Is there a way to change the start menu Z icon? I found this:
https://forum.zorin.com/t/change-z-logo-workaround/19663/3
and found the icon in /usr/share/pixmaps
I moved my custom icon to this location and renamed it just as the Z logo. I rebooted but nothing changes.
Any tips?
Zorin OS Core uses Gnome, which manages the Panel with a Gnome Shell Theme instead of using the icons directories.
So, the icon you are looking for is located in the /usr/share/gnome-shell/theme/zorin... or /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin... folder.
For the theme, these are now bundled as a gresource and need to be unpacked... You can easily find guides on the internet on how to do this, then repack it when you have finished modifying the icon.
To me, this is comparable to an automaker positioning the battery in the standard location under the hood where the owner can handle routine maintenance, or the automaker hiding the thing behind the right rear wheel well, making the owner unable to easily access their routine maintenance in order to make them beholden to or dependent on someone else.
When you go to /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-menu@zorinos.com You find in there the Zorin OS Logo. You could try to replace it there.
Yep, I just tried that and it works. It seems that this file is hard-coded inside the file constants.js so it's not possible to change this dynamically through the taskbar settings. I can surely understand why Zorin OS would want to keep their own logo prominently displayed too but it might be a nice addition for future reference.
In any case my suggestion is to do the following, from the command line:
cd /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-menu@zorinos.com
sudo mv zorin-icon-symbolic.svg zorin-icon-symbolic.svg.bak
sudo ln -s ~/Pictures/custom-icon.svg $PWD/zorin-icon-symbolic.svg
It seems that is must be an .svg icon, I tried with a .png and it didn't work.
i followed the same instructions and it worked but there is a slight problem, i am seeing that your debian icon shows up perfectly, on my system it seems to show it in the default accent colour, how do i fix this issue any clues ?
That will depend on the SVG icon that you're using. In my case, I didn't actually have an SVG of the Debian logo, so I used Inkscape to convert it into an SVG.
Examining the file just now, I realized that what Inkscape did is to embed the image directly as base64 string, which is kind of cheating; but it works, so I'll allow it 
Although I suspect you can probably edit the SVG file by hand and apply the color that you like yourself. Probably, all you need to do is add fill=red, or whatever color you want, as an attribute to the path element. I'm not too experienced with this so you might want to just try Inkscape first.
Thank you for you for the suggestion, havent tried it yet but I will soon. I recently switched from windows 11 overnight due to frustation of seeing startup errors and no fixes, thats why i am still trying to replicate the windows 11 layout and relatively new to all this
I find that Plasma is the best DE to make a Windows 11 look alike.
I've just tested this again with a Windows 11 logo as SVG, and it does indeed get tainted when I switch the accent color.
This makes me think that with the file that I used from Debian there was also some tainted overlay applied on top of certain icons (program shortcuts seemed intact), but because the Debian logo uses quite a strong color, it's simply not as noticeable.
The only accent colors that don't seem to change much are Blue and Black.
just happened to install a software update, shutdown right afterwards and after I turned on my laptop after a few hours the logo went back to the default zorin logo 
now idk if i have to redo those steps everytime, i also noticed the file that was changed to .bak was intact only my icon.svg got replaced
To my knowledge there is no way of updating the start menu icon in a system-friendly way, and it's possible for an update to reset some settings to their default values. In this case, the start menu icon, which I knew it could be overwritten but didn't know for sure.
Luckily, is not something we can't work around with yet another hack Let's write a small shell script to update the icon on every boot, as follows:
#!/bin/bash
folder=/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/zorin-menu@zorinos.com
default_file=zorin-icon-symbolic.svg
custom_file=/home/zenzen/Desktop/debian_pixel_art.svg
# Nothing to do.
if [[ -h ${folder}/${file} ]];
then
exit 0;
fi
if [[ ! -f ${folder}/${file}.bak ]];
then
mv "${folder}/${file}" "${folder}/${file}.bak"
fi
ln -s "$custom_file" "${folder}/${file}"
All you need to change from this script is the line that starts with "custom_file". It needs to point to the exact location in your system where the svg icon that you want to use lives. Do not leave any spaces in between the equal signs.
Save this file with a meaningful name so that you remember what it does. I suggest saving it under a hidden folder in your home folder: /home/zenzen/.local/bin (hidden folders start with a period). This location is typically used for scripts but you can place it anywhere you like.
Next, we need to create a so-called "cron job" which will run a particular command at the given schedule. In our case, we want to run this on every boot. You'll need to open the terminal for this, and run the following command:
sudo crontab -e
You should see a small prompt asking which editor to use. Press 1 and hit enter to use something called nano.
Then, at the bottom of the file add a single line like so:
@reboot /home/zenzen/.local/bin/update_start_menu_icon.sh
Here you should change the username and the location of the script that you chose. To save the changes in nano, press Ctrl+O, and exit with Ctrl+X.
You're almost done, but don't close the terminal just yet. You need to run this command to make the script executable. This way, you can re-run it yourself if you ever need or want to.
chmod +x /home/zenzen/.local/bin/update_start_menu_icon.sh
Ok, done! Restart and see if this makes a difference.
As I am a bit tight on time, I actually went with this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7LEHV4LRpU&list=WL&index=22&t=891s
I recommend watching this video, as you can also learn how desktop extensions work. If you go with the taskbar suggested in this vid, deactivate the Zorin Taskbar in the extensions manager otherwise it'll get funky as the z-index will be all messed up.
That can happen when the Zorin Extensions get an Update because then it can be reset to Standard. That is nothing unconvinient. I have to do some Adjustment to the Zorin Taskbar after an Update for it comes.
Really appreciate the help, i also happened to discover about arcmenu in extensions, it kind of has everything i want but did glitch my desktop quite a few times, is it something you are familiar with, is it stable ? or was i the only one experiencing a few glitches
i only went with the arcmenu, date menu formatter and not the dash to panel
I use Arcmenu (in Wayland) and have no Problems with it. It offers a lot of Customization Options like different Menu Layouts, Accent Colors or different Start Menu Icons and the Option to choose Your own Picture as an Icon. To show You an Example:
I'm not familiar with ArcMenu, all I know is that at one point it was forked by the Zorin OS developers or something, but I'm not sure how compatible they remain with each other. However, I don't think it's unstable as it's used frequently by others.
It was forked from Zorin menu, actually.
Which I only recently learned, myself.
i did try this out eventually and it seems like its not working, i cant seem to figure out why