Look & Feel: Icon Package

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When IconPackager is started for the first time, you will see two menus running along the top.  By default is selected on the main (top) menu.  The menu beneath it is a sub-menu of related options and is selected (by default).  The Windows XP & 2000 menu bar is the same, except they don't have the tab.

The sidebar menu on the left side has the name of the current icon package, plus options to: change the color, delete, add additional packages and apply an icon package to your computer.  Click on the "LocalFlavor Vista" package at the bottom of the window.

The first item on the top of the menu includes the Title of the package (i.e. LocalFlavor Vista), and the Author (i.e. coco). The second option is "Change Icon Package Color", which is a shortcut to the tab.  There you can change the color of a selected icon package.  You can't change the color of either the "Windows Default Icons" or "Random Package".  The tab will be covered in detail in the Look & Feel: Colors section. The third item is "Delete this Icon Package", which will allow you to delete a selected icon package.  It will prompt you with a confirmation, click  to delete.  (Click or to cancel.)

The fourth choice is "Add Icon Package", which allows you to either install a new package from your hard-drive or the internet (web).   If you install from disk, an explorer type window will open so you can locate the icon package.  File extensions supported: .IP, .ICONPACKAGE, .IPTHEME, and .THEME.  After you find the file, click .  (Click or to abort.)  If you install from the web, your web browser will display the WinCustomize www.wincustomize.com/Skins.aspx?LibID=2&a=ip website with Icon Packages you can download.  After downloading, IconPackager will automatically add the package to the list of packages.  If it doesn't, select the Install from disk option to install into IconPackager.

The fifth and last menu option is "Apply Icon Package", which will apply the icon package you select from the list at the bottom of the window.  Alternately & a quicker way to apply a package is by double-clicking on the desired icon package. If was enabled on the "Icons & Cursors: Drives" tab, you will be asked to disable this feature so the new icon package loads correctly for the drives.  (This will be covered in detail in the Icons & Cursors: Drives section.)  Preview Pane To the right of the menu is a large preview area.  When you click on an icon set, samples of the icons (i.e. desktop, folder) will be displayed.  This allows you to see the icons before applying to your computer.

Available Icon Packages The menu of currently installed icon packages runs along the bottom of the window, use the horizontal scroll bar to view them all.  The first package on the far left is the "Windows Default Icons".  After changing your icons to a different package (i.e. LocalFlavor Vista, nicon Vista, ...), you can select this option to return your icons to the standard Windows icons.  If you click on any of the packages a sample will appear in the preview area.  The only package that won't display anything in the preview is "Random Package", because it includes several packages.  The Random Package will be covered later in this section.

Either clicking on the blue link "Icon Package Options" (below preview & above the list of packages) or right-clicking on an icon package will display the following menu.  Some of these options are the same as the menu to the left of the preview pane.

Action	What it does
Apply Icon Package	Changes your computer icon to the selected icon package.
Load Icon Package	Loads the currently selected package into the tabs so you can preview the icons & cursors on that tab before applying to your desktop.  If was enabled on the Icons & Cursors: Drives tab, you will be asked to disable the feature so the new icon package loads correctly for the drives.
Package Info...	Displays information about the selected icon package, including: Author, Email address of author, Web site of author, Category (if any), author Comments and "Windows XP or above package", meaning it high color graphics (i.e. XP, Vista). Clicking next to the email will launch your default Windows email program & address it to the author.  Clicking next to the web site will launch your default Windows web browser and display the author's web site.  You can change the Category by selecting a different one from the pull-down menu and clicking .  This will be used for filtering packages by category.  Click to exit (or save changes).  (Click or to abort.)  If you didn't make any changes, clicking exits faster, otherwise it re-saves the package.
Recolor Package...	This will take you to the tab, so you can change the coloring of the selected  icon package.
Zip Package...	If you make changes to an icon package and want to share it or back it up, this option will Zip (compress) it for you.  If you want to save to a different folder, click "Browse Folders" and locate the desired folder.  You can change the filename and it will be saved with a .IP compressed file extension (file type).  Click to store on your drive.  (Click or to abort.)
Delete Package	This will allow you to delete a selected icon package.  It will prompt you with a confirmation, click to delete.  (Click or to cancel.)
Add Icon Package	This allows you to add a new package from disk or internet (Wincustomize.com) and is the same as the option on the menu to the left of the preview.
Refresh	This will update the list of icon packages if you manually (i.e. Windows Explorer) extracted or copied an icon package outside of IconPackager.  Or if you created a package in "Package Builder" (on the tabs), clicking Refresh will add it to the list.

