Showing desktop icons as picture previews

I've done this before, but I can't remember how...
Does anyone know how to convert all the picture icons on the desktop screen (as well as Finder folders) into a mini "preview" picture?
Sometimes when I upload a lot of pictures from my camera to my iMac's desktop there's so much that it takes hours to select the pictures I want to keep.
Thanks for the help in advance.

Hi, vin78.
To display a preview icon for picture files on the desktop:
1. Click the desktop.
2. Either press Command-J or select Finder > View > Show View Options.
3. In the resulting info window for the desktop, select Show Icon Preview.
4. Close the info window for the desktop.
This does not change the icon of the picture files to a preview, but merely causes finder to display a preview instead of the standard image-type icon.
You can try tools like Pic2Icon or use the super shareware utility Graphic Converter\ to change the icon of an image file to an image preview.
Folders do not show preview icons of their contents. To change the icon of a folder, see "Mac OS X 10.4 Help: Changing the icon of a file or folder.”.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

Similar Messages

"Show Desktop" icon in Gnome Disappears

Hello All,
I have GNOME (installed from the repos). Once every few logins (it seems pretty random) the "show desktop" icon (usually in the lefthand corner) is missing.
If I try and add it again, the new icon actually appears directly to the right of the original. If I logout or reboot, the original icon re-appears.
I have found nothing online relating to this problem, nothing in the forums (one post mentioned it, so I commented, but never got a reply).
I've actually had this issue in another distro since before I started using arch --- Fedora to be precise. However, I've yet to see it in ubuntu, debian or slackware (and I use ubuntu at work every day, on multiple machines).
Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks
Last edited by yochaigal (2011-02-16 05:18:07)

I have the same "show desktop icon" problem --- I had this issue in fedora as well, was hoping it'd disappear in arch. did you ever fix it?

My ipad won't boot up, shows itunes icon and picture of plug

Please help. ALl of a sudden my ipad2, which I turn it on - starts with the white apple and then switches to an iTUnes icon and a picbure of a white Apple charger plug (old iPhones/iIPad versi9on) I can't get past it into the ipad itself. what do I do?

FORCE IPAD INTO RECOVERY MODE
1. Turn off iPad
2. Turn on computer and launch iTune (make sure you have the latest version of iTune)
3. Plug USB cable into computer's USB port
4. Hold Home button down and plug the other end of cable into docking port. Do not release button until you see picture of iTune and plug (very important)
5. Release Home button.
ON COMPUTER
6. iTune has detected iPad in recovery mode. You must restore this iPad before it can be used with iTune.
7. Select "Restore iPad"...
Note: Data will be lost

Showing Desktop Wallpaper using Gnome 3 & Nemo

Hi,
I just installed Nemo as my file manager since I miss some of the features in Nautilus. To work properly I set Nemo to display the Desktop Icons. Sadly this overrides my Wallpaper blank and I don't know how to configure Nemo or Cinnamon to show it again. As Desktop Environment I am using Gnome 3.
The current gsettings are the following:
org.cinnamon.desktop.background.color-shade-type = solid
org.cinnamon.desktop.background.picture-opacity = 100
org.cinnamon.desktop.background.picture-options = zoom
org.cinnamon.desktop.background.picture-uri = file:///usr/share/themes/Adwaita/backgrounds/adwaita-timed.xml
org.cinnamon.desktop.background.primary-color = #000000
org.cinnamon.desktop.background.secondary-color = #000000
org.gnome.desktop.background.color-shade-type = solid
org.gnome.desktop.background.picture-opacity = 100
org.gnome.desktop.background.picture-options = zoom
org.gnome.desktop.background.picture-uri = file:///usr/share/themes/Adwaita/backgrounds/adwaita-timed.xml
org.gnome.desktop.background.primary-color = #023c88
org.gnome.desktop.background.secondary-color = #5789ca
org.gnome.desktop.show-desktop-icons = true
org.nemo.desktop.show-desktop-icons = true
I have not yet configured nemo to start on login, so when I do log in my Desktop Wallpaper is shown properly, once I open Nemo it turns blank.
Any suggestions on how to fix this?
Greetings
Dero
EDIT:
I just installed cinnamon to test if the background works there and it did. Maybe there is something that needs to be edited in the gnome-session?
Last edited by Dero (2014-03-23 17:10:26)

Looks cool, here is the an equivalent bash script for Gnome3, it's not random though, it just cycles.
https://gist.github.com/Exodus111/814c659422232f50994e
It's supposed to work, but for me it does nothing.

Hide desktop icons on secondary monitor?

