firefox Can I change the Firefox task bar icon in Vista (NOT quick launch icon)

[Cheryl_27]

Is there a way to change the color or even the look of the Firefox (11) icon that appears in Vista task bar when the app is open (see shot - hi lighted red)?

Don't mean the quick launch icon. I want to change it because Firefox & Tor Browser (Aurora) have almost identical task bar app icon colors. Constantly clicking the wrong one to maximize, when both are running.

I don't know if Firefox controls the look of the icon, or Windows.

If Firefox controls the icon look / color, maybe code can be entered in userChrome.css to change it, like browser UI elements. But, I'm inclined to believe it's Windows picking each apps' main icon & sticking them in each app tab open in the task bar. That doesn't mean it still couldn't be changed - but no idea how.

Thanks.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

ResHack it?

[Cheryl_27]

Thanks nik, I got Resource Hacker & the patch for it - Resource Hacker FX.

the good: You can open an executable, like firefox.exe, & see all the icons it contains.

the bad: It has about 30 diff icons w/ the globe & fox, of diff sizes & colors (like 256 colors, etc.)

More bad: I'd have to know WHICH WINDOWS file contains the code specifying which icon to pick out of all those in the firefox.exe (I have no idea which file that'd be).

Then, from tutorials I read, I'd have to replace the (right) icon in firefox.exe w/ another that I wanted. Then hope Vista uses it for the icon in the open app tab in task bar.

I've not come across anything explaining how / which file Windows (Vista) uses to pick the one icon out of 30 - 40 in a file like firefox.exe for the app tab. But, I * assume * you'd have to find the exact one Windows is using, then replace that one (say, icon 29 in firefox.exe) w/ what you wanted.

[Excelsis]

There's a much easier way.

Inside your Firefox install folder, make these folders

\chrome\icons\default\

and then name your icon main-window.ico and drop it there.

[Cheryl_27]

Thanks, Exy, I'll try it. :)

[Cheryl_27]

Excelsis - your suggestion didn't seem to work for me

Inside your Firefox install folder, make these folders

\chrome\icons\default\

If I understood, this is where I put an icon file. I captured a small image straight out of windows icon images, named it "main-window.ico."

I understood you meant create the folder "chrome" as direct sub folder under main prgm files installation folder.

D:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla\Firefox 10\chrome\icons\default\main-window.ico

It had no effect on the icon in the firefox tab for open applications in the task bar (NOT talking about icon for desktop shortcut or quick launch tool bar).

I thought Windows controlled which icon is used for open app tabs in task tray, by selecting (usually) an icon from that app's main executable file, where a plethora of icons seem to be stored - looking inside several apps' main executables using Resource Hacker FX.

[Excelsis]

D:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla\Firefox 10\ is where Firefox is installed and not your profile folder, right?

It must be in the install folder of Firefox.

Otherwise make sure the icon isn't named icon main-window.ico.ico by mistake because of the hidden file type "feature" of Windows.

This is actually a very old feature of Firefox. But it still works fine as I currently use it to change the Aurora icon to the regular Firefox one.

Very useful since it updates every day, so reshacking the icon would be a pain in the rear end.

This is what the file path looks on my end: C:\Program Files (x86)\Aurora\chrome\icons\default\main-window.ico

[Cheryl_27]

Excelsis, Thanks, but I was afraid you hadn't read closely my OP, or looked at the attached screen, w/ tab I'm speaking of, boxed in red.

Your screen doesn't show the icon in the "open app tab" in the task bar changed - it's still the Firefox icon. See pink arrow. I don't care about looking at the "About TBB / Aurora" to see which browser I'm about to maximize from the taskbar. By then, the app is already maximized (& often not the one I wanted - out of either TBB or Firefox). I want a diff icon for Aurora in the open apps tab. Where the firefox icon is boxed in red - that's what I want to change.

But, yes, the D:\ path shown is where the program files are installed. The icon I used (a small one) didn't make any change, as shown in your posted Aurora pic.

I'm not particularly interested in that changing, but FWIW, it didn't work for me. AFAICT, the icon file doesn't have a double extension. In Explorer folder, Views, Hide known extension types, is unchecked.

The icon's file property >details just shows it as "main-window.ico." Other than that, in Vista, I'm not sure how to check on the "hidden file type feature" you mentioned.

[Excelsis]

Actually, if you ever used the Aurora channel of Firefox, you would know that it uses a different icon than the standard Firefox one.

