the default system icon. Restarting XY with the directory where the cusomized icons are does nothing for me either. I've tried it several times. As a matter of fact, I'm not even seeing tool tips on the tree or the list view.

Post by **j_c_hallgren** » 23 Jan 2007 03:03

Nighted wrote:Also, there is no icons view as the one in explorer.

Could you explain this a bit further as I can get different interpretations from this as written? There is no "large icons" view in XY, but I don't think that was what you meant....or was it?

Nighted wrote:In explorer these icons would show in the Thumbnails view also, yet in XY there is nothing but the default system icon.

Also might help with a rephrased version of this also...
And what does your desktop.ini contain? This most likely has no impact, but just checking all possibilities...

jacky · Post by **jacky** » 23 Jan 2007 03:12

Nighted wrote:I'm not sure what you guys are doing. No matter what I do I cannot get the icons to show instead of the default system folder icon in my list view. Also, there is no icons view as the one in explorer. In explorer these icons would show in the Thumbnails view also, yet in XY there is nothing but the default system icon. Restarting XY with the directory where the cusomized icons are does nothing for me either. I've tried it several times.

Well, when the icon is used it is so on all Views: Details, Thumbnails, List, etc But if it's not used on one View, it won't be on any others.

I have one folder, with attribute ReadOnly set, containing a desktop.ini file like this:

Code: Select all

[.ShellClassInfo] 
IconFile=File.ico
IconIndex=0

As I said, this folder is also on my Catalog. The custom icon is shown on Catalog & Tree without a problem, and that's always the case (I know, I go there a lot

)
But once again, if I go up then on List it's the usual folder icon that is used. I'm 100% certain that restarting XY would "fix" this, since it did the trick before & starting a new instance of XY shows the custom icom everywhere (Catalog, Tree & List)

So there's a bug somewhere. I also tried the following just now:
- select desktop.ini & File.ico and move them to a new folder.
- set the folder ReadOnly

XY shows the usual icon, not the custom one, on both Tree & List. I cannot make it to show the right/custom icon on List, ever.
I did not restart XY as I'm sure it'll work then, but obviously I couldn't test anymore... If I start a new instance of XY, and do the same, the custom icon is shown everywhere, List included, as soon as I set the attribute.

Back on my current session. List can't be done. If I add the folder to my Catalog, the custom icon is used.

On Tree, I can have it shown by either rebuilding Tree (Shift+Ctrl+F4) or simply moving the folder somewhere else (I can move it back afterwards, custom icon will then be used fine)

Also, on tab header the custom icon used seems to be the same as on Tree, or at least works the same for me.
I noticed that if I do this test on a parent that I have never expanded yet (in this XY session), as soon as I do the custom icon is shown on Tree (and tab header if I go in). If I had already expanded it before, it will be the usual folder icon then (need to rebuild or move folder around). This might explain why a new session works fine...
..so i tried: on a new session, I first expand then do the test. Custom icon is used on List, but not on Tree!

So,
- Custom icon works fine all the time on Catalog
- To get the custom icon on List, I have to restart XY. Nothing else works.
- To get it on Tree, if parent was never expanded this session it's fine. If not, I need to rebuild tree or move the folder.

I'm not sure what else to say here. We'll have to hear from Don now I think.

Nighted, do you have "Use generic icons for super-fast browsing" enabled (Config/Advanced) by any chance? Cause if so, then that might just be the reason why custom icons don't show at all!

For info, I have "use generic icons" & "but only on network". I don't think any other option could be related. Icon overlays maybe, but I do not have this enabled.

Post by **j_c_hallgren** » 23 Jan 2007 03:37

Based on jacky's testing, I tried a couple of different things...FYI: the folder with custom icon is at "C:\Temp\OneTouch"...anyway:
1) Set "use generic icons" to ON
2) Exited and restarted XY
3) Custom icon showed in Catalog
4) Expanded C: and went to Temp...custom icon showed in tree but NOT in list
5) Clicked on OneTouch in list...custom icon showed in tab header.
6) Went back up to Temp...standard icon still showing in list

7) Set "use generic icons" to OFF
8 ) Repeated other steps...however, now in step 4, the custom icon DID show in list...and also in step 6, it also shows..

BTW, it shows in tree and catalog with either setting...tried various expand/condense folder and was always seeing custom icon in tree.

Nighted · Post by **Nighted** » 23 Jan 2007 03:43

jacky wrote:Nighted, do you have "Use generic icons for super-fast browsing" enabled (Config/Advanced) by any chance? Cause if so, then that might just be the reason why custom icons don't show at all!

Ok, that did the trick. I forgot about the option in the Config. I didn't have to restart XY though, the icons became visible immediately after removing the check box. One thing Jacky, you really need to have the system attribute set on folders for icons to work properly with icons. Maybe that's why you need the restart? Just an idea.

Thank you too, for testing JC.

I'd still like to see "Icons" added to the view options. If the author happens to read this, I like to request icons (like explorer) in the view menu. Thank you.

jacky · Post by **jacky** » 23 Jan 2007 04:39

Ok, glad it's working for you now!

Nighted wrote:One thing Jacky, you really need to have the system attribute set on folders for icons to work properly with icons. Maybe that's why you need the restart? Just an idea.

Well, yes officially MS says it has to be set to System, but in facts the same results gets done using ReadOnly, and I use RO cause I don't think it has any real effect on a folder (don't do no warning on move, rename, delete, anything) while System does, and I don't like the idea of having a folder being "System" just to get a custom icon...

Anyways, tried with System just in case, doesn't make any difference. So I went it the Bug forum...

Post by **j_c_hallgren** » 23 Jan 2007 05:23

Nighted wrote:Thank you too, for testing JC.

I'd still like to see "Icons" added to the view options. If the author happens to read this, I like to request icons (like explorer) in the view menu. Thank you.

You're welcome!

But I'll repeat my request to clarify exactly what you mean by "icons" on view? As my Win Expl has these View choices: Large Icons/Small Icons/List/Detail/Thumbnail ---and--- XY has these: Details/Details with Thumbnails 1/List/Small Icons/Thumbnails 1;2;3...so other than "Large Icons", XY has similar choices, with more thumb choices as far as I see...

From prior post:

j_c_hallgren wrote:
Nighted wrote:Also, there is no icons view as the one in explorer.
Could you explain this a bit further as I can get different interpretations from this as written? There is no "large icons" view in XY, but I don't think that was what you meant....or was it?

And I believe there was some discussion quite a while ago about large icons and it was (I think) felt there wasn't a real need for it...