I have these command scripts in my Dock and click on them when I want to hide or show desktop icons:
defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop false
killall Finder
defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop true
killall Finder
It works great. My question is, how do I write these so they hide the desktop icons on my secondary monitor?
Thanks!

Never mind... restarting fixed the problem.

Can i hide desktop icons?

is it possible to have no icons on the desktop showing.
for example, in windows i just right click on the desktop, arrange icons by, and then click show desktop icons. which either hides/shows the desktop icons.
is it possible to do something similar with mac?

hiya,
when i put a '.' in front of the file name, it comes up with a message saying "...these names are reserved for the system".
if i can help it, i don't want to install a programme, just so i can use one of its features i.e. hiding desktop icons.
the reason i want to hide my desktop icons is so i can just see my wallpaper.
is there no simple, say for example, turn on/off desktop icons? or something along those lines?
thanks.

Gnome 3.4 Missing Desktop Icons

I've got the latest version of gnome 3.4 installed along with gnome-tweak-tool. In gnome-tweak-tool I've got Have the file manager handle the desktop set to on. However, when I log out and log back in again there are no icons until I fire up nautilus manually at which point it draws the desktop icons. How can I make it so that the icons are there when I log into gnome without having to fire up nautilus manually first please? Many thanks in advance.

I'm not really at home in Gnome 3, but here's my two cents:
Open dconf-editor (Alt+F2 and enter 'dconf-editor') and be sure 'org > gnome > desktop > background > show-desktop-icons' is checked...
If not, do so and restart the shell...
If it is already checked, I'm kinda out of inspiration...

Lost my desktop icons!

I have an Equium A60 laptop and have lost all the icons on my desktop. I can find them by going via Start, Programs. Any ideas on how to retrieve my desktop?

Hi
Your issue sounds very strange and I cant believe that the icons are hidden without any action.
I think you have disabled the option show desktop icons accidentally.
Anyway please make a right click on the desktop and chose Arrange Icons by
(I think its a fist option on the top of this menu) Then you should see the option called show desktop icons. Please enable it.
After this procedure all icons should appear again.

How do I change desktop folder/safari pictures to registered business icons, I have tried almost every how to on-line but none are worki? I have treing. First how do I get the icon I need from the website and then what?

How do I change Mac desktop folder/safari pictures to registered business icons? I have tried almost everythin but none are working. First how do I capture the business icon from the website, then what?

OK, well to start with, you must have the icon file in the correct format. You need to end up with an .icns file. One of the how-to articles should tell you how to do this - iConvert will also do it.
If it is in the correct format, when you click the icon file to highlight it, and click cmd-i, you will see the Get Info window - at the top left, you should see a mini version of the icon. If you do NOT see that icon correctly, the file is not the correct format. So this will not work for a jpg or png file, for example.
Once you have this window open, go to the thumbnail, click it to highlight it blue, and click cmd-C to copy.
Go to your Safari app from the Applications folder (not from the dock), again click cmd-i to open its Get Info window, and again click its icon to highlight it blue. Now click cmd-V to paste. You will be asked for your admin password to authenticate. The icon should now become the one you've pasted in.
You may need to log out and back in for the effect to show on the application file itself.
You might also want to look into Candybar if you plan on doing a lot of icon customization.
Matt

Desktop icons not showing up for T60's and T61's

We are having an issue with nearly half (we have a few hundred at out company) of our T60’s and T61’s where they do not show the desktop icons at boot up. If they start the task manager and run explorer then everything pops up like normal. But they will have to repeat this process every time they boot up. We also tried having them turn off the wireless radio via the slider switch but that did not help.
One fix we found was to go C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Application Data and copy the IconCache.db found there over the users IconCache. This fixes the issue for 99% of the people who have this problem, but there are a few that continue to boot up to no desktop items.
The only other fix we have found was to put explorer.exe in the start up folder. This brings up a pop up of their My Documents at start up that they have to close but is much easier than going through the task manager to run explorer.
We also have many T43’s and many Lenovo desktops from M-81, M-82, and M-88’s. none of the desktops show this problem and we have not had this issue with any of the 43’s.
The software packages are essentially the same for all of our systems. The only difference being is that the desktops do not have VPN.
Windows XP sp2
MS Office 2003 standard
IE 6
Adobe Reader 8.1
Lotus Notes 8.1
Sametime 8.0
Cisco VPN 4.6
RealVNC 4
Symantec Antivirus 10.1.5
We run all MS updates and keep the laptops fully patched with Lenovo updates, the only updates we do not use is the ThinkVantage access connections. We install all other system updates in the critical and recommended section.
Some basic hard ware specs of the systems involved:
T61
Processor:        Intel Centrino Core Duo T8100 2.1GHz
Display:            NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M
RAM:               3GB
Disk Drive:       WDC WD1200BEVS
BIOS:              LENOVO 7LETB2WW (2.12), 2/20/2008
T60
Processor:        Intel Centrino Core Duo T2500 2.0GHz
Display:            ATI Mobility Radeon X1400
RAM:               2GB
Disk Drive:       ST9120822AS
BIOS:              LENOVO 79ETE1WW (2.21), 2/5/2008
T43
Processor:        Intel Pentium M 1.86GHz
Display:            ATI Mobility Radeon X300
RAM:               1GB
Disk Drive:       HTS541080G9AT00
BIOS:              IBM 1YET62WW (1.27), 5/18/2006
M88
Processor:        Intel Pentium D 3.0Mh
Display:            Intel Q965/Q963 Express Chipset
RAM:               1GB
Disk Drive:       WDC WD800JD
BIOS:              LENOVO 2JKT37AUS, 7/12/2007

