Break Windows© Default Icon Sizes

Tools needed:

• Windows Registry Editor

• Icons from 16x16 through 128x128 BPP (Bits Per Pixel)

By default, any displayed Windows icon can reach sizes from 16x16 through 72x72 from the Display Properties. Heres how your gonna get those icons from normal sizes; 16, 32, 48, 64, and 72 to crisp and clear sizes like 128px ala MacOS. Run your registry editor Windows Key+R for the run dialog then type regedit. Now navigate or copy and paste this key to find "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics\Shell Icon Size". Right now it should be displaying a size from 16x16 up to 72x72, depending on your preference of icon size you can edit it to bigger sizes like 96 or 128 (true MacOS clarity). Now that you've made the change, log off your computer then log back on to see the changes take effect. If the icons are squashing each other just move them around manually. Be sure to have your 128bpp Mac icons in hand to take full advantage of the quality. Thats pretty much it for hacking icon sizes in Windows.

**Other Side Notes**

I. Before you make changes to your registry settings you should save the current settings first. Do that by right clicking the working folder you are presently in on the left folder hierarchy and select Export. Save it somewhere safe and name it something like "Default Icon Settings". Another good tip to use is to export your icon settings AFTER you've altered them to display 128bpp, that way all you have to do next time is double click the .reg file you exported to apply changes then the log off and log on. Name it something like "Big Icon Sizes" and save it somewhere safe. With your two registry files now saved and stored away, changing from big to small icons will be a snap.

II. You may notice with your larger icons certain things like the Save to or Open dialog windows cant display the icons corectly. Thats simply because we are breaking the "normal" icon barrier and Windows cant calculate to automatically resize Dialog windows. There are a couple of ways to work with it so to speak, you can hack your dll files(semi hard) or download TweakUI from Microsofts website which will allow you to remove the side icon pane entirely. Your choice to take or leave for icon perfection.

III. Applications I use for icon customization:

• Microangelo (www.Impactsoftware.com)/Allows single icon changes or system wide filetype icon changes

• IconPackager (www.stardock.com)/Create icon themes to apply system wide in a breeze or restore icons to default style I.E Luna

Monday, September 29, 2003

If this helps anyone let me know, thanks.

#61953