XPost: alt.windows7.general, microsoft.public.windowsxp.general

In message <j60ah7o9995z$.dlg@v.nguard.lh>, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH>
writes:

Archer wrote:

When I start Windows 7 (32 bit) the desktop icons appear llarge and
are auto arranged eventhough I normally use small icons and arrange
them in a particluar way.

But every time I restart Windows auto arranged large icons appear on
desktop.

Right-click on the desktop, select View, pick what you want for options >regarding icon size and auto-arrange.

Thanks for that! So obvious. I'd been wondering why changing the size of
"Icon" (right-click on [empty part of] desktop, Personalize, Window
Color [!], Advanced appearance settings... [that last step only
necessary if you're using an Aero theme]) didn't work. It's obviously an oversight that that parameter was left in the list there!

Looks like you've only got a choice of three sizes - Large, Medium, and
Small. (Fair enough, otherwise designers would have to spend all their
time making icons for different sizes, and whatever file contained them
would be huge.)

If you _do_ find your icons are getting moved anyway (this seems to have
been an intermittent problem since Windows 95, with assorted causes), I
know of three third-party solutions that fix it, in different ways:

EZdesk, by Melissa Nguyen. Only included for completeness, as
unfortunately it seems _not_ to work in Windows 7 (32 or 64); it did
from '9x to XP (I don't know about Vista). Trialware, though works for
ever without nags; I did try to actually pay, but I think the author has
long abandoned it (home website no longer works, but available from
various sources, some dodgier than others).

Iconoid, from http://www.sillysot.com/; 2000/XP/Vista/7/8/10. Reasonably
simple to use for saving icon positions, though can do lots more with
icons (including hiding them all to give a clean view of your chosen
wallpaper; disconcerting if you select that option without realising!). Freeware (donations accepted). I've found it intercepts capital A, but
only after a while, and I think that's probably to do with other
keyboard problems peculiar to me.

DesktopOK: https://www.softwareok.com/?Download=DesktopOK - 98 to 10.
Freeware (I can't see a donate button either). Has the ability to save
layouts as actual files, rather than just in the registry as (I think)
the others do.

All three can save layouts for different resolutions; EZdesk (not sure
about the others) detects when you change resolution and asks if you
want to restore the layout you saved for the resolution you've just
changed to.


One thing I have found (in 7 at least), of the many things that scramble
icon positions: if you've restored a set of icons that were saved at one
grid size, to a system where you have a different size, they will
restore to where they were when you saved them, but almost _any_ change
- such as just moving any icon (even just a little bit by mistake) -
will cause _all_ of them to move. (And it takes some time of trial and
error to find out what spacing you did have when you saved them, if
you've changed it since! [You set the grid by following my "Thanks ..." paragraph above: there are two settings, Icon Spacing (Horizontal) and
Icon Spacing (Vertical).]) [I was using iconoid for saving/restoring
positions when I discovered this jiggling, but I think it'd happen
whichever you'd saved/restored with.]
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

... "from a person I admire, respect, and deeply love." "Who was that then?" "Me." (Zaphod Beeblebrox in the Link episode.)
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XPost: alt.windows7.general, microsoft.public.windowsxp.general

I used EZdesk from Win 98 to XP for many years, like John Gilliver, but
had to switch to IconRestorer (a free program), to get the layout I
wanted, when I started using Win 7.


Mike

In message <t1X3iFSArqlaFw8q@255soft.uk>, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" <G6JPG-255@255soft.uk> writes

In message <j60ah7o9995z$.dlg@v.nguard.lh>, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH>
writes:

Archer wrote:

When I start Windows 7 (32 bit) the desktop icons appear llarge and
are auto arranged eventhough I normally use small icons and arrange
them in a particluar way.

But every time I restart Windows auto arranged large icons appear on
desktop.

Right-click on the desktop, select View, pick what you want for options >>regarding icon size and auto-arrange.

Thanks for that! So obvious. I'd been wondering why changing the size
of "Icon" (right-click on [empty part of] desktop, Personalize, Window
Color [!], Advanced appearance settings... [that last step only
necessary if you're using an Aero theme]) didn't work. It's obviously
an oversight that that parameter was left in the list there!

Looks like you've only got a choice of three sizes - Large, Medium, and >Small. (Fair enough, otherwise designers would have to spend all their
time making icons for different sizes, and whatever file contained them
would be huge.)

If you _do_ find your icons are getting moved anyway (this seems to
have been an intermittent problem since Windows 95, with assorted
causes), I know of three third-party solutions that fix it, in
different ways:

EZdesk, by Melissa Nguyen. Only included for completeness, as
unfortunately it seems _not_ to work in Windows 7 (32 or 64); it did
from '9x to XP (I don't know about Vista). Trialware, though works for
ever without nags; I did try to actually pay, but I think the author
has long abandoned it (home website no longer works, but available from >various sources, some dodgier than others).

Iconoid, from http://www.sillysot.com/; 2000/XP/Vista/7/8/10.
Reasonably simple to use for saving icon positions, though can do lots
more with icons (including hiding them all to give a clean view of your >chosen wallpaper; disconcerting if you select that option without >realising!). Freeware (donations accepted). I've found it intercepts
capital A, but only after a while, and I think that's probably to do
with other keyboard problems peculiar to me.

DesktopOK: https://www.softwareok.com/?Download=DesktopOK - 98 to 10. >Freeware (I can't see a donate button either). Has the ability to save >layouts as actual files, rather than just in the registry as (I think)
the others do.

All three can save layouts for different resolutions; EZdesk (not sure
about the others) detects when you change resolution and asks if you
want to restore the layout you saved for the resolution you've just
changed to.

