More Whining about Windows 7 - Desktop Icons Too Big

[cheez]

How do I go about shrinking those desktop icons to small for ALL USERS in the domain? I have tried enabling "Force classic Start Menu" but it didn't do squat... the desktop icons are so huge they are taking up 1/8 of the screen...

This shuckx

 

[colonelciller]

How do I go about shrinking those desktop icons to small for ALL USERS in the domain? I have tried enabling "Force classic Start Menu" but it didn't do squat... the desktop icons are so huge they are taking up 1/8 of the screen...

This shuckx

put them all in the quick launch toolbar and delete them from the desktop

/thread

 

[MrChad]

DPI settings are per user. Stored in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

 

[mikeymikec]

put them all in the quick launch toolbar and delete them from the desktop

/thread

Do you mean the Quick Launch toolbar that doesn't exist on Win7?

The desktop icon size setting is independent from the DPI setting, but I'd bet that the registry location already posted has that setting in (or its parent key). Fire up Process Monitor and monitor it while changing the setting, possibly. Alternatively google or it, I'm sure that someone else has already found the setting in question

A quick google found this thread. I can't be bothered to test if what they're saying is true. However, I can't think of a good reason why anyone would want to force a different icon size on all users either..

http://www.sevenforums.com/customization/15816-icon-size-registry-tweak.html

 

[cheez]

DPI settings are per user. Stored in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

No, that's not an idea. I need to have icons on the desktop for the users. But they are so huge I couldn't believe it.

http://www.sevenforums.com/customization/15816-icon-size-registry-tweak.html

I actually visited that site this morning. I don't think that will work... isn't that a myth? Oh well I will give it try anyway.


What were the Microsoft engineers thinking... they think we've got bad eyesight or something? I don't sit 10 feet away from the monitor. Trust me.

 

[mikeymikec]

I've always had medium icons set on Win7, they look better.

What setting are they using at the moment?

 

[Steltek]

Do you mean the Quick Launch toolbar that doesn't exist on Win7?

Very easy to get it back if you want it.

http://www.mydigitallife.info/how-to-enable-or-disable-quick-launch-bar-toolbar-in-windows-7/

 

[Mushkins]

Icon sizes should not be managed globally, they are a personal preference. Go ahead and set them all to small, then have a world of complaints from people with shitty eyes who dont know how to get their big icons back and you cant do anything about it individually because GPO says no.

Tell your users to go to the desktop, hold down CTRL, and scroll the mouse wheel up or down until the icons are the size they want. Problem solved.

 

[ControlD]

Icon sizes should not be managed globally, they are a personal preference. Go ahead and set them all to small, then have a world of complaints from people with shitty eyes who dont know how to get their big icons back and you cant do anything about it individually because GPO says no.

Tell your users to go to the desktop, hold down CTRL, and scroll the mouse wheel up or down until the icons are the size they want. Problem solved.

Well I be ....

You learn something everyday.

 

[John Connor]

What's wrong with right click the desktop / view?

 

[Ichinisan]

Do you mean the Quick Launch toolbar that doesn't exist on Win7?

You mean that toolbar that gets bloated with everything EXCEPT what you want there?

Even in WinXP, I always disable the QL toolbar and do this:

1. Right-click the taskbar and un-check the "lock taskbar" option (temporary)
2. Right-click again to create a custom toolbar (Toolbars > New toolbar...)
3. In the pop-up dialog, create a "Custom QL" folder and select it.
4. Right-click that toolbar repeatedly and:
   1. Un-check "show title"
   2. Un-check "show
   3. Open folder
5. Drag the new toolbar all the way left, so it's right next to the Start button.
6. Double-click the divider between the new toolbar and the rest of the taskbar so the new toolbar shrinks to its minimum size.
7. Right-click the taskbar again and lock it.
8. Drop some shortcut files in that folder.

 

[Ichinisan]

[...]

...and I usually only keep the "Show Desktop" shortcut in my custom QL.

 

[blankslate]

Tell your users to go to the desktop, hold down CTRL, and scroll the mouse wheel up or down until the icons are the size they want. Problem solved.

Well I be .... You learn something everyday.

That feature was introduced in Vista (which was actually decent after SP1). Make sure the people you tell the tip to click on an empty space on the desktop in order to ensure the ctrl mouse-scroll change icon size tip works.

 

[bbhaag]

Icon sizes should not be managed globally, they are a personal preference. Go ahead and set them all to small, then have a world of complaints from people with shitty eyes who dont know how to get their big icons back and you cant do anything about it individually because GPO says no.

Tell your users to go to the desktop, hold down CTRL, and scroll the mouse wheel up or down until the icons are the size they want. Problem solved.

That's a nice tip. It works in Win8 to. Thanks!

 

[cheez]

Icon sizes should not be managed globally, they are a personal preference. Go ahead and set them all to small, then have a world of complaints from people with shitty eyes who dont know how to get their big icons back and you cant do anything about it individually because GPO says no.

