How-To Change the Icons on every Application

[Guest nCounTr]

You want your app drawer to look like this?

Now you can do it yourself by following this little tutorial on how to do this.

First you need to install Root Explorer and go to /system/app folder to mount it as r/w. The same goes for /data/app folder.

First you need to pull the apps from /system/app and put them into separate folder let's name it sysapp.

Then you pull the apps from /data/app and put them into separate folder let's name it datapp.

For simpler adb commands i used C:\ as the path for the above folders.

Next you need to open (NOT EXTRACT) each single apk with WinRAR or 7z and look for the icon of the app in the res/drawable folder in the apk or if there's a bunch of drawable folders than you look at res/drawable-mdpi folder.

Then you take your 48x48 icon in .png format and drag it into the folder where the apk's icon is. Keep in mind that you need to rename your icon to match the name of the icon from the apk.

I'll use Browser.apk as example.

When you open it with WinRAR you need to go into res and then into drawable-mdpi and look for the ic_launcher_browser.png which is the apk's icon.

Then you rename your icon into ic_launcher_browser.png and drag it into res/drawable-mdpi folder. It may ask you to overwrite and u need to do that.

Then we just push the Browser.apk back into /system/app on the phone. And that's it we have the new icon.

This process only works for /system/app applications because they work without signing them.

Now when you finish with /system/app applications then we need to move to the installed applications.

The process is the same with the difference that we need to sign every application.

To do this we need to delete META-INF folder from each modified application and re-sign them.

To re-sign the app's we need this tool and when we extract this tool we need to click twice on the .reg file which will put Resign APK and Resign ZIP options when we right click on the .apk or .zip file.

So when we're finished with the applications from the datapp folder we go with right click on every single one of them and click Resign apk.

Then before installing them into the phone we need to uninstall the already installed applications that we pulled to modify them.

So when we're finished with uninstalling we put the new ones on the sdcard and install them.

NOTE: We need to uninstall the unmodified and install them because i encountered problems with just pushing them into /data/app folder. When i pushed them all installed applications except those from the system/app folder were corrupted and couldn't be run and i finished with the need to do clean reflash of the phone. So if you don't want to reflash your phone again please uninstall and install the applications.

P.S. If You Need My Icons You Can Download Them From Here: Icons.rar

- I don't have icons for Navigator, My Phonebook, SIM Toolkit, SetCPU and some others. And if some one could make them it would be really appreciated.

Edited June 12, 2010 by nCounTr

[Guest dodge-167]

i dont have "apk" folder on my phone....

EDIT: uhhh... Im giving up... its to hard for me...

Edited June 12, 2010 by dodge-167

[Guest nCounTr]

i dont have "apk" folder on my phone....

EDIT: uhhh... Im giving up... its to hard for me...

The folder is app not apk.

[Guest dodge-167]

Ok.. But how do i do this ( i think i will ask a lot of questions from begining to end xD, so be prepare if you wont to answer me)

"First you need to pull the apps from /system/app and put them into separate folder let's name it sysapp.

Then you pull the apps from /data/app and put them into separate folder let's name it datapp.

For simpler adb commands i used C:\ as the path for the above folders."

[Guest nCounTr]

Ok.. But how do i do this ( i think i will ask a lot of questions from begining to end xD, so be prepare if you wont to answer me)

"First you need to pull the apps from /system/app and put them into separate folder let's name it sysapp.

Then you pull the apps from /data/app and put them into separate folder let's name it datapp.

For simpler adb commands i used C:\ as the path for the above folders."

If u've made the sysapp and datapp folders in your C drive, i mean the one you've installed windows on.

then to pull applications you use adb pull command in command prompt aka cmd in windows and use them like this:

for the system applications you use: adb pull /system/app/ C:\sysapp

and for the data applications you use: adb pull /data/app/ C:\datapp

So now you have the apk's in sysapp and datapp folders, and you can proceed the process from post #1.

[Guest dodge-167]

I dont know how to use ADB, thats th biggest problem :/

[Guest Fusion0306]

I dont know how to use ADB, thats th biggest problem :/

Me too. So, this is the answer for us: http://android.modaco.com/content/t-mobile...mander-adb-gui/

You just have to have adb installed. It works great

[Guest dodge-167]

Me too. So, this is the answer for us: http://android.modaco.com/content/t-mobile...mander-adb-gui/

You just have to have adb installed. It works great

wooow... This is cool... But how do i connect my phone to a pc?