One thing I have found (in 7 at least), of the many things that
scramble icon positions: if you've restored a set of icons that were
saved at one grid size, to a system where you have a different size,
they will restore to where they were when you saved them, but almost
_any_ change - such as just moving any icon (even just a little bit by >mistake) - will cause _all_ of them to move. (And it takes some time of
trial and error to find out what spacing you did have when you saved
them, if you've changed it since! [You set the grid by following my
"Thanks ..." paragraph above: there are two settings, Icon Spacing >(Horizontal) and Icon Spacing (Vertical).]) [I was using iconoid for >saving/restoring positions when I discovered this jiggling, but I think
it'd happen whichever you'd saved/restored with.]

--
Mike Isaacs
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XPost: alt.windows7.general, microsoft.public.windowsxp.general

J. P. Gilliver (John) formulated on Wednesday :

In message <j60ah7o9995z$.dlg@v.nguard.lh>, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> writes:

Archer wrote:

When I start Windows 7 (32 bit) the desktop icons appear llarge and
are auto arranged eventhough I normally use small icons and arrange
them in a particluar way.

But every time I restart Windows auto arranged large icons appear on
desktop.

Right-click on the desktop, select View, pick what you want for options >>regarding icon size and auto-arrange.

Thanks for that! So obvious. I'd been wondering why changing the size of "Icon" (right-click on [empty part of] desktop, Personalize, Window Color [!], Advanced appearance settings... [that last step only necessary if you're using an Aero theme]) didn't work. It's obviously an oversight that that parameter was left in the list there!

Looks like you've only got a choice of three sizes - Large, Medium, and Small. (Fair enough, otherwise designers would have to spend all their time making icons for different sizes, and whatever file contained them would be huge.)

Here's another useful method that I used to get the exact size I
wanted: Left click any empty spot on the desktop to unhighlight any
desktop icons. Now hold down the control key and rotate the mouse
wheel up or down to resize the icons to your desired size.

<snip>

--
Zo

Can vegetarians eat animal crackers?
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XPost: alt.windows7.general, microsoft.public.windowsxp.general

On Wed, 28 Feb 2018 19:34:46 -0500, Zo <homenet@newsbill.net> wrote:

Here's another useful method that I used to get the exact size I
wanted: Left click any empty spot on the desktop to unhighlight any
desktop icons. Now hold down the control key and rotate the mouse
wheel up or down to resize the icons to your desired size.

Be aware that that's a Windows standard, and works, not only on the
desktop, but in many (but not all) applications.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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NT4 came with layout.dll method which works a treat with 98 too. http://stevehealy.org/techblog/?p=162

Note that .reg files included are for 9x and not NT5+. These reg files can be made to work on NT by changing the REGEDIT4 header for the NT5+ header
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
as NT5 and above will not accept REGEDIT4 header on reg files.
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XPost: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general, alt.windows7.general

(Saving [and restoring!] the position of.)

In message <079301cc-9501-4c77-b5db-2651a72a31d9@googlegroups.com>, Lee <melee5@my-deja.com> writes:

NT4 came with layout.dll method which works a treat with 98 too. >http://stevehealy.org/techblog/?p=162

Note that .reg files included are for 9x and not NT5+. These reg files
can be made to work on NT by changing the REGEDIT4 header for the NT5+
header
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
as NT5 and above will not accept REGEDIT4 header on reg files.

Thanks for that: seems to work the simplest of all, and I like the idea
of using something that is (I presume) of Microsoft origin (though the
download isn't from them).

(a) I don't know where it saves the (single?) layout - I'm guessing in
the registry, as with so much else - so you can't protect a saved layout
(only DesktopOK, that I know of, gives the option of saving it in a
file.)
(b) One of the followup posters says nothing happens if you use it in
(an) Aero theme; it says switching to a basic one to use it and then
back works, but I suspect that'd be sufficiently tedious that one of the
others (iconoid, DesktopOK, or the other one someone mentioned) would
probably easier, if you use an Aero theme.

With my Windows 7 32 bit, I didn't have to edit the .reg file at all as described above: it merged fine (and the utility works). [I haven't
tried the uninstall one.]
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"I'm a self-made man, thereby demonstrating once again the perils of unskilled labor..." - Harlan Ellison
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XPost: alt.windows7.general, microsoft.public.windowsxp.general

On Thu, 01 Mar 2018 09:43:10 -0700, Ken Blake <Ken@invalid.news.com>
wrote:

On Wed, 28 Feb 2018 19:34:46 -0500, Zo <homenet@newsbill.net> wrote:

Here's another useful method that I used to get the exact size I
wanted: Left click any empty spot on the desktop to unhighlight any >>desktop icons. Now hold down the control key and rotate the mouse
wheel up or down to resize the icons to your desired size.

Be aware that that's a Windows standard, and works, not only on the
desktop, but in many (but not all) applications.

Amazing. I didn't know that trick. BUT. I sure scewed up my
desktop layout of 39 icons. Thank heavens for my desktop
*save and restore* routine, which I assume everyone has (?) .
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XPost: alt.windows7.general, microsoft.public.windowsxp.general

In message <labg9dpc2esi694obproon2hb42416jkdi@4ax.com>, Ken Blake <Ken@invalid.news.com> writes

On Wed, 28 Feb 2018 19:34:46 -0500, Zo <homenet@newsbill.net> wrote:

Here's another useful method that I used to get the exact size I
wanted: Left click any empty spot on the desktop to unhighlight any >>desktop icons. Now hold down the control key and rotate the mouse
wheel up or down to resize the icons to your desired size.

Be aware that that's a Windows standard, and works, not only on the
desktop, but in many (but not all) applications.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding things, but on my XP PC, this has absolutely
no effect on the size of the desktop icons. Any suggestions? [I never
knew there was supposed to be this facility.]
--
Ian
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