In Windows 11, .ico files can be assigned to change the icon for items in File Explorer. I was wondering why Scrivener can’t automatically assign .ico files to folders like I’ve seen other programs do.
I assumed this was just not programmed in, and did some poking around in the scrivener program files to copy the scrivx.ico file to use in the larger scrivener folders, and I found that, in addition to the .scrivx file for the .scrivx documents, there DOES exist another .ico file named “scriv.ico” which looks like it goes along with the generated .scriv folders when you create new scrivener projects.
So my question is if that scriv.ico file is intended to be assigned automatically by scrivener and this function is broken, or if it is meant to be manually assigned by the user after the folder is created and is kept as a “if you want to do this, we planned for that.”
I’ve changed the classification on this from ‘bug’ to ‘wishlist’, as nothing is actually broken here (though we might say the presence of the file is itself a mistake, as it is identical to the scrivx.ico file down to the byte and timestamp). It’s a good idea though, and maybe it might help some people who don’t seem to notice the folder at all, and treat the .scrivx file as the entire project when backing it up individually, or trying to copy the project between computers.
Such a thing should probably look more like a folder though, maybe with some kind of ‘s’ treatment in the corner of it. In fact, in looking at the Desktop.ini features, there are some other things we could probably do to make these folders nicer, too, like adding a tooltip.
Update: though on further reading, it looks like to use this file the parent folder has to be set to system folder status, which would then throw an admin confirmation if you tried to do anything with it. So I don’t know about that. Is that how Ableton Live works?
Thank you for the answer! I’ll just apply them manually then.
I do not exactly know how Ableton Live sets its ico files, but I know it copies the ico file located in the application files when you make a new project and pastes it into the new project’s data folders alongside a config file, so that might be part of it. Unfortuantly, I don’t have anywhere close to the technical skills to find out what any of it means. I just see the result and extrapolate that it might be possible in Scrivener since Windows 11 would allow for it.
Okay, I’ve added to the list for investigation anyway. The method I found goes back to at least XP, but is poorly documented (the official MS docs are XP era), and I don’t think it’s suitable for this type of use.
But I’ll put this other program in the notes so we can look at what it’s doing, and then whether that technique survives syncing through other operating systems, and so on.