[Guide] Get rid of XP's icons

[42n81]

I prefer MS-DOS then this, it's just horrible to look at it.

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You are saying that "MS-DOS" is your first preference, and your second preference is "this". You don't give your third preference. But why, if "this" is your second preference, do you say it's horrible to look at?

Did you perhaps make a typo, or get mixed up between the word "then" and the word "than"?

Either way, it's confusing.

[Advance]

i know a easy way to get rid of the icons, right click your desktop, go to "show icons by", and uncheck show icons

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That doesn't get rid of all the icons, just the ones on the desktop.

[FiB3R]

I am not sure why the excellent idea of removing icons caused such outrage on this board.

Pictures are mood music and background noise.  They do not impart infomation.

An icon of an envelope mean nothing on its own. But the word Email says it all. The image imposes and extra language on top to tire your brain. 

I am in the medical field so here goes:An NMR scan of the brain is very pretty to look at, but to get the information on which to act, we need to interpret the images into a series of statements....words in fact.  Mostly humans do that, but machines could take on that role.  The picture itself is no good. Nice to look at, like a face or piece of art.  It is made up of data but is not information.

G.P.s get x-ray reports.  Which is what we need, a text report not the picture. 

Images are little more than mood music and background noise. I have not worked out how much of the 22mb a month the National Health Service sends my practice manager is images...must be well over 95% of stuff saying nothing.

So I would love to see how much slicker and faster Windows Xp would be devoid of all images. It can still be GUI in that you can click on words in boxes, if you must, but quick keys are even better.  So lets have an icon free Windows and Office products.

This is not a matter of being minimalist, but of producing a more ergonimic interface.

My Webpage

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Utter ****e. Pictures impart tones of infomation. The whole point of icons is that they are instantly recognisable, and therefore it is much easier to spot something that you are looking for.

To a pc user and probably most people in the modern world, an envelope obviously means mail, in the same way an image of a calculator or a notepad represent their relative functions.

The human brain is much more adept at instantly recognising colours and shapes than it is text. This is how we can judge peoples moods so well, by the minute changes in facial expression, thus letting us know if we are in danger or are being lied to.

A picture speaks a thousand words?

Anyway, very well put together tutorial. Thank you for sharing.

[johngalt]

Utter ****e. Pictures impart tones of infomation. The whole point of icons is that they are instantly recognisable, and therefore it is much easier to spot something that you are looking for.

To a pc user and probably most people in the modern world, an envelope obviously means mail, in the same way an image of a calculator or a notepad represent their relative functions.

The human brain is much more adept at instantly recognising colours and shapes than it is text. This is how we can judge peoples moods so well, by the minute changes in facial expression, thus letting us know if we are in danger or are being lied to.

A picture speaks a thousand words?

Anyway, very well put together tutorial. Thank you for sharing.

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IOW, picture / color associations are 'lower' brain functions and word / phrase associations are higher order brain functions.

makes sense.

I am an intelligent guy - and though I don't plan on hacking into XP for all this (I get enough from my Gentoo boxes in terms of pure CL fun) I disagree - these symbols have *come to mean* their relative function 0 however, the symbol can describe more than one function - an envelope, is an envelope- but a *closed* envelope can mean: an item that has been sent, and item that has not been opened, and item that is only for viewing be someone particular, etc... whereas an open envelope can mean the item has been read, is being read, has been delivered, is open to be viewed by all.....

In this case, the higher order function is more precise, and thus, less troublesome - for example, most people in the US will automatically associate an Octagonal shaped red sign with a stop sign, even if it is not a stop sign - but around the world this is not such an automatic association. However, in English, Stop means stop, and even if you are from another culture, if you speak English, stop still means stop.

The nature of language is that is allows for more *precise* meaning and definition in our lives - and by saying that "just because shapes and colors and pictures are more recognizable that they should be the basis for the computer world is utterly pointless. After all, is is that *exact* implementation that has caused the IT world over a myriad of headaches and financial losses - with DOS based machines, so many less people were involved with computers, and yes there was was exploitation, but not as much - as the PC became easier and easier to use, i.e. user friendly, i.e. n00b friendly, i.e. point and click, etc, more and more systems began to get compromised - why? A combination of 2 factors, as I see it - the user base is getting 'stupider', in that more and more novice users are getting computers with absolutely no clue on how to do anything, combine with the fact that more and more companies are releasing untested and insecure software out to that very same user base - and letting the users become the guinea pigs.

