New Default Icons

Starting with V0.84, XFolder allows you to freely replace a number of default WPS icons. This is an improvement over previous versions, where only the default folder icons could be replaced with new fixed XFolder icons; this can now be done more freely, and for more WPS default icons.

The icon replacements are turned on per default. Icon replacements can be configured as follows:

If you don't want the icons to be replaced at all, uncheck the corresponding setting in the "Workplace Shell" object, page 1.
If you'd like default icons different from the ones that XFolder provides, you need to replace the icons in the /ICONS subdirectory of the XFolder installation directory and rebuild the ICONS.DLL file. This is explained below.

Note: All these changes require a WPS restart because it is impossible to replace icons which are already in use by the WPS.

Now, replacing the default icons with your own favorites is fairly easy. Look into the /ICONS subdirectory of the XFolder installation directory, and you will find a number of icon files:

Replace any of these files with your own favorites and execute the ICONS.CMD script in the same directory. This will create a file ICONS.DLL, which will be copied by XFolder to its /BIN subdirectory at the next WPS restart.

Notes: The script expects the icon file names to be exactly as they are now. Also, you cannot replace ICONS.DLL in /BIN yourself, because once the WPS has started, that DLL is locked. So always use ICONS.CMD.

Third, ICONS.CMD requires RC.EXE to be on your PATH. This little program is shipped with every OS/2 version and should be in your \OS2 directory. If it is not, you must install it using OS/2's "Selective Install". Make sure that "Link object modules" is checked under the "Option System Utilities" group ("More..." button).

The icons which can be replaced are the following:

Program files (WPProgramFile class). These are the files in the top row in the above screenshot. They represent the following executable types:
- default.ico will be used for program files whose executable type cannot be determined by XFolder. This shouldn't happen very often.
- dll.ico will be used for Dynamic Link Libraries (DLL's). Note that not all .DLL files will be given this icon (especially not Windows DLL files), and some files will be given this icon even though they have a different extension. XFolder actually reads the file header of a file to determine whether the file is actually a DLL.
- dosfull.ico and doswin.ico will be used for DOS executables in full-screen and windowed mode, respectively.
- driver.ico will be used for virtual and physical device drivers. Not all device drivers will be given this icon however, since many of them are assembled as DLL files, and will therefore carry the DLL icon.
- os2full.ico and os2win.ico will be used for OS/2 text-mode (VIO) programs in full-screen and windowed mode, respectively.
Data files (WPDataFile class). These is the xfdataf.ico file. Note that this icon is only used for files which have no programs associated with them; otherwise the program icon will be used. (That's just the default WPS behavior.)
Desktop (WPDesktop class). These are the xfdesk1.ico and xfdesk2.ico files, for closed and open desktops, respectively. (While the WPS uses the same icon for both closed and open desktops, you can now use a different one for an open desktop.)
Folders (WPFolder class). These are the xfldr1.ico and xfldr2.ico files, for closed and open folders, respectively.

Known limitations. Some default icons presently cannot be changed. Most notably, PM programs without a built-in icon will always be given some dull default icon for PM programs.

Also, XFolder can only change the icons as they are displayed in folders. Icons of running programs will not be affected, i.e. those in the title bar of a program window or when a program is minimized to the Desktop.

This might improve in a future XFolder release.