Mac Basics: About icons in OS X

Summary

Every volume (disk), application, file, and folder on your Mac is represented by an icon.

Products Affected

Mac OS X 10.5, Mac OS X 10.6, OS X Lion, OS X Mountain Lion

Icons look like the item that they represent. For example, your hard disk volume icon (Macintosh HD) looks like a hard drive and a DVD's icon look like a disc. You can change many of the icons OS X uses if you wish to.

Some of the icons in OS X Mountain Lion

Application icons are all generally unique, so they stand out from one another. Folder icons help you identify what's inside of them. File icons generally display a document with an application logo that lets you know what application created it or is the default to open it.

Changing your user account icon

Your user account icon appears in the Login window when you log in (if your Mac isn't set to automatically log you in), and is used as your contact portrait unless you change it. When you first set up your user account, you have the opportunity to select a picture to use as your icon. You can also change the icon whenever you want, as described below.

You can use one of the included icons, drag in a custom image, or take a snapshot with your Mac's camera

  1. From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.
  2. Click Users & Groups (click Accounts in Mac OS X v10.6).
  3. To the left of the "Change Password" button is a pop-up menu that shows your current account icon. Click it to choose a different icon, or to use your Mac's camera to take a snapshot to use as an icon. You can also simply drag a picture to the menu
  4. If desired, crop and reposition the new icon.
  5. When satisfied, click Done to make the change.

Additional Information

Changing an item's icon

  1. Click the volume, application, folder, or file whose icon you want to paste onto another item.
  2. From the File menu, choose Get Info or press Command-I to open the Get Info window.
  3. Click the icon in the upper-left corner of the Get Info window to select it.

    get-info

  4. From the Edit menu, choose Copy or press Command-C.
  5. Select the volume, application, folder, or file whose icon you want to replace.
  6. From the File menu, choose Get Info or press Command-I.
  7. Click the icon in the upper-left corner.
  8. From the Edit menu, choose Paste or press Command-V to replace the icon.
Not helpful Somewhat helpful Helpful Very helpful Solved my problem
Ask other users about this article
in Apple Support Communities
See all questions on this article See all questions I have asked