Tell your users to go to the desktop, hold down CTRL, and scroll the mouse wheel up or down until the icons are the size they want. Problem solved.

I want to set it globally through GPO but there is no such setting for it. This is for production environment, and users have limited access to the computer. They don't need to make changes on their own. Welcome to the real business / production world where home users have no experience in.

Windows 7's classic theme is not the same as classic theme in Windows 2000/server 2003/XP.


cheez

 

[Zxian]

DPI settings are per user. Stored in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

This person had the correct answer to your question. Create a GPO that runs a startup script to apply this setting to the registry on user login.

They don't need to make changes on their own. Welcome to the real business / production world where home users have no experience in.

Do you have any idea how stupid this sounds?

Because of the ridiculous bureaucracy that runs through my company, marketing has told IT that they need to set the wallpaper on our workstations based on whatever important company news or event is happening. These wallpapers include words and are often bright in colour (the way you'd make a billboard). The wallpaper settings are locked out to the point where I cannot change them even if I wanted to. The bright colours (combined with the fluorescent lighting in the building) causes several of my co-workers and I eye strain.

Do you have any idea how much productivity is lost on a daily basis because marketing thought an email wasn't sufficient to get the message across? Some level of personalization will help employees work more efficiently. My preferred setup is different than yours, and I like my icons at the default size. If you go about changing them for me, it's possibly going to cost us productivity which we happen to bill out to clients at $100-400/hour.

Set your policies to give employees the functionality they need and leave it alone at that. Unless a setting is costing employees' time, don't waste yours to fix a problem that doesn't exist.

 

[cheez]

Ah hell with it. I'll just leave the icons alone. Not worth wrestling around with the stupid icons ha ha.


cheez

 

[colonelciller]

Do you mean the Quick Launch toolbar that doesn't exist on Win7?

I mean the Quick Launch toolbar that most certainly doesexist in Windows 7 and which I use every day.

 

[colonelciller]

Tell your users to go to the desktop, hold down CTRL, and scroll the mouse wheel up or down until the icons are the size they want. Problem solved.

wow, nice trick

 

[Mushkins]

I want to set it globally through GPO but there is no such setting for it. This is for production environment, and users have limited access to the computer. They don't need to make changes on their own. Welcome to the real business / production world where home users have no experience in.

Windows 7's classic theme is not the same as classic theme in Windows 2000/server 2003/XP.


cheez

No, they don't need to make *critical systems changes* on their own. Icon size isn't baked into GPO for a reason, because it's a per-user usability setting. One size does not fit all users, and there is no reason to change it. Globally saying "you cant turn off windows firewall" is a lot different than globally saying "icons have to be this size."

I know how production environments work, i've worked in big business and small business. I've done my fair share of filling out change control paperwork, after hours emergency support, and complaining that there's problems with our system image on certain model workstations, and all the rest. Thats how I know trying to globally enforce specific settings for things people already ask me how to change on a weekly basis so they can see their monitor better is a *bad idea* :biggrin: You might as well force the on-screen keyboard to be on for all users or lock it down so they can't move, add, or change desktop icons. IT isn't there to *control* users, it's there to *support* users, and they need to have enough usability of the PC to actually do their work.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

...and I usually only keep the "Show Desktop" shortcut in my custom QL.

Windows-M.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Because of the ridiculous bureaucracy that runs through my company, marketing has told IT that they need to set the wallpaper on our workstations based on whatever important company news or event is happening. These wallpapers include words and are often bright in colour (the way you'd make a billboard). The wallpaper settings are locked out to the point where I cannot change them even if I wanted to. The bright colours (combined with the fluorescent lighting in the building) causes several of my co-workers and I eye strain.

Yeah, our IT people did that. What's worse is that there's a bunch rotating through - the constant changes are jarring as hell.

Fortunately, they left the "right-click -> set as desktop background" functionality intact in IE. My department's machine all have nice neutral blue backgrounds now.

 

[BrandtTheMan]

Tell your users to go to the desktop, hold down CTRL, and scroll the mouse wheel up or down until the icons are the size they want. Problem solved.

I dont know why I never knew this. Thank you!

 

[Ichinisan]

Windows-M.

WRONG!

The equivalent is Windows+D. :awe:

"M" won't hide modal dialogs.

Believe me, I use that shortcut 100 times per day. Leaving the shortcut is really done for other people that use my systems who aren't ultra-proficient with keyboard shortcuts.

That's right. I'm a keyboard shortcut fiend like you would never believe.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

WRONG!

The equivalent is Windows+D. :awe:

"M" won't hide modal dialogs.

Believe me, I use that shortcut 100 times per day. Leaving the shortcut is really done for other people that use my systems who aren't ultra-proficient with keyboard shortcuts.

That's right. I'm a keyboard shortcut fiend like you would never believe.

Nice. Didn't know that one. Thanks.

I'm also a shortcut fiend, but I spend most of my day in front of Macs.