Of course, (playing Devil's advocate) I really shouldn't complain - after all, it is that very combination that is keeping me employed so gainfully :p

[FiB3R]

I'm still not buying it, I'm sure Microsoft have spent millions of dollars on studies, on how to make their user interface more accessible for all, not just "n00bs". Do you think this is a bad thing? Is it a bad thing to have Sat-Nav and parking sensors on your new Jag? Or anything else that makes life easier?

Look at all the work Microsoft are putting into Office 12, in regards to the layout of tool bars and icons. I can just imagine the guy who stands up in that meeting and says "I have a great idea! Icons are useless, why don't we just get rid of the lot?" How long do you think he's gonna be on the team? Word has thousands of commands, how is the average person supposed to remember all those? and that's just one program!

The terms Higher and Lower brain functions, refer to the part of the brain that is used to perform certain functions. Don't be fooled into thinking that the word Higher automatically means better.

Images are processed in the lower brain (the limbic brain) The mammalian brain. Deeper, wider, beyond logic. That's where icons, symbols and images of all kinds 'work'. Not in the upstart cortex. What we think of as 'mind' is only a sort of jumped up gland, piggybacking on the reptilian brain stem and the older mammalian mind, but our culture tricks us into recognising it as all of conciousness.

Simplely put, it's one of our most basic instincts.

Imagine a wall full of tiny pictures, how fast could you pick out the coca-cola sign? Now imagine a wall of text, how fast could you pick out the word?

Icons are used for a reason, not just to look pretty.

[insanekiwi]

nice guide for minimalistic prople. otherwise it just looks ugly. if i think of a program i associate it with the matching icon.

[DDStriker]

Pretty nice, to bad you have to edit every program you and remove all the icons(so I also use the reg tweak but this way I can't have stuff on my desktop) ...This "hack" or whatever really helps reduce the amount of system resources explorer.exe uses(mine is sitting at 5,492k but I also followed the other guide to hack explorer.exe). Anyway I don't think it's ugly, I never noticed those icons anyway -.-". I just knew exactly where everything was in my start menu/folders/etc and I opened programs/folder/files/etc out of reflex :happy:.

[piehouserat]

nice guide but absolutely pointless. even a complete minimalist still needs something minimal to guide them.

[myst]

lol,man why you have delete all icons, now its useless....)))

[Marlboro23]

Cool! now i just need to combine this with the no text on files/shortcuts hack for the minimalysm to teh max0r!! </sarcasm> :D

no really, nice guide.. even if not for me, but i'm sure someone will find it useful *coughfreakscough* :rofl:

[tryeruby]

when you get rid of the icons Win XP turns ugly :wacko:

but it's a nice guide

[darkhooda]

Nice guide, but unless I have 64MB RAM or really hate that Windowsy look, I wouldn't like to apply it. Looks a bit, bland, but it is your opinion. Might be useful for people who just loved some of the old minimalist X windows interfaces...

[Angelico_Payne]

Cheers for the effort :applause:

P.S. I here there's a Windows 98SE, it runs pretty good :p

[Jordan M.]

Interesting, but I'd hate not to have icons:))

agreed

[Udedenkz]

this made my 'noinstrumentation' tweak not work. explorer now tracks all my movements

[solardog]

Id like to try it just to see, but this is beyond minimalist..minimalist suggests something...this is more like invisiblist.

[Udedenkz]

this made my 'noinstrumentation' tweak not work. explorer now tracks all my movements

nevermind...

This is a good guide for minimalists and performance insane (me!!!)...

Two Questions,

- Can I delete version info?

- What can I replace the animated files with? (ie searching glass or files jumping from folder one to folder two?)

[icekin]

I recommend trying panekiller for those not wanting to remove all the icons. It will remove only the icons on the start menu and leave the words behind. It also gives an option to launch the start menu anywhere with a certain key combination. This is similar to right click launching the start menu on bb4win.

[war]

Nice guide. Excellent, good first step to start tweaking the shell file...