Sorry Herby, you know about how to remove icons from desktop and remain using it <I'm a moron>, I make in this manner: after I have installaled several programs <e.g. after clean install> then my primary desktop is replete of icons I don't like this behavior because I think what it ugly my wallpaper then I drag all icons to Quick Launch and resize Taskbar for achieve one larger size, after I open Windows Explorer create one folder named as All Icons Unused in My Documents and after I click on first item <Desktop> select all icons and move to folder All Icons Unused and so for all news programs what create icons on install, but I think this changes request more memory usage then I recommend for someone people what attempt make this changes only if have at least 256MB RAM for avoid problems or slow behaviors and disable also Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days for gain one bit of memory LOL; as result in my opinion is one desktop absolutely clean look my sig again and verify what you think about guy?

True, I don't like to much Icons on my Desktop either.
Thats why I removed the Text, it looks alot cleaner...

Hey! wtf... my Photobucket Account is gone!
[EDIT] Found another Picture Host. [/EDIT]

This is my solution:

Here are the Screenshots... (again)

yeah seem more objective I'm thinking more deep now about it after I notice ok

OK

New Shutdown Button:

Yes, that's an age old solution. And it doesn't work too well if you have 50+ icons. You end of with two lines of "nothing's" (alt+255's) and half your icons get covered up

However this new solution is incredible.

Uhm... what can I do about the recycle bin? It doesn't delete, it'll just have to sit there.

Maybe just one alt+255 will be ok

Edit: Maybe not. You can't rename it.

Sorry,.. forgot to post the separate reg files.
This zip file contains reg files to add / remove My Computer, My Network Places, My Documents, the Recycle Bin & Internet Explorer separately.
If you don't want the Recycle Bin on your Desktop, just import "Remove Recycle Bin.reg" & he's gone.

Is there any way I can change the enhanced context menus for the My Documents icons and others. My Pictures on my computer is under [D:\`My Documents\My Pictures\]. And so is the Music and Video extensions aswell. I can see in the [Add 'em.reg] there is some sort of Hex coding to enable this function but how can I change it to suit my needs.


By the way awesome tweak.

Duh.. I just realized that u are using the "old" ones,.. (they required directories)
Try using the new ones,..(on this page) the Recycle Bin works now.

For the new "Desktop Icons without Text" (with the Enhanced Context Menus) I've created a new thread.
Please post questions about them there. -> Link to new thread

It's easier to edit them in the Registry,.. go to [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000000-5002-0000-0000-000000000002}\Shell] , you'll find them in the "Command" Keys.

sweet, this is so much better than the first option!

How can I set a icon for this?

Look here for more info & updated versions.

[/Herby]

Herby, Great work.
How about an icon for JCreator (Java complier program)

Is there a way to remove the create shortcut button?

Also how do you change the bold text for example in this picture Shutdown. I want to make a custom one for myself and I know of to edit the rest except the top bold one.

I don't know how to remove the create shortcut command.
I tried to remove it but nothing works.

The top bold one you can edit in [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{00000000-2000-0000-0000-000000000002}\Shell\Open].
Everything you put in the Open part will be the top bold one (the default).
btw: this is the wrong forum, see Post #61.

Nice tricks.

what about changing internet short cuts on desktop so that they have no name.. possible? alt 255 can only work for one of course... any clues?

Have a look in the other thread (first link in my sig)...

hi,
Icons without text is really cool even i want to try it and i got all your zip file downloaded but the only thing is that i am not able to undestand how to use them please help me in useing that zip files

This is the old thread (see the red part @ Post #1).
Download the first zip file from the new thread and import the add.....reg files that you want to use. (double click and push the yes button).
Now refresh your desktop (right click your desktop and select refresh).
To remove them, import the remove.....reg files.
If you have questions, please read the thread first and when you don't find an answer, you can post your questions there.

[/Herby]

Hey I got this to work but what if I want to keep making folder with no names. Is there a pattern you can repeat to make more and more with no name????

So say I use "00020801-0000-0000-C000-000000000046" to make my folder text, nothing. What do I do to make my next folders text nothing?

ok, herby
i still have the annoying problem of
i add a one of your regkeys but they don't follow the icon set i have set, (food's via tuneup04)
recycle bin works, ie doesn't (u can add it via right click + desktop and you get the iconed one but with text) and your's is no text but it's the ie blue one, this is the same for control panel, except of course you can't add it via the desktop - it's no name but doesn't follow the iconed thing
help? my computer + my documents also follow ie's behaviour
thank you

how can i remove this button from desktop ?

^ http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=224324&st=90
download the file and choose the remove shutdown file

i extracted the shutdown button to my desktop..and it was two reg files...

now what do i do to them to get the red shutdown power button?

what if i want to add applications such as TMPGenc or PowerDVD with no name would i need to do the lat+255 or is ther a reg tweak?

