Before I get into today’s discussion I wanted to mention the Bit.ly column from last week. If you missed last week’s column you will have to buy last week’s paper or go to DoubleClicks.info to check it out. The link that I mentioned about County Codes, bit.ly/a7Vmpo, was visited by 41 readers. Thanks for looking!
Today Brian asked how he could change a desktop icon graphic for another graphic. Keep in mind this can only be performed on your shortcuts.
It isn’t hard to do and it’s sometimes fun to change these tiny graphics to something else.
First, you right click on your shortcut and left click “Properties” at the bottom of the menu list. Look at the bottom of the window that opens up and click the obvious box, “Change icon…”
The next window displays all of Window’s basic secondary icons. You will have over 150 icons to choose from, depending on which version of windows you are using.
Once you select the one you like, clicks “OK” at the bottom of the window. The window will close and the icon on your desktop will change almost immediately.
You can do this with any shortcut icon on your computer, not just the ones on your desktop. However, it is easier to change those on the desktop until you are a professional…which takes about two tries. I told you it was easy!
Now don’t go around changing them on your spouse’s computer. I had a friend who did. She changed her husband’s icon for Word to Internet Explorer’s so when he thought he was going to open Word he was browsing the net. Funny trick; however, it was a bit frustrating after he tried it a few times and thought his computer was broken.
Now I didn’t tell you how to change Word to MSIE but if you wanted to try that, click the “Browse” button under “Properties” again. Then find any other program’s icons and choose that one…not that anyone who reads this would do it – muhahaha!
When you shutdown your computer for the night and restart the next time the icon remains.
Brian asked another good question about changing an icon to a picture he had of himself. That is trickier but still doable. Unless you are a real techie-artist I recommend you download a small program which will do it for you.
Pixel Toolbox is a neat little app that will do other small graphics but you need to read the directions to work it smoothly. It is easy once you figure it out but at first glance it may scare you. Here is a hint… check the “Icon” picture and import the picture.
If you go to my site and look to the left of the URL you will see a picture of me that I made using Pixel Toolbox. Have fun and let me know if you enjoyed trying this method out.
