"wldgoos" <> wrote in message
news:3753EB58-540C-4828-B82D-...
> I'm new to Vista and quite frankly, so far, I am not impressed. But
> anyway,
> on to the problem. I hate the typical desktop layout. There is too much
> space
> between icons and I like to arrange my shortcuts around the edges, as a
> sort
> of frame to the background picture. Problem is, I have quite a few
> shortcuts
> and in order for them all to fit the frame, I need them closer together. I
> remember there used to be a way to "unlock" the desktop so you could place
> the icons closer together. Was it a TweakUi feature? Is this feature
> hiding
> somewhere? I downloaded the layout.dll file and it seems to work fine to
> keep
> icons where i place them, but I need something that will let me place them
> closer together. Thank you for any help you can provide.
In addition to changing the size, label transparency, shadowing vertical and
horizontal spacing and grid behaviour as mentioned by Don and Tom, you can
also vary the size of the nasty shortcut arrows with a little free utility
called FxVisor which you will find with most search engines and you can
restore the layout if it gets messed up using the download mentioned below.
This works equally well in Vista and XP. You will find that the restore
process is iterative, so you might have to restore up to three times in
quick succession to get your layout back to perfection. It is certainly
something I wouldn't want to do without. The appended quote comes from the
third the post down the page at:
http://discuss.pcmag.com/forums/385101001/ShowPost.aspx
Doug
========QUOTE=========
Save desktop icon positions
Tool: Two files from the MS Windows NT 4.0 Resource Kit (26KB). Download
them from here:
http://www.pcnineoneone.com/tweaks/layout.zip
This is one of my favorite tweaks because I'm a real neatness freak about my
desktop icons. Basically this tweak allows you to save the positions of your
desktop icons, so you can restore the icons to their saved positions at any
time in the future. To give you this added functionality in XP, do the
following:
1. Download the file Layout.zip from the link under Tools above, and extract
the contents to an empty directory.
2. Copy Layout.dll to the \Windows\System32 directory on the hard drive
which contains Windows XP.
3. Double click on the Layout.reg file to automatically make the appropriate
changes to your registry.
4. Now go to your desktop and arrange the icons as you'd like them to be
saved.
5. Once done, right click on the Recycle Bin and select 'Save Desktop Icon
Layout'. The positions of all the icons are now saved. You can move the
icons around freely, however whenever you want them restored to their
original saved positions, right click on Recycle Bin again and select
'Restore Desktop Icon Layout'. Bingo!
This is particularly handy if you're installing new graphics card drivers
for example and your desktop icons get messed up, or you change resolutions
and they get bumped around, or if you accidentally move an icon while trying
to double click on it.
========UNQUOTE=========
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