It looks like this > http://www.conceivab...con-300x300.png

I changed it to the regular, Firefox icon, because I prefer that.

I did understand what you were asking.

Here's another screenshot with a different icon.

As for the hidden file type, go into an explorer window, press alt, this will bring up the menubar, then go to Tools > Options > View tab and uncheck Hide extensions of known file types.

Alternatively just remove the .ico from your icon, if you have the file types hidden this will 'fix' your icon to really be main-window.ico.

Make sure and double sure the chrome\icons\default folders are in the root of your Firefox install, like so > C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\chrome\icons\default\main-window.ico.

[Cheryl_27]

Thanks again. Still having problems. I'm not sure which TBB version you're looking at, but latest versions of TBB have the same icon as Firefox. In your shot w/ the blue globe, is that open app tab on task bar for "Aurora" or Firefox? I'm dealing w/ TBB, not Firefox.

Your path shows the main-window.ico is in Firefox, not TBB. I'm only interested in changing the open app tab icon for Aurora, Newest versions from Tor Project no longer say "Aurora," rather "Firefox" on main menu button. The icon shown on Help>About page in TBB for TBB 2.2.35-8 shows default same icon as Firefox 11, not the one you show. Either you changed that, or have an older TBB ver. But, that's not my main interest.

1st, WHERE are you getting the icons to replace the default ones that would be shown in TBB open app tab? Maybe the type image (before naming the file "main-window.ico"), it's size, square / not square, etc., makes a diff?? I picked a small icon from windows shell32.dll (I think). Saved it in .png format, then renamed it .ico

I even took the same icon & ran it through Irfanview, checking its properties & saving as an .ico file; saved it to path described. TBB was closed during file changes. After reopening TBB, open app tab still shows the orange firefox logo.

My TBB zipped pkg is extracted to folder TBB 2.2.35-8, but the 1st main folder of the extracted pkg is "Tor Browser," (default name) which is the folder (Tor Browser) where I added the path "\chrome\icons\default\main-window.ico". Either my path is wrong (in TBB) or the icon isn't suitable, because it does NOT change the icon in open app tab on task bar, as your image w/ blue globe shows.

Q: Did you HAVE to select the alternate icon from the TBB / Firefox files (assume either TBB.exe / firefox.exe files) or will any icon of suitable size do?

And again, "hide extensions of known file types" is unchecked.

[Excelsis]

Oh man, I feel stupid now. I guess I didn't read your opening message properly, I just now realized you're not talking about vanilla Firefox.

I'll have a look at this TBB thing and edit this message when I can give you a proper answer.

Alright, the reason why it doesn't work is because you put it in the folder "Tor Browser", what you should be doing is putting it in \FirefoxPortable\App\Firefox.

This will NOT change the icon of Vidalia Control Panel, only Firefox itself.

You should definitely use a native .ico, not a renamed image file (png/jpg/etc). I don't think it will work otherwise.

As for where you can get an ico, taking icons from shell32.dll is fine, just save them as .ico directly.

If you use Resource Hacker to extract the icon, what you want to do is open the dll/exe and go to "Icon Group", choose your icon, right click > "Save [icon Group xxxxxxx]" and save as .ico

Edited March 25, 2012 by Excelsis

[Cheryl_27]

OK, thanks for following that through. Sorry if I didn't make it clear in beginning that I wanted to change TBB.

The test ico image I copied from Windows to: "Tor Browser\FirefoxPortable\App\Firefox\chrome\icons\default" worked. This will save a lot of irritation from maximizing the wrong browser when Firefox & TBB are both open. BTW, there was already a "chrome" folder in that path, but not an "icons" sub folder. So for those keeping score, I only had to add the \icons\default\main-window.ico path / file to the existing chrome folder.

I'm not sure about finding a "desirable" image to put in the open apps tab for Aurora - that is ALREADY in .ico format. 1st, I'm not positive what size images "it" prefers for the open apps tab, or if "it" just resizes it accordingly.

One image (think a png) I got from somewhere else (playing around), then saved via Irfanview in .ico format - when tried to open it & other files in one folder, Irfanview said couldn't open that converted file - "can't read (or find?) header." So apparently, can't save png in .ico format just any old way (& work for THIS purpose), the way you can convert / save many images from jpg to png in image viewers / editors, etc.

I guess there are sites that host .ico format images, (I'd DEFINITELY be AV scanning them!) but isn't it possible to take an image in say, .png, & convert it to .ico via SOME prgm?

