user2@cgevs3.cem.msu.edu (Stephen Medlin) (05/08/91)
I'm wondering if someone can provide a reason for an empirical discovery that I made: Before I put a larger hard disk on my computer, I was running out of room--I had killed most of the obvious things and I decided that I would get rid of all of my icon files (both EXE and ICO files). I assumed that all of the icons that I had assigned to group items would be gone and I would be left with the default PROGMAN icons. Lo' to my surprise, I still have all of the icons "stuck" to the items. I had expected that windows read in the icons at boot time and applied them to the groups, but that is not obviously what it does. It seems to me that this is a really neat feature/bug, because I can now keep all of my icons on floppy, apply new icons to new entries, and keep the *.ICO files off the HD. Can someone let me know why Win3 does this and/or any reasons to not do this (other than the slowness of accessing icons from floppy). Otherwise, this is a great trick for people out there with limited HD space (now a days, even 40 MB is too small). If I get enough replies, I will summarize and re-post. Stephen Medlin
elmanad@leland.Stanford.EDU (Adam Elman) (05/09/91)
In article <00948496.3FF72760@cgevs3.cem.msu.edu> user2@cgevs3.cem.msu.edu (Stephen Medlin) writes: >I'm wondering if someone can provide a reason for an empirical discovery that I >made: Before I put a larger hard disk on my computer, I was running out of >room--I had killed most of the obvious things and I decided that I would >get rid of all of my icon files (both EXE and ICO files). I assumed that >all of the icons that I had assigned to group items would be gone and I >would be left with the default PROGMAN icons. Lo' to my surprise, I still >have all of the icons "stuck" to the items. I had expected that windows >read in the icons at boot time and applied them to the groups, but that >is not obviously what it does. It seems to me that this is a really neat >feature/bug, because I can now keep all of my icons on floppy, apply new >icons to new entries, and keep the *.ICO files off the HD. Can someone >let me know why Win3 does this and/or any reasons to not do this (other than >the slowness of accessing icons from floppy). Otherwise, this is a great >trick for people out there with limited HD space (now a days, even 40 MB >is too small). > >If I get enough replies, I will summarize and re-post. > >Stephen Medlin Actually, this is a well-known feature. Program Manager stores the icons for files in the .grp files for each group. It only reads the original .ico file when you click on the "change properties" selection in the menu. If you do that, of course, and the icon is not in the path that ProgMan thinks it is, the icon will return to the default. Of course, this is easily fixed, and there is actually absolutely no reason not to store all your icons on a floppy -- you only really need them when you want to change or install them. Later, Adam Elman elmanad@leland.stanford.edu
hd7x@vax5.cit.cornell.edu (Sanjay Aiyagari) (05/09/91)
In article <1991May8.193851.21056@leland.Stanford.EDU>, elmanad@leland.Stanford.EDU (Adam Elman) writes: > In article <00948496.3FF72760@cgevs3.cem.msu.edu> user2@cgevs3.cem.msu.edu > (Stephen Medlin) writes: >>[...] >>would be left with the default PROGMAN icons. Lo' to my surprise, I still >>have all of the icons "stuck" to the items. I had expected that windows >>read in the icons at boot time and applied them to the groups, but that >>is not obviously what it does. It seems to me that this is a really neat >>feature/bug, because I can now keep all of my icons on floppy, apply new >>[...] > Actually, this is a well-known feature. Program Manager stores the > icons for files in the .grp files for each group. It only reads the > original .ico file when you click on the "change properties" selection > in the menu. If you do that, of course, and the icon is not in the > path that ProgMan thinks it is, the icon will return to the default. Yes, this was a "feature" that had me puzzled when I first installed Windows 3.0. For some reason, I had total garbage for all the icons installed by the SETUP program. Yet the icons for Windows applications are stored in the .EXE file, so I at first thought that something was wrong with the .EXE files. But then, I realized that selecting each file in turn and choosing File Properties would put the correct icon there. Strange. Sanjay Aiyagari (hd7x@vax5.cit.cornell.edu)
cchapman@msd.gatech.edu (Chuck H. Chapman) (05/10/91)
In <00948496.3FF72760@cgevs3.cem.msu.edu> user2@cgevs3.cem.msu.edu (Stephen Medlin) writes: > I had expected that windows >read in the icons at boot time and applied them to the groups, but that >is not obviously what it does. I think the icons get copied to the corresponding .GRP files. Chuck -- Charles H. Chapman (GTRI/MATD) (404) 528-7588 Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332 ************************************************************** * Home of the 1990 National Champion Ga. Tech Yellow Jackets * ************************************************************** uucp: ...!{allegra,amd,hplabs,ut-ngp}!gatech!msd!cchapman Internet: cchapman@msd.gatech.edu