change folder icon mac mountain lion

To change your Mac’s Finder folder icons, all you need to do is copy the new icon you wish to use, and paste it onto the old one. The process is simple, but it requires a few steps.

To start, select an icon you want to use as your first new icon.

Copying the New Icon

 

    1. Open the Icons folder.

Inside the Icons folder, you’ll find 26 folders, each with a unique icon and a folder name associated with it. If you examine the 26 folders, you’ll find they’re empty folders, with no sub-content.

What each folder does have, however, is an assigned icon. That’s the icon you see when you view the folder in the Finder. Each folder also has a name associated with it. You’ll notice the names mirror the names of popular folders your Mac already has, such as Movies, Pictures, and Documents. These names are only suggestions for where to use the icons; you can freely use them for any folders you wish.

I’m going to use the Documents icon in the Refresh Snow Leopard icon set to replace the generic folder icon used by my About folder. My About folder is where I keep all of the material related to the About: Macs web site, so having a distinct icon will make it easier to find when I open Finder windows.

To copy the icon from a folder, follow these instructions:

    1. Right-click the Documents folder (or the folder of your choice) in the icon set, and select Get Info from the pop-up menu.

 

    1. In the Get Info window that opens, you’ll see a thumbnail view of the folder’s icon in the top left-hand corner of the window.

 

    1. Click the thumbnail icon once to select it.

 

    1. Press command + c or select ‘Copy’ from the Edit menu.

 

    1. The icon has now been copied to your Mac’s clipboard.

 

  1. Close the Get Info window.

Changing a Folder Icon

    1. In the Finder, browse to the parent folder of the item whose icon you wish to change. In my case, I will browse to my Home folder, which is where I will find my About folder.

 

    1. Right-click the folder whose icon you wish to change.

 

    1. From the pop-up menu, select Get Info.

 

    1. In the Get Info window that opens, you’ll see a thumbnail view of the folder’s current icon in the top left-hand corner of the window.

 

    1. Click the thumbnail icon once to select it.

 

    1. Press command + v or select ‘Paste’ from the Edit menu.

 

    1. The icon you copied to the clipboard earlier will be pasted onto the selected folder icon as its new icon.

 

  1. Close the Get Info window.

The folder will now be displaying its new icon.