[Guest dodge-167]

When i open SDK its says this:

Failed to fetch URL https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/repository/repository.xml, reason: HTTPS SSL error. You might want to force download through HTTP in the settings.

[Guest Fusion0306]

When i open SDK its says this:

Failed to fetch URL https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/repository/repository.xml, reason: HTTPS SSL error. You might want to force download through HTTP in the settings.

Hm... I don't know what could be the problem. But I don't think you have to open adb. Just download 2.1 sdk that's what I did (I didn't download all). And open android commander

[Guest nCounTr]

When i open SDK its says this:

Failed to fetch URL https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/repository/repository.xml, reason: HTTPS SSL error. You might want to force download through HTTP in the settings.

Go to settings and check the option "Force https://... sources to be fetched using http://..." and try downloading again.

That option worked for me.

Edited June 13, 2010 by nCounTr

[Guest dodge-167]

tnx you all guys...

WIP: :)

[Guest DanWilson]

You don't need to download the SDK for ADB. Just download the custom recovery image, ADB for all platforms is in there.

adb-mac

adb-linux

adb-windows.exe

:)

And the reason I probably won't do this is it looks time consuming, and not every app icon would be there... :)

Edited June 13, 2010 by DanWilson

[Guest nCounTr]

You don't need to download the SDK for ADB. Just download the custom recovery image, ADB for all platforms is in there.

adb-mac

adb-linux

adb-windows.exe

:)

And the reason I probably won't do this is it looks time consuming, and not every app icon would be there... :)

What do you mean not every app icon would be there?

If you made the icons yourself and changed them they will be there. You just need to remember to sign the installed applications and uninstall them prior installing the modified, and it works for every application that i have. I just have 2 applications that don't have modified icon and those applications are the navigation and simtools applications because i was 2 lazy to make icons for them. I will as soon as i finish making my MacGSM 2.1 ROM.

[Guest DanWilson]

What do you mean not every app icon would be there?

If you made the icons yourself and changed them they will be there. You just need to remember to sign the installed applications and uninstall them prior installing the modified, and it works for every application that i have. I just have 2 applications that don't have modified icon and those applications are the navigation and simtools applications because i was 2 lazy to make icons for them. I will as soon as i finish making my MacGSM 2.1 ROM.

OK, I'm too lazy to make my own, and the pack in the first post wouldn't have all the icons. On top of this, updating apps would be lost, and I can't sign anything on this Mac install... :)

But yeah, too much work for me.

[Guest Tha PHLASH]

easiest way, will be this, hassle free...

[Guest Yoshi_523]

Thanks to the author nCounTr for the great easy to read guide on this. I've read through a number of technical forum threads related to changing apps icons. So in the thread guide you wrote I noticed you didn't seem to go into detail which .apk signing tool you are using or where to download. I think it's most likely you are describing the apk signing tool posted by Stericson at XDA forums. It installs the option you describe of being able to right click and sign .zip or .apk files to install. However Stericsons signing tool and APK Edit V0.3 (linked to in above post) both don't work for at least some market apps. For example try it with Dolphin browser... it simply won't install ;) Maybe just have to push the stubborn apps that wont sign/install to the system/app folder.

OK so a big warning I think needs to be mentioned. If you search for Stericson's apk signing tool I would Highly recommend you to a system backup in Windows 7 (using the system resore feature). ALSO DO NOT INSTALL THE .REG FILE OR CHOOSE THE OPTION TO (I THINK IT'S OPTION 3) TO INSTALL TO REGISTRY. IF YOU DO THIS THERE IS NO WAY EASY WAY TO UNINSTALL. EVERY .ZIP FILE YOU DOUBLE CLICK ON WON'T OPEN BUT INSTEAD THE STERICSON'S APK TOOL WILL TRY TO RE-SIGN!! VERY ANNOYING. THE ONLY EASY WAY TO UNINSTALL ONCE IT'S CHANGED THE REGISTRY LIKE THAT IS TO DO A SYSTEM RESTORE IN WINDOWS. BE WARNED FOR THIS REASON I FEEL THE TOOL IS POORLY WRITTEN.

If you want to use Stericson's APK Signing Tool just run the batch program in command prompt. DO NOT CHOOSE THE OPTION TO INSTALL TO REGISTRY. Just choose the option to manually sign your .zip or .apk. Then it won't f*ck up Windows.

Take care and happy modding.

Yoshi

Edited February 1, 2011 by Yoshi_523