For example, where did you find the blue version of the firefox logo?

[Excelsis]

I'm not sure where I found it, I've had it lying around for a while. As for changing png image to ico, it's totally doable. I personnally use converticon.com. I don't know of any easy to use program that does it as well as this website (usually the programs have issue with alpha transparency).

You do want the icon to be a multiple of 16 by 16, for exemple 32x32/64x64/128x128/256x256, otherwise it will look weird.

You could have a look at deviantart, they have alot of icons there that are already in .ico format.

For the record; in a vanilla install of Firefox/Aurora/Nightly, the chrome folder is not present, it was already there because TBB doesn't use omni.ja, it's decompressed, like in old versions of Firefox prior to 3.6.

[Cheryl_27]

Followup - Re: changing bookmark (library) tray icon, when bookmarks window is minimized to tray (same as we did for main FF window).

In Tor Browser, after we got the right folder location for the new icon, it worked to change the tray icon.

I decided needed to change the tray icon for TB's bookmark library tray icon (normally same as FF main window icon). I read somewhere the name for the bookmarks tray icon should be: "bookmark-window.ico". However, placing an icon w/ that name in the same folder w/ "main-window.ico, doesn't change the bookmark tray tab icon from the orange globe.

I closesd TB, added the icon to same "\Tor Browser\FirefoxPortable\App\Firefox\chrome\icons\default\" folder as did the main-window.ico. Does NOT affect the bookmarks tray icon - still orange globe / blue fox.

Used the same icon file as did for the (changed) main-window.ico, just made a copy & renamed it, so it should be a good file. No go. The older article below seems to agree w/ the mozdev article (below) about name of the bookmark tray icon - bookmark-window.ico.

http://customize.org...ups/topic/12678

In addition to the main window, you can also change the icon on the Bookmark Manager and JavaScript Console. The icon names are bookmark-window.[ext] and jsconsoleWindow.[ext], respectively.

After this is done, restart Firefox and you should be able to see your chosen icon in the title of the browser windows.

10:40 am (4 years ago)

http://iconpacks.moz...s/tutorial.html

Any ideas? Thanks.

[Excelsis]

Never been able to get that to work, sadly. Seems like the feature is half broken or something.

[Cheryl_27]

Have you ever seen anything like this from mozdev.org: http://iconpacks.moz...s/tutorial.html

No date on the article. Appears ? it's creating values in same firefox\chrome\icons\default path - but bookmark-window.ico has no effect on bookmark mgr task bar tab.

Obviously, instruction on which icon to use for bookmark mgr is buried somewhere in FF code or some file, but I've not found anything on the web about fixing the broken bookmark-window.ico, by simply placing in path above, as earlier tutorials clearly indicated would work.

Another tutorial http://iconpacks.moz...ldtutorial.html makes mention of different image formats used for different icons. No idea what this means - may be outdated.

[Cheryl_27]

Well, seems the name of the element has changed for bookmark-window.ico to places.ico. Someone on Mozillazine forum answered my question & it seems to work so far.

But, when both main window & bookmark mgr (places.ico) task bar icons are combined under one tab (if that feature is turned on - in Vista, for me), it just shows the orange globe.

When you click the combined tabs icon, the "changed" icons for browser window & bookmark mgr display as the changed icons.

That apparently, is controlled by Windows & ? maybe it's just grabbing the default icon out of the app's main exe file?

Could turn off the grouping tabs feature, or possibly switching the icon in Firefox's exe file, using something like Resource Hacker, but that's a tall order. There are LOTS of icons of the orange globe in firefox.exe, when open it w/ resource hacker.

trying to change the

bookmarks manager task bar icon

(normally same orange globe as browser task bar icon), does

NOT

seem to work.

You must use the appropriate file name. To find out what that is, use DOM Inspector on the window in question and note the ID of the window element.

• Main Firefox window: main-window.ico
  
• Library: places.ico
  
• Downloads: downloadManager.ico
  
• Cookies: CookiesDialog.ico
  
• Adblock Plus preferences: abpPreferencesWindow.ico
  
• etc.
  

I don't know what to say about the taskbar grouping. I suppose it's possible that Vista is fetching the icon directly from firefox.exe when it groups all Firefox windows into one button. You can disable the feature (for all applications) in the taskbar properties.

www.vistax64.com/tutorials/139024-taskbar-group-similar-buttons.html

[Azies]

First thing I thought when I saw he was running Vista..............