How can I change the name or icon of an installed application?

Question

I have two MPV media players installed of different versions. One is via apt and another via flatpak. I need them both for different purposes. But they have exactly same name and icon. So, whenever I want to play a file by right clicking on it, I can't tell which one is which. Only if there was a way to differentiate then that would be awesome. I'm on Ubuntu 20.04.

Answer 1

As referenced in the comment by @esther and based on this article How to change an app icon in Ubuntu

1. In file manager navigate to /usr/share/applications and search for the name of your application. The .desktop file contains entries to display the application icons.

[Desktop Entry]
Name=OpenShot Video Editor
GenericName=Video Editor
X-GNOME-FullName=OpenShot Video Editor
Comment=Create and edit amazing videos and movies
Exec=openshot-qt %F
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=openshot-qt
Categories=GNOME;GTK;AudioVideo;Video;AudioVideoEditing;
MimeType=application/vnd.openshot-qt-project;
X-AppInstall-Package=openshot-qt

I was testing the appimage against the deb of openshot and this is the entry for the ppa installed version.

2. You need admin privileges to edit this file so right click on the directory and select "open in terminal".

3. Open the .desktop file in an editor with sudo gedit org.openshot.OpenShot.desktop

4. To change the application name edit the Name entry. I went with Name=OpenShot Video Editor 3.0

5. To change the icon edit the Icon entry with the full name of the file you want to use.

6. Close the editor window then the terminal window and file manager.

The icon needs to be refreshed to show the changes either by restarting, logging in and out or most simply by right clicking it and clicking Add to favourites. It will appear updated in the favourites bar. Remove it and the updated icon appears in the applications menu.

EDIT:
AppImage:
The appimage version placed it's .desktop file at ~/.local/share/applications/appimagekit-openshot-qt.desktop and as such does not require admin privileges to edit it. As the name was slightly different the search openshot desktop (note the space) was used as wildcards are not supported. Change icon of stand alone application, (AppImage)

Flatpack:
Further reading Where to find application after flatpak installation (gimp) indicates flatpack applications place their desktop files in /var/lib/flatpak/exports/share/applications. See also Flatpak documentation.

Snap:
For completeness, snaps place their desktop files in /var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications/ Do snap app .desktop icons get added to the launcher?. See also Snapcraft documentation

Answer 2

One way would be to install Alacarte.

In terminal enter sudo apt install alacarte

When the app is installed, launch it then follow these step-by-step instructions to edit app names with the tool.

Step 1: Once Alacarte is open, you will see a tree on the left-hand side of the app listing different categories. All of the apps on your system are sorted into these categories.

Click on a category with the mouse to view the various app shortcuts within.

Step 2: Click on the app shortcut in Alacarte that you’d like to edit using the mouse. By clicking on the app shortcut, Alacarte will highlight it.

Step 3: With the app shortcut highlighted, find the “Properties” button on the right-hand side of the app window, and click on it with the mouse.

Step 4: Upon clicking on the “Properties” button, a window will appear. In this window, look for the “Name” section. Then, erase the existing name and set it to whatever you’d like to change it to.

reference