Good news: I found a solution. Kind of bad news: it's an extremely awkward behaviour –*but at least it works.
Start iTunes, remove all your voice memos from your library (back them up if you need them), quit iTunes. Restart Finder. Done. I hope that helps!

How to make it a default for all received messages to not preview the attachment but instead show the icon? (mac mail.app)

Hi
I am having trouble with large incoming mail attachments.
When I receive a large attachment (pDf) the useful mail preview feature attempts to show a preview of the attachment. Unfortunately this is causing a lot of trouble as some PDFs are extremely large and therefore take time to open/preview. If I right click the attachment and select view as icon, the problem with that specific message ceases as the attachment is no longer previewed.
How can I make it the default for all attachments in received messages to only be shown as a icon and not previewed?

In Terminal,
defaults write com.apple.mail DisableInlineAttachmentViewing -bool Yes

How to view a picture on a locked desktop icon if I do not remember the password?

How to view a picture on a locked desktop icon if I do not remember the password?

Changing or resetting an account password
Search Knowledge Base - http://support.apple.com/kb/index?page=search

Thunar doesn't preview desktop icons

I'm not sure if I am the only one having this problem, but for me Thunar refuses to generate previews for files sitting on my desktop. I can see previews just fine when I open Thunar as a windowed application, but not when it is managing the desktop:
Does anybody have this problem? Is there a solution?
Also, as a side question, is there any way to create a custom thumbnailer for arbitrary file types?
Last edited by Blender (2011-12-22 16:46:55)

Desktop icons are managed by xfdesktop, not thunar; and it's unable to to display thumbnails. There's a patch out there -- I have not tried it yet -- see XFCE bug 4344.

Desktop shows only Icons with WEBLOC how to change these names to the website names

In the latest vesion downloaded in Mavericks, all my web Icons on my desktop changed to a blue pictue with WEBLOC in the middle. How can I remove
those WEBLOC icons and replace with my web icons from my websites?? I normally just drag the web icon from the address bar to desk top and click it.
Now all of them only will show the Icon webloc? This happened on the last download version. I had ask someone in apple chat about this, and
got cut off and they have never responded to me, its been a week?? Poor chat service.

Do a backup.
Go to Finder and select your user/home folder. With that Finder window as the front window, either select Finder/View/Show View options or go command - J. When the View options opens, check ’Show Library Folder’. That should make your user library folder visible in your user/home folder. Select Library. Then go to Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist and com.apple.desktop.plist. Move the .plists to your desktop.
Re-launch Finder by restarting the computer and test. If it works okay, delete the plists from the desktop.
If the same, return the .plists to where you got it from, overwriting the newer one.
Thanks to leonie for some information contained in this.

I can't edit my donwloads. The organizer photos have an orange icon at the top left corner and the find offline volumem - edit pops up when I try to edit the pictures. Also, the downloaded pictures don't show up in "My Pictures" document.

I can't edit my donwloads. The organizer photos have an orange icon at the top left corner and the find offline volumem - edit pops up when I try to edit the pictures. Also, the downloaded pictures don't show up in "My Pictures" document. How can I fix this problem

Did you recently reconfigure the drives attached to your computer or move to another computer?
To help with troubleshooting this, download and run the utility psedbtool:
http://www.johnrellis.com/psedbtool/#_Downloading,_Installing,_and
Copy and paste the output here (using the Web, not email).

Showing desktop icons as picture previews

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for