Adding Shortcuts to Desktop Without "Shortcut To" text 

Changing Drive Icons 

To change a drive's icon when you open My Computer

• Create a file called AUTORUN.INF on the root of your hard drive
• Enter the lines

[autorun]
ICON=Name of the ICON file

Repositioning a Background Bitmap 

Normally, you only options for displaying a background bitmap are tiled, centered, or stretch to fit (with the Plus Pack).
You can edit the registry and have a third option which is to place the bitmap anywhere on your screen by specifying the X and Y coordinates.

• Start Regedit
• Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Control Panel / Desktop
• Create new Strings called WallpaperOriginX and WallpaperOriginY
• Give them values to position them around your desktop

Moving the Start Button 

How to move or close the start button!

• Click on the Start button
• Press the Esc key
• Press the Alt and the - keys together
• This will give you a menu, you can move or close

Having Icons with No Name 

*Normally you have to have a name for an icon, just spaces are not allowed.
To create an icon with no name attached:

• Make sure NumLock is on
• Highlight the Icon you want to change
• Right-Mouse click and select Rename
• While holding down the Alt key, type 0160

*Follow directions detailed above With the second icon simply add one space-bar character AFTER the 0160 number. Each successive icon gets an additional space-bar character at the end (to prevent a duplicate naming error).

Removing the Recycle Bin

• To remove Recycle Bin from the desktop:
• Run REGEDIT.
• Find NAMESPACE key in left pane (HKEY_Local_Macine \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Current Version \ Explorer \ Desktop \ Namespace)
• Expand NAMESPACE (click '+' box)

Removing the InBox from the Desktop 

A faster way to remove "Inbox" from the Deskop is to

• Right mouse click on "Inbox"
• Select delete
• It will then tell you "you cannot store the inbox in the recycle bin. . .etc"
• Click "Yes"

Unable to Create Shortcuts on the Desk top 

If you can't create shortcuts on your Desktop, you might have a corrupted registry.

• Start Regedit
• Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.lnk\ShellNew\Command
• Make sure it has a value of:
• RunDLL32 AppWiz.Cpl,NewLinkHere %1 if you don't have IE 4

Increasing the Size of the Scroll Bar 

How to adjust the width of the scroll bar:

• Select Properties
• Select the Appearance tab
• Go to the item list and find scrollbar.

Fixing Corrupted Desktop Icons 

* Easier way to reset icons then deleting SHELLICONCACHE.

There's no need to exit Win95 and delete the SHELLICONCACHE file in order to reset icons that you may have changed (like Network Neighborhood).

• Go to Control Panel, Display, Appearance Tab.
• Select Icon from the Item drop down list.
• Change the Size up or down one and apply.
• Change the Size back to your original and apply.

Changing a Folder's Icon 

To change the icon of a Folder on desktop:

• Using the Explorer, move the folder from the Desktop directory to another directory on the hard drive
• Right click on the new folder and select "Create Shortcut"
• Move the shortcut to the Desktop

Adding the Control Panel to the Start Menu 

• Open up the Explorer
• Go to \WINDOWS\Start Menu
• Right click in the right-hand panel
• Add a new folder
• Name it Control Panel.{21ec2020-3aea-1069-a2dd-08002b30309d}

Removing Shortcut Arrows 

An easy way to remove those irritating arrows from your desktop shortcut icons and not change their properties

• Right click the Desktop / Properties / Appearance tab
• Select Item
• Scroll for Icon
• The default size is 32
• Change this to 30

Having your Favorites and Start Menus Sort Alphabetically 

If your Start Menu Program or Favorites are not sorting alphabetically, it is easy to fix this:

• Start Regedit
• Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/MenuOrder
• Under here is are Favorites and Start Menu folders
• In each there is a value called Order
• Simply delete (or rename this) and restart Winodws

Creating 3D Window Effect 

You can create a nice 3D effect for your windows

• Start Regedit
• Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Colors
• Make sure the following setting are there:
• ButtonHilight=128 128 128

Restoring a Lost windows Desktop 

If you ever lose the Desktop but Explorer is still running with the Start Button,
you can do this to bring back your Desktop in a Windows box.

• Click Start
• Click Run
• Type a period " . "

Creating Shutdown, Restart and Logoff Icons 

To create the icons, create a shortcut on the desktop.

• For Shutdown, the command is C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE user.exe,exitwindows
• For Restart, the command is C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE user.exe,exitwindowsexec

        For Logoff, the command is C:\WINDOWS\RUNDLL.EXE shell32.dll,SHExitWindowsEx 0

Changing the Name of the Outlook Icon on the Desktop

To change the name of the Outlook icon on the desktop:

• Start Regedit
• Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ CLASSES \ CLSID \ {00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}