If you’ve ever wondered how to customize your Windows 7 taskbar like some of the beautiful screenshots in our featured desktop series, here’s the quick and simple instructions on exactly how to do it. It’s easier than you think. More »
Blog Archives
How to Create a Completely Customized Taskbar in Windows 7 [Windows 7]
Posted on September 16, 2010
How to Create Application Shortcuts in Google Chrome for Mac [Shell Scripts]
Posted on August 12, 2010
While previously mentioned Fluid is a great tool for creating site-specific browsers (SSBs), some would rather use Chome’s “Application Shortcuts” feature. Unfortunately, it’s not available on Chrome for Mac, but you can achieve the same result with a shell script. More »
IconViewer Extracts Hidden Icons from Applications [Downloads]
Posted on June 15, 2010
Windows only: Free plug-in IconViewer adds a new tab to Windows Explorer’s properties screen that views, copies, and saves the icons hidden inside Windows applications and libraries. More »
Microsoft Windows – Icon – Desktop Customization – Windows Explorer – Utilities
Win7 Library Tool Gives You Complete Control Over Media Libraries [Downloads]
Posted on December 28, 2009
Windows: Libraries were one of the most useful features in Windows 7, but it’s a bit restricted in what it can do. Free utility Win7 Library Tool gives you everything you need to fine-tune, customize, and extend your library collections.
The only thing you can really do with Windows 7′s default library editor is pick indexed folders to include in a specified library. Win7 Library Tool shows you all your libraries in one window, and when you choose to edit one, you can edit tons of otherwise hidden Library properties. You can change a library’s icon, create a mirror (allowing you to make the path to a library much shorter), add network or other non-indexed folders to your libraries, and even back them up for restoration later on (say, if you decide to do a clean install). Essentially, it’s what library management in Windows 7 should have been.
Win7 Library tool is a free download for Windows 7 only. If you’ve got a great use case for extended Windows 7 libraries, let’s hear about ‘em in the comments.
Get a Functional Recycle Bin on Windows 7′s Taskbar [Windows 7 Tip]
Posted on September 16, 2009
If you’re a fan of having a completely empty desktop but want to keep the functionality of Windows 7′s recycle bin, the TechSpot blog details how to get a Recycle Bin icon on your taskbar that accepts drag-and-drop deletions.
We’ve previously written up another Windows 7 recycle bin trick, but in that case, it was only useful for accessing what's in the trash, and couldn't accept files for deletion hovered over it. TechSpot's solution—creating a Quick Launch taskbar, removing its text and title, then bringing the desktop Recycle Bin icon into it—covers all the bases, and lets you place your Recycle Bin pretty much wherever you'd like on the taskbar.
Found a similar taskbar hack for Windows 7 you can’t live without? Tell us about it in the comments.
SimplyIcon Makes Icon Creation a Snap [Downloads]
Posted on September 12, 2009
Windows: If you don’t want to spend time micro-designing an icon and you’ve already got a source image, SimplyIcon makes creating your buttons and icons a drag-and-drop matter.
Download the SimplyIcon package, extract the executable and DLL file to a folder, run the program, and you're presented with a simple dialogue box and the instructions to drag and drop an image onto it. Once you drag and drop the image, SimplyIcon creates a variety of icon files in various sizes—up to 128×128 if you source image is large enough.
You won’t find any image editing tools or tweaks on SimplyIcon, it accepts whatever image you drag into it and cranks out an icon file. If that’s good enough for you, it’s definitely a download you’ll want to keep stashed in your home folder.
SimplyIcon is free, Windows only, and requires .Net 2.0 Framework or higher. Have a favorite icon creation tool of your own? Share it in the comments.
SimplyIcon [via The How-To Geek]
Grab New Icons to Spice up Your Desktop [Friday Fun]
Posted on March 20, 2009
Mix things up on your desktop with some fun new icons. Web design blog Noupe has an awesome collection of the 50 most beautiful icon sets of 2