Renaming "Apple" applications in OS X

GadgetLover

GadgetLover

Senior Member & Tech Guru
So, here's a Question:

For organizational purposes, I decided to try renaming all of my Apple software with the prefix "Apple" to distinguish it from other software and make it higher up in the list. For example, I renamed Sherlock, "Apple Sherlock" and Disk Utility to "Apple Disk Utility." Anyway, I noticed that I can't rename Print Center (which is fine with me) (most likely because it is always active in the background), but was curious as to whether or not there were any adverse consequences to my actions. Does anyone know, for example, if there would be a problem in renaming the iMovie and iTunes folders to Apple iMovie and Apple iTunes? I tried it and so far everything seems to work fine. Anyway, if anyone else has ever renamed an Apple app and had (or not had) problems, please let me know.

After all, "Apple TextEdit" is MUCH higher up in my application list than "TextEdit" was. :)
 
Thanks for the suggestion. As for the "duplication" issue, I am aware of it, but I actually think it's good because it lets me know FOR SURE if the OS X installer actually installed the newer version of the relevant application... then I'd just rename it and huck the other one (I figure this will only come up once ever 4-6 months or so anyway).

As for your other suggestion, it is good as well -- I do something similar in that I have subfolders in Applications for X Utilities, X Games, etc. but I ended up placing my Apple apps into those folders so that I didn't have to look in TWO places (the Apple area and NON Apple area). Now, for example, when I need a Utility (of any kind), I just go to my X Utilities folder and pick-- by placing "Apple" in front of Apple utilities, for example, they are at the top of the list (mostly) but I can still sort through non-Apple utilities too (sometimes I'm not quite sure what I want or need until I am lookin' right at it. Know what I mean?)

My "theme" is still a work in progress and is complicated by the temporary fact that I also have an "Applications (Mac OS 9)" folder... eventually, this will be minimal -- for I still separate OS 9 and X games, etc. I can't wait for Office v. X. It will allow me to NOT have Classic boot up at login from now on (Office is the only reason why I still use Classic at all for the most part).
 
OK, so I know that others have asked this question before but I'm looking for a definative answer (I also placed this Q in a different, but related, thread [sorry for the redundancy but it does seem to be an important and popular question]):

Do you NEED to (or should?) keep your OS X applications in the root "Applications" folder or can you, for example, put all NON Apple installed apps (NOT the ones that come with 10.1) into your HOME directory (like I did) in a folder called "Applications X". And can you do the same with OS 9 apps (e.g., HOME/"Classic Apps"). Someone told one of my friends yesterday that you NEEDED to keep X apps in "Applications" (I don't see why because so far so good doing it our way) and that OS 9 apps NEEDED to be in "Applications (Mac OS 9)" in the root. I say, B.S., that just because Apple puts Classic apps there doesn't mean I have to.... right? Wrong?

In other words, I have changed my set up (since my original post in this thread). I no longer have WITHIN the root Applications folder separate folders called X Utilities, X Games, etc. And I no longer have WITHIN the root Applications folder a separate OS 9 apps folder called "Applications (Mac OS 9)." My new set up is that ONLY Apple OS X 10.1 installed applications (including Internet Explorer and the Apple Utilities) still reside in the root Applications folder. Now, all of my third-party OS X Applications are INSIDE my *HOME* directory (in a folder called "Apps X" or whatever) and my OS 9 apps are also inside my HOME directory (in a folder called "Classic Apps"). Is this bad??? What do you guys think? What has everyone else done?
 
... well i keep all my x apps in the "applications" folder and the os 9 apps in the "applications (os9)" folder just for the sake of simplicity (can't be bothered with remembering where else i may have put them ... :) )

but i can tell you from my experience that they do indeed work perfectly from anywhere else... when i download apps from versiontracker i always try them i out while they're still residing in my "downloads" folder, just to see whether they actually do what i was hoping they'd do and whether i'm going to keep them or not ... it's not until after the first trial run that i move them over to their respective "apps" folders ...

i do have games in a seperate "games" folder which is even on my other partition because i ran out of space on my x partition ... the system obviously doesn't care where they are ...

i don't see why it should matter where you put your apps ... it never has mattered before, and it certainly doesn't seem to now ... apart from that, it would be so ... windowsy for it to matter ... :)

in fact i don't even use my home directory at all ... i have everything in "favorites" for fast menubar access, which is as good a replacement for the old apple menu as i can think of ... (i know, it's a subdirectory of "home", but still...)
 
