I must say the new menu is amazing and well worth the wait. One of my favorite things is I can easily change an app's icon now :D. Anyways my thought is we can now tell people how to change the icon (simply replace appicon.ico). But when I go to upgrade the app next time my custom app will get overwritten by the launcher :(. So my thought is to add a little line into the appinfo.ini probably under [Control]. Maybe CustomIcon=false. Then if you want a custom icon you can put it in the AppInfo folder named customicon.ico, and change the value to true. Then the installers could recognize to preserve that file. Just my thoughts hitting the keyboard... 
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Custom Icons For Apps
March 8, 2009 - 12:44pm
#1
Custom Icons For Apps
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Nothing in app directories should be changed or will be altered in any way by the Platform (nor should it be manually by users), this is one of the major design flaws in some of the unofficial menus. If we add custom icons, we can do it via the platform and store it all outside the app directory. But, I don't really see much interest or reason to do it except for non-PAF icons and there will be a way to manually customize those in the next release.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Well I don't like a few of the app icons *cough*Notepad++*cough*, and I have a really cool replacement for it. It would be nice to have the option to change the icon without doing it each time a new release comes out.
Release Team Member
I think that's pretty unique, so it's not high on the priority list. As for Notepad++ specifically, what's wrong with it? I think it looks fine and we use a custom one that looks far better than Notepad++'s built in 256 color one.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Maybe change your icon and then make it "read only"? Then the installer would just throw an error about not being able to write to it, right?
John would prefer that you don't mess with the contents of that folder, please don't
Tim
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
I read your message, continued on with my reading of other threads, continued on to other web sites, and stopped short.
I came back to this message.
I wasn't aware that I or my media had to comply with John's wishes. and I'm not sure that I want to place myself in such a position.
Please tell me that I read the intent wrong....
Jim
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
In other conversations with john it has come up/out that the contents of \App\AppInfo are important to the menu, removing or changing one and not the other has effects, removing or changing the other and not the first has different effects, removing both and leaving the folder has still another effect, removing the folder completely has still another effect. The PAP uses the contents of this folder and it is not intended to be changed.
If various people are making various changes in there support will become a nightmare.
John's "wishes" are based on his knowledge of the PAP and how it works, you of course can do what you want, but it is not fair to then ask him to support the Platform when someone makes changes that they have been asked not to.
My intent was to inform other users who might read this topic and think "Ohh, let me go play around with that stuff" that it is not a good idea and John would prefer they don't.
In my vocabulary "prefer" is not a loaded, harsh, or heavy word [ i.e., It's not a "fightin" word
]
Tim
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
Yeah, I understand, but....
Saying that consistency is important for support of ordinary users is fine.
Saying that other use is not authorized, not recommended, not supported, and "on your own" is fine.
But saying that I can't do something in my own home doesn't sit well with me.
I don't want to upset TPTB, but I think we have reached an understanding (sorta like with the R34 Menu Mod) that any commentary needs to include the standard "unofficial, not supported" language. Maybe we could settle on that kind of thing on BOTH sides of this issue too?
Jim
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
But saying that I can't do something ???
You lost me there, no one said you can't do anything.
And John would prefer you don't is good enough for me, but if you prefer:
John would prefer that you don't mess with the contents of that folder, please don't, it is unofficial, not supported, other use is not authorized, not recommended, not supported, and "on your own"
And don't worry about TBTB, they're used to you
Tim
Things have got to get better, they can't get worse, or can they?
Thanks for the vote of confidence. I wear my position proudly!
Jim
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
That's what it's there for, isn't it? I mean, the PAF installers only write to \App and \Other, leaving \Data for your saved settings (and that's what the Backup app backs up).
So why not do like this...?
User wants to define custom app. Custom app is placed in \Data folder. PAP (that's what we're calling it now, as opposed to PAM?) looks first in \Data, sees it, and loads it. Else, it looks in \Data, doesn't see it, and proceeds to load the official icon.
Seems simple enough albeit creating one extra step times however many apps you have on display.
You are, of course, free to mess with app's directories. But if it breaks, please don't ask about it in the forums. That's what unsupported and on your own means. It's a distraction trying to support users messing about with things.
We may do a way to do custom icons for apps later which is preserved, but it is lower in the priority list than things which are desired by a larger group of users. And it will also be a trade off as we'll have to see how much it slows down Platform loading with lots of apps. I think I have a way to do it which will be relatively fast (just check if a file exists), but we'll see. Would you be comfortable with it not having a GUI right now? Just placing a specially-named ICO in a specific place? If so, I can code that pretty quick.
For now, you can customize the icon in AppInfo, but be aware that it will be blown away on each update.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I didn't mean to be rude about it or to start a war...I knew it wouldn't happen right away I was just thinking it might have been an easy way for people to do it without you having to write a crap load of new code. And about the np++ icon. I don't know I just didn't really like it and although it was far superior to the default one I just like the replacement one I found on Deviant art better.
Release Team Member
which one of these is correct linkage?
http://tempest.deviantart.com/art/Vista-Style-Icon-for-Notepad-96362514
http://ozl.deviantart.com/art/Notepad-reflective-icon-95595781
John: how would the icon location be saved, via the PAP INI?
But there’s no sense crying over every mistake,
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.
Probably to a specific path, but maybe in the INI. Gotta see which is faster. If a path, something like:
X:\PortableApps\PortableApps.com\Data\App\Icons\Notepad++Portable-Notepad++Portable.exe.ico
If it exists, it'll use it. But any INI file entry may be faster since we'll already have the PortableAppsMenu.ini loaded and in RAM.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
The first one is...but OOHH I really like the blue one
;P
Release Team Member