Wrong thread... (Desktop Icons without Text)

very cool tweak. this got on shellcity:

http://shellcity.net/?egg=a

Nice Tweak Herby just tested

Try this thread... (this is the old way / thread).

I almost wet myselft laughing after playing a prank on someone after the idea this post gave me!

I created a .reg file based on the sample in the post from Herby (thanks for the idea!) and edited it so it looked as follows:



Then I created a folder on the desktop and renamed it as follows:


I then got rid of the real 'My Computer' icon from the desktop and voilla!...

Each time the user attempts to open My Computer using the fake icon, thier computer is shutdown...

Anyway, it had me laughing for a while, well until I got bored and let them in on the joke.

Can I know how to make that menu ? i'm totally clueless !

My desktop is too messy and i like the way u use that menu

Pls !

It is possible to make those "icons without text" change their icons when users use iconpackager or something like that?

Heh,.. yep, you can do fun things with them.
Creating and renaming folders is'nt needed anymore, have a look at this thread.


Right click the Start button and select Open, create new folders in there and move your shortcuts in them.
You can change the Icons from the folders by right clicking them, select properties, go to the Customize Tab and select Change Icon.


Only when you refer the Icon to Shell32.dll or any other dll or exe file that changes with iconpackager, but you can change the icons with Shell Object Editor.
For more info, have a look at this thread. (this is the old thread)

What a brilliant thread - something that I've been hoping to find for ages. I have resorted to the Alt-0160 trick as the Alt-255 trick causes the folder name to change to lower case "y" with two dots above it (German umlaut). Like many here, I like tweaking my PC but it's only a hobby!

I have XP Pro SP2 on a laptop and have tried the rename folder trick which is proposed here, but it simply renames the new desktop folder to .{whatever, whatever, whatever} and this is clear for all to see :-( It's almost as if I'd renamed the folder on the desktop, rather than via a command screen.

I've tried hiding the protected operating system files and rebooting.

What am I missing?

Hey Tosca,.. welcome to Neowin!

Sometimes rebuilding the Icon Cache helps (attachment), if not,.. try adding "NeverShowExt"="" to the CLSID.

This example adds the String Value to the CLSID from the Control Panel:


+ have a look @ this thread, you don't have to rename folders and they have enhanced context menu's.

[/Herby]

Thanks Herby - got it to work now!

My next challenge is to ensure that "Hide protected operating system files" is checked when I boot my laptop. At present, if I disable this and then reboot, the laptop remembers this, so the folder name is visible. I suspect that this might be possible using a logon script but I'd prefer to avoid that as it could be deleted easily. I know there are several registry settings including terms such as "DontShowSuperHidden", "SuperHidden", "ShowSuperHidden" etc. so I guess there's some logic in these structures. An alternative would be to disable (grey out) the "Hide protected operating system files" option for a particular user, so they can't do that for the anonymous folder or, for that matter, any of the other hidden files but I don't know if this can be done.

lol if this is just to make the things without names just rename what do you want to

ALT + 0160


Sry if i am wrong

Hi shin_chan

The method that you've suggested works and is the one that I've used previously, but when the folder has focus, a blank hilighted box is displayed beneath the folder. If you use the method in this thread, there is *nothing* - unless the setting "hide protected operating system files" in Windows Explorer>Folder Options is unchecked.

If you add "NeverShowExt"="" to the CLSID it should never display the CLSID extension.
When it does, try rebuilding the Icon cache (attachment).

Cool - yet another grain of knowledge added to my memory bank!

I've tried to download some of the .zip files from this thread from July 2004. They seem to download correctly but, when I open them, I get the response: "Cannot open file: it does not appear to be a valid archive. If you downloaded this file, try downloading the file again." I've managed to download other .zip files from this site, as well as others, without any problems. Any ideas?

Do you really want to use the ones from this topic? (they probably got corrupted but I think I've got them on a CD-R somewhere).
Have you tried the Icons (regs) from this topic? (ACM.zip Post #1)

Thank you Herby. I have ACM.zip and I was interested to know why the .zip files from this thread seem to be corrupted. I guess that if they were large files, they may have been deleted from the server to create space but, as I said, they seem to download correctly and the error is generated when I open them.

Uhhm,.. I've downloaded them and they don't give errors here using Winrar and 7-Zip.
Which compression utility do you use?

I use WinZip 9.0. As I said, the .zip files from your textless icon thread don't generate an error when opened, nor do .zip files from other sites. It seems to just affect the .zip files in this thread. It doesn't really matter though as I don't need them. I was intrigued to know why the error occurred.

Hmm,.. must be the CLSID Folders (the long extension or the missing name before the extension).

I have a lareg number of shortcust to files on the network. These clutter my desktop. Is there any way of grouping these shortcusts such that there is only one shortcut per mapped network drive and the shortcuts within each netwrok drive is in a context menu (right click in drive shortcut on desktop.)

Any help would be appreciated.