My goal is to create a working launcher for PHPStorm which will work in both the desktop and the Unity launcher, using the proper logo, in 12.04. I followed the instructions here - How can I create launchers on my desktop? - to create a launcher on the desktop using the Gnome dialog box. That worked a treat as far as the desktop was concerned, but dragging the icon to the Unity launcher gave it a weird icon:

The PHPStorm.desktop file looks like this:

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open



[Desktop Entry]

Version=1.0

Type=Application

Terminal=false

Icon[en_GB]=gnome-panel-launcher

Name[en_GB]=PHPStorm

Exec=/home/shane/Software/PhpStorm-4.0.1/bin/phpstorm.sh

Comment[en_GB]=PHStorm

Name=PHPStorm

Comment=PHStorm

Icon=/home/shane/Software/PhpStorm-4.0.1/bin/webide.png

Next I tried to follow the accepted answer from here: How can I change the icon of an application in the Unity launcher?, but I found that there was no icons folder in ~/.local/share/. I went ahead and created it, and the rest of the folders mentioned in the answer, ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor/16x16/ etc. I then created a phpstorm.png in each folder, at the required sizes.

Next, I edited my PHPStorm.desktop file to the following and copied it to ~/.local/share/applications/

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open



[Desktop Entry]

Version=1.0

Type=Application

Terminal=false

Icon[en_GB]=phpstorm

Name[en_GB]=PHPStorm

Exec=/home/shane/Software/PhpStorm-4.0.1/bin/phpstorm.sh

Comment[en_GB]=PHPStorm

Name=PHPStorm

Comment=PHPStorm

Icon=phpstorm

#Icon=/home/shane/Software/PhpStorm-4.0.1/bin/webide.png

After logging back in, my unity launcher icon had disappeared completely, and the icon on my desktop had turned white.

What have I done wrong here? Why aren't the icons being picked up from the icons folder, and is the initial lack of icons folder something I should be concerned about?