Putting 'Computer' icon in Dock?

texanpenguin

texanpenguin

Registered Penguin
Having mucked around with the SystemIcons.bundle, I have changed the 'Computer' icon (by default a snow iMac) that resides commonly in the Finder window toolbar, to a picture of my PowerBook G3 Wallstreet.

At the same time, I've customised my PC to look as much like the Mac as possible:
- I've copied all the desktop pictures over to the PC, and applied the same one to both computers (Faux Fur).
- I've copied all the Resources inside the Beach screensaver into a single folder on the PC and set it as a slideshow screensaver, with 10 second intervals and no transition effects on both.
- I have StyleXP using Iceman's Jaguar theme to make all the windows looking like Mac ones (Mac scrollbars, the white background with the stripes, the traffic-light buttons; the works), plus it makes the taskbar look like the menu in the mac, once placed at the top of the screen.
- I have Y'z Dock, Y'z Shadow, and Y'z Toolbar all working simultaneously to emulate the finishing touches; the dock; shadows around windows and the taskbar; and the Finder icons in IE and Explorer windows.


But, out of preference, I have put a shortcut to My Computer in my Y'z Dock, with the Powerbook G3 icon I made as the icon, next to the Trash can, like it would be on the mac. I want to know how I can make a shortcut on the Mac, in the actual Dock to the 'Computer' - the Root directory. Not the Harddrive, but the computer, so I can browse the network from it too.

Is it possible? I could have sworn I saw someone who had done it...
 
browse to /Volumes put a shortcut to your main drive in it ( "/" ) and then change the icon of the volumes folder to that of your power book, and drag the folder into the area next to your trash, and voila!
 
OK; Say again? Since when is there a 'Volumes' directory?

Are you saying to create a directory that acts the same way as the computer folder?

I thought it would be possible to have a folder that dynamically adjusts its contents, as peripherals are plugged in etc; like the ZIP drive I have. My point is, wont that method NOT react in the same way as the 'Computer' folder itself works?
 
You can make an alias of the main hard drive icon and put it in your dock, this will open and show all mounted drives.
 
Even THEN; the support in MacOS X for transparency isn't all it would seem. The file I have is a 128*128 PNG with full transparency around the powerbook itself. If you open Get Info, click on the icon for the newly created 'Computer' icon, and paste; it comes up with the icon with a ghastly black fill instead of the nice transparency it should have. The icon works as an ICNS, created using Iconverter, no problems, hence it working so nicely in the toolbars etc.

But on a folder it looks hideous. So I opened the image in Graphic Converter 4.5. I carefully selected the image using the lasso tool, and copied/pasted IT. This time it puts a WHITE fill around the image, so it looks just as bad in the dock.

There has to be a way; short of making an application MYSELF that does it... cos that would mean learning how to program on the Mac; and I don't mean g++ terminal-based programming; I mean interface and project building. I don't think I'm up to that.

Is there a third party app available?
 
if you want, i could try to make your icon smoother. email it to me (giaguara at macosx.com), i'll play with the icon and email it back to you, hopefullly more transparent. it could be iconverter (i use other programs to do that).
 
Originally posted by Jason
browse to /Volumes put a shortcut to your main drive in it ( "/" ) and then change the icon of the volumes folder to that of your power book, and drag the folder into the area next to your trash, and voila!
Click to expand...

Please let me know how to get to the /Volumes directory. If i use column view i can get to the Computer directory but nothing before that.
 
From the Finder:

Go Menu --> Go to Folder...
type in (without quotes) "/Volumes" then click Go or hit enter/return.

You can then drag the (I forget the proper name for it but I believe it's called the proxy icon) Volumes folder icon off of the Title bar of the resulting window and into the Dock.

Or using one of the many free/shareware utilities you could enable the showing of hidden files in the Finder and drag the /Volumes folder into the Dock that way.

Contrary to what was posted earlier, this alias will list Network mounted drives as well.

Hope this helps...
 
I can't remember how I stumbled across this one. I don't recall if I saw it posted somewhere or figured it out on my own.

/edit: Also works for CDs, and survives logout and restart.

Also what I've done is instead of dragging the folder icon directly to the Dock, i held down Command and Option and dragged it to my Home Directory to create an alias. This allows you to paste a nice pretty custom icon on it. ;)
 
OK! Thanks for the /Volumes information!

But I would still love to know why it is that I can paste a completely transparent (not alpha-transparency, FULL transparency) into the Get Info box and it comes out with blackness surrounding it.

Is there a third party application to apply an ICNS to a Folder/File by way of a resource fork even? Does OSX even operate in that manner?
 
OK; I'm convinced it's an issue with Image Preview actually.

In Graphic Converter 4.5; it makes the outline white.

Plus Image Preview exports a black background behind anything transparent using export tool.

So now my question is, is there a program which doesn't leave white OR black?
 
Iconographer has the ability to place an icon on an item, and it seems to do it correctly. For copy/paste to work correctly the application implementing the copy part needs to correctly support transparency in clippings. Most apps don't.
 
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