I don't understand why you put everything in favorites and don't use Home at all ... you know that you can simply put in alias of your home dir in the Finder Window (custom area) right? I don't see how that's different since you can put the favorites one there too. Although, I will admit that you can access items in the Favorites from within the "Go" menu one step quicker than accessing Home from the Go menu because the Favorites menu has a SUBMENU.

Some people haven't thought of this but did you know that ...

You can boot up in OS 9 and make an alias of your Home Directory and put it ANYWHERE! You can put it on your desktop, on the root of your volume (same level as System, Library, Applications, etc.). So, you might find this to be of use too -- plus you can put it in you dock although I don't.
 
Originally posted by GadgetLover
Although, I will admit that you can access items in the Favorites from within the "Go" menu one step quicker than accessing Home from the Go menu because the Favorites menu has a SUBMENU.
Click to expand...

yep, that's the reason. quick access from the menubar = apple menu ...
i also have my favorites folder in the dock and in the finder window toolbar ... i'm lazy, i don't like to look for stuff ... :)
this way i have an apple menu in the menubar and another one when i ctrl-click the favorites icon in the dock ...

oh, and also the home directory has the annoying habit of changing its' icon back to the "house icon" when you put it in a finder window toolbar ... don't like that icon at all... my favorites folder has a nice red apple icon which i much prefer ... :)
 
Originally posted by GadgetLover
Anyway, I noticed that I can't rename Print Center (which is fine with me) (most likely because it is always active in the background),
Click to expand...

if you do getinfo on "Print Center.app" you see that it's owned by "system", not you.

You can edit the name in terminal.
 
Hello,

The issues associated with moving apps around seem to differ from OS version to OS version.

MacOS 7 through 9 uses aliases. They are pointers to other files that get updated when the source file moves or gets renamed. An alias always points to a file regardless of name and location.

Unix uses symbolic and hard links. A hard link is literally another file entry in the file system for a file. A symbolic link is a file path specification. A symbolic link always points to the same logical location regardless of the actual file.

Apple is slowly switching their code to use aliases where appropriate. Under 10.0.0 you could not move or rename Sherlock without breaking command-f. Login items may still be breakable this way.

I have moved nearly all my applications into sub-directories with only one problem. Software Update does not seem to find Apple installed applications that have been moved from their default location. I remember this happening in MacOS9 as well. If there is a new version of IE I have to move it out of my "Internet Apps" directory to get the update.
 
<b>You can boot up in OS 9 and make an alias of your Home Directory and put it ANYWHERE! You can put it on your desktop, on the root of your volume (same level as System, Library, Applications, etc.). So, you might find this to be of use too -- plus you can put it in you dock although I don't.</b>

Another way to do it is, whilst in OSX, to make an alias of anything else, and then retarget it at your home directory. Simple really.

Oh, I just realised you cant drag and drop it onto the dock.

spike
 
Originally posted by spike
Oh, I just realised you cant drag and drop it onto the dock.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if you were referring to something else, but if you WERE referring to your ability to put your Home directory in your dock, YES YOU CAN. You simply need to put it BELOW the separator line. :)

Cheers.
 
Oh yeah, so you can :)

It's been a while since I added a folder to the dock. I kinda forgot it had to go below the divider.

Maybe thats a UI issue?!

Oh no, wait didnt Apple the divider there to do just that... ;)

spike.
 
I noticed this with Internet Explorer:

If you have not applied the recent security update you can test this out to verify it. I moved my Internet Explorer application into a folder within the 'Applications' folder named 'Internet Applications'. I ran the Update program from 'System Preferences' and the response was that there was no update. I moved Internet Explorer out of the 'Internet Applications' and back to it's original location in 'Application', reran the update and the security update showed up.

So just be aware that some programs may not update properly if they are moved from their original locations. I know I had this problem too back in OS 9 with moving Quicktime to different locations as well. But aside from not being able to update I have not seen any problems with moving OS X apps installed by the system in terms of their operations or functionality.
 
Everybody should complain to Apple that Mac OS X is inferior to MacOS in this regard. In MacOS the proper method to find an application (to upgrade or launch it) is to look it up by it's creator code, NOT it's location or name!
 
Strobe,

Haven't seen you around here lately. As far as the differences between 9 and X, I have seen the same update bug in both OSs! I have submitted a bug report to Apple.

BTW, the iPod commercial just played on the TV. Its almost as annoying as the flying XP people :)
 
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