Change Desktop BootCamp icon

I have Windows /Boot Camp installed on an external SSD. I would like to change the icon on my Mac Desktop. I've done the standard Get Info and either drag or paste a new icon to the upper left. It changes for a second and then reverts. I've tried creating a .VolumeIcon.icns file in the root of the SSD. The file disappears after about a second. I've done all this with and without SIP.


As a workaround, I've created an alias to the drive and changed the alias icon.


Any suggestions would be gratefully appreciated. Thanks

iMac with Retina 5K display, macOS 10.14

Posted on Dec 3, 2019 11:17 AM

Reply
18 replies

Dec 6, 2019 5:15 AM in response to bobbd

bobbd wrote:

I'm aware that Apple doesn't officially support Boot Camp on an external drive, but everything works.

Good.

I'm trying to change the icon from the macOS side. That said, since the volume icon is in a file .VolumeIcon.icns at the root of the drive, I did try to add it on the Windows side. As soon as I rebooted in macOS, the file disappeared. The same thing happened when I physically added the file to the drive root.

Can you post the output of


diskutil list


with the external disk connected? We should look at the contents of the mount-point on the macOS side.

Dec 4, 2019 10:25 AM in response to Loner T

I'm aware that Apple doesn't officially support Boot Camp on an external drive, but everything works. I'm trying to change the icon from the macOS side. That said, since the volume icon is in a file .VolumeIcon.icns at the root of the drive, I did try to add it on the Windows side. As soon as I rebooted in macOS, the file disappeared. The same thing happened when I physically added the file to the drive root.

Dec 6, 2019 12:36 PM in response to Loner T

Yes, there are a number of external drives. disk2 is the Windows Boot Camp drive.



Bobs-iMac:~ Bob$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk0

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk1 1000.0 GB disk0s2


/dev/disk1 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +1000.0 GB disk1

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume iMac SSD 616.3 GB disk1s1

2: APFS Volume Preboot 44.5 MB disk1s2

3: APFS Volume Recovery 510.4 MB disk1s3

4: APFS Volume VM 2.1 GB disk1s4


/dev/disk2 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *480.1 GB disk2

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1

2: Microsoft Basic Data Boot Camp 479.9 GB disk2s2


/dev/disk3 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *4.0 TB disk3

1: EFI EFI 314.6 MB disk3s1

2: Apple_HFS Clones 2.0 TB disk3s2

3: Apple_HFS External Backup 2.0 TB disk3s3


/dev/disk4 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *2.0 TB disk4

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk4s1

2: Apple_HFS External 2.0 TB disk4s2


/dev/disk5 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *2.0 TB disk5

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk5s1

2: Apple_HFS iMac SSD Clone 2.0 TB disk5s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk5s3

Dec 7, 2019 7:28 AM in response to Loner T

I don't know what partition is represented on the desktop or whether it's the root of the disk. It would be the same for any of the other drives where I've changed the icon. For example, if I'm looking at my internal drive, I'm looking at disk1 (synthesized)>1: APFS Volume iMac SSD. If I show hidden/invisible files, I can see .VolumeIcon.icns at the root. And that's what I see on the desktop.


So on the Boot Camp drive, what shows on the desktop is disk2: Microsoft Basic Data Boot Camp or disk2s2. That's what I'm trying to change and that's what I added the icon to when I tried to do it manually..


If I look in Disk Utility, I see the desktop icons when I click on the actual partition being represented. If I click on the parent, which is the physical drive itself, I get the generic icons.



Dec 7, 2019 6:57 PM in response to Loner T

In Finder, under Get Info>Sharing & Permissions, it says "You have custom access". It shows Bob(Me) with Read & Write, staff with Read only, and everyone with Read only.


If I look at more detail using Path Finder, it shows Owner Bob with Read, Write and Execute Permission. Group and Everyone have Read and execute permission. The summary is drwxr-xr-x.

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Change Desktop BootCamp icon

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