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CHAPTER 3
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MANAGING THE WINDOWS DESKTOP
If you don’t like the limited selection of icons, you can browse to other
applications or even Windows system libraries. From the Change Icon dialog
box, click Browse and then go hunt down icons that are more to your liking.
Shell32.dll holds many of the Windows system icons, some of which you may
have never seen (see Figure 3.5). Take a look in other executables, too; you
may find something that is more appealing. The Internet also has icon
libraries available if you want to add some pizzazz without having to do the
heavy lifting yourself. Do a search for “free XP icons” in your favorite search
engine and start browsing!
The easier way to change your icons is to use a program designed to col-
lect all icon files from your computer, create icon libraries, and then point
your shortcut to a library. There are a number of freeware and shareware
programs available to extract icons, create static or animated icons, and do
just about anything you could ever want with icons. Popular icon manager
choices include Microangelo (www.microangelo.us), IconCool Manager
(www.iconcool.com), and AZ Icon Editor (www.hermancompute.com).
After a while your desktop may
get cluttered with icons, especially
when programs install lots of links
to affiliate Web sites or trial soft-
ware that shipped on the CD. Some
people like the casual disorder that
comes with acres of icons; other
people get tired of dragging icons
to the Recycle Bin in an attempt to
clear some space on the desktop.
Windows XP has the Desktop
Cleanup Wizard that cleans up
unused icons and puts them into a
folder on your desktop. By default
it runs every 60 days, but you can
run it on demand. From the
Display Properties dialog box, click
Figure 3.5. Shell32.dll contains most of the
standard Windows system icons found in menus,
windows, and on the desktop.
Inside Scoop
Some system icons can be changed only through Display Properties. Click the
Desktop tab and then click Customize Desktop. You can also choose which of these
icons you want displayed (or not) on the desktop from this dialog box.
Inside
Scoop
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