Great topic
Here's the skinny -
The icons themselves are stored inside the individual apk files. You need to open each one, swap out the icon and reassemble it. It's not nearly as hard as it sounds.
1. Tools you need -
7zip
Download the appropriate version for your PC. Don't grab the beta, the release (4.65) works just fine.
The original copy of the Fresh ROM you7 used to flash your phone.
The icons you want to change.
2. Create a working folder on your PC.
3. Using 7zip, open the Fresh ROM zip file. Navigate to the system/app folder inside the ROM. Highlight ALL the .apk files, and drag them into your working folder. Close the Fresh ROM zip file.
4. Decide on which icon you want to change first. I'll use the Browser as an example.
5. Use 7zip to open the Browser.apk you pulled out of the Fresh ROM. Once open, look for the res/drawable folder inside the apk.
6. Inside that folder, look for an .png file named ic_launcher_browser.png . That's the icon that the app uses.
7. Have your new icon ready. It should be 48x48 and a .png file. Make sure it's named ic_launcher_browser.png .
8. Drag the NEW icon into the open 7zip window that's showing the res/drawable folder. Choose yes if it asks you about overwriting the original file.
9. Close 7zip.
The Browser app has now been changed and will show your new icon in the drawer, and on the homescreen if you paste a shortcut. Do the same for each of the apps you want to change the icon of. The icon will always be in /res/drawable, and be named ic_launcher_ **app name**.png
Once you have changed all the icons, you'll have a set of apk files with your new icons. You can push these to the phone one by one from the terminal, or you can create your own update.zip
To push them to the phone (once again Browser.apk will be our example)
1. In your Android SDK/tools folder, make a new folder called icons.
2. Copy the Browser.apk file to the folder you just created.
3. Open the windows command prompt, and navigate to the Android SDK/tools folder. NOT the new folder you just made.
4. Enter the following commands one line at a time:
Code:
adb remount
adb push \icons\Browser.apk /system/app/Browser.apk
5. Do the same for each of the apk files you edited, changing the name Browser.apk to the name of the file you're pushing to the phone.
6. Reboot the phone.
To create your own ROM to flash them.
1. Attached is a file called META-INF.zip . Download it. Open with 7zip and drag the META-INF folder into your working folder.
2. Inside your working folder, make a new folder called system. Inside it, create a folder called app. Move all the edited apk files into this folder.
3. Highlight the system folder, and the META-INF folder you copied over and right click. Choose 7zip->create archive. Make sure it's a zip archive, and name it icons-eclair-fresh.zip . When it's finished, open it and make sure the directory structure matches your working folder. All the apks need to be in system/app/, and there needs to be a META-INF/com/google/android/update-script. Nothing else should be inside the zip file.
4. Download the second attachment named signing-tools.zip. Create a folder on your PC named sign_tools, and copy the three files in the zip to the new folder.
5. Copy the icons-eclair-fresh.zip file and place a copy in the sign_tools folder.
6. Open the terminal, and go to the sign_tools folder. Type the following command in the terminal:
Code:
java -jar signapk.jar testkey.x509.pem testkey.pk8 icons-eclair-fresh.zip icons-signed.zip
7. That will create a new zip file named icons-signed.zip. Open it, and look inside the META-INF folder. You will see 3 RSA keys along with the com folder. That means you're done.
Copy the new icons-signed.zip file to your SD card. Reboot into recovery. DON'T FORGET TO DO A NEW BACKUP BEFORE YOU CONTINUE! Flash your file without wiping. Enjoy your new icons, and congrats. You're now an Android developer.