Zonkers!

Shared by: MR
On: 2015-09-02 00:09:07
Updated by: InkBlot
On: 2023-07-25 15:16:33
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What is Zonkers!?

Even if your employers were gullible enough to spring for a screen saver when you told them it would prolong your monitor’s life, you’ll never manage to convince them that Zonkers, a collection of Mac enhancements, is an essential part of your business life. Zonkers doesn’t even pretend to be practical, businesslike, or prudent. There’s only one reason to buy this software package — double-clicking on a rainbow-tie-dyed folder is much more fun than double-clicking on a boring gray one.

Zonkers installs a control panel from which you can modify seven different elements of your desktop. You can change icons, scroll bars, cursors, buttons, menubar items, windows, and desktop patterns using the 2000 different enhancements Zonkers provides. (The CD-ROM version of Zonkers comes with 5000 enhancements.) About half are icons Nova Development bought from an existing collection by Component Software.

My reaction to the enhancements was mixed. The folder and file icons are pretty uninspired and unoriginal for my taste, but I like the way Zonkers modifies the other desktop elements. I used the program to change menu-bar titles into animated icons, add color to window scroll bars, and set my desktop pattern to cycle through a random selection of the included Thought I Could’s Wallpaper patterns every hour. Within the Zonkers control panel are eight modules that let you configure the seven desktop elements and their display. (The eighth module is a colors module that controls the colors of windows menus, scroll bars, and buttons.) You can also create elements from scratch in some modules. All these enhancements take up about 7MB of disk space, and the control panel adds 83K of RAM to your system software.

Zonkers also installs an optional pulldown menu in the menu bar of your Macintosh, right next to the Apple Guide icon. You can access all of the different modules in the Zonkers control panel from this menu, including the stand-alone icon-editor application.

Launching the icon editor opens a pair of windows where you make all your icon changes. In one window, you select a new icon from one of Zonkers’ icon libraries. Simply drag that icon over to the one you want to replace in the first window, and drop it on top. The change is automatic. And if, like me, you find Zonkers’ icon selection wanting, you can always use the editor to build your own icon libraries or modify existing icons. The editor is very similar to other icon editors like Dubl-Click Software’s Icon Mania. It uses a separate window to change icons pixel by pixel, using basic paint-program tools in black-and-white, 16-color, and 256-color modes.

The Last Word I can’t look anyone in the eye and say this is a must-have program. But Zonkers’ broad-based approach to customizing your Mac is pretty compelling, especially if you’re inclined to make your own icons.

Hawn, Matthew. (August 1995). Zonkers 1.0. Macworld. (pg. 89).


Download Zonkers! for Mac

(2.69 MiB / 2.82 MB)
System 7.0 - 7.6 / compressed w/ Stuffit
22 / 2015-09-02 / f25f3d23b95c3ef146104ea9e6bf92095f7bc195 / /


Architecture


68K + PPC (FAT)



Compatibility notes


Emulating this? It could probably run under: Basilisk II





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