Alternate Grid View An alternate method of viewing icon packages is by clicking the grid icon.  There isn't a preview area, but the whole window will be filled with the installed packages.  As you acquire more icon packages, this will become useful.  To apply the selected package, click on "Apply Icon Package" or the button.  If you have more packages than fit on the screen, use the scrollbar to view the others.  To switch back to the preview mode, click the preview  icon.

Filter By Category IconPackager gives you the option of sorting and locating icon packages in the list by using tags (i.e. People, Places, Sports).  You can see what category a package has by clicking "Icon Package Options" (or right-clicking on a package), selecting "Package Info..." (see table above) and viewing "Category".  You can change the category by clicking on the pull-down menu and selecting a new one.  Click to exit (or save changes).  (Click or to abort.)

Clicking on "Filter By Category" will change the left-side menu to a list of category names.  Use the vertical scrollbar to view them all.  You can check categories you want to see, and uncheck ones you don't want to see in the list.  If you click "Select All", all categories will be selected.  While "Select None" will uncheck all categories.  Most of the categories are self-explanatory, "OS" (Operating System) (i.e. Windows), "Others" (Misc. catch all), and "PseudoOS" (variation on an Operating System).

At the bottom of the filter list is a pull-down menu that allows you to sort the filtered results by: name of package, name of author, date (created/last modified), WinXP or above (high color), and icon count (number of icons in package).  Select one, and then click "Filter By Category" again to sort the list of icon packages.

Featured List The "Featured Package" blue link will open a small window that connects to the www.WinCustomize.com website to display the current featured icon package on the site.

If you click in the center on the package itself, IconPackager will open your web browser displaying the featured package on the www.WinCustomize.com website.  If you click on the button, your web browser will display Icon Packages on the WinCustomize site.  This allows you to browse the hundreds of icon packages and download the ones you want.  In IconPackager, use the "Add Icon Package" to "Install from disk...". To install the featured package, click the button and it will download & install the package into IconPackager automatically.  It will close the small window and display the new package in the preview (unless you're in grid view).  From there you can immediately apply the icon package by clicking on "Apply Icon Package".  (If you decide not to download the featured package, click or .)

Random Package "Random Package" is a special one that when applied will change your icons on a random, rotating basis.  (Random means that that IconPackager will select a different package each time.)  When selected, the preview displays a question mark (?), because there are multiple packages in the rotation & it can't display all of them.  By default, it will change your icons every time you click "Apply Icon Package".  You can also select the option to change every time Windows restarts (i.e. reboot, starts up).  When you select the Random Package, a new link appears on the lower right-hand corner called "Random Package Settings".

Clicking "Random Package Settings" opens a new window displaying options to change the rotation and when the change is made.  Additional icon packages (i.e. Arzo Icons, Icon-A-Day, Mulberry) have been downloaded from WinCustomize.com to help illustrate the use of this feature.  The top half of the screen includes installed icon packages.  The bottom half is where you can add select packages you want included in the new rotation.  Normally, when you first see this screen there aren't any packages listed on the bottom half and the "Pick a random Icon Package from all installed packages" is checked and "Apply random package on Windows startup" is unchecked.  This means that IconPackager will randomly select a package from all of the installed packages and change them each time you run IconPackager & click the "Apply Icon Package" option. To change the random rotation, first uncheck the box for "Pick a random Icon Package from all installed packages".  Then click on a desired package to include in the rotation and click the button.  The package will be copied into the bottom half of the window.  Do that for each package you want included.  If you decide you don't want a package in the rotation, click on it in the lower half of the screen & click Remove and it will disappear.  If you want all of the packages included, click .  This is handy if you have a lot of packages & you want most of them selected, but not all.  Instead of adding 25 different packages, you could click , then the 5 you don't want.  If you changed your mind, click and all packages will be removed from the rotation.

If you want the icon package to change every time Windows restarts (i.e. starts up, reboots), check the box in the lower left corner "Apply random package on Windows startup".  This option can be checked even if you didn't uncheck "Pick a random Icon Package from all installed packages".  Then click to save changes.  (Click or to abort and close the "Random Package" window.)  Click "Apply Icon Package" to apply the Random Rotation to your computer.  To stop using this feature, either apply a different icon package or apply the Windows default Icons. Sub Packages If an icon package includes a Sub Package, you will see a small menu on the far right underneath the preview area.  A icon package can change all of your icons, while selecting & applying a sub package will keep some of those icons while changing others.  For instance, a sub package might change just the "Internet" icon or 15 others.  If you're familiar with Stardock's WindowBlinds program, it uses Sub Styles which are similar in concept to Sub Packages. You can create your own sub packages based on an existing icon package by using Package Builder on the tabs.  (Refer to Icons & Cursors: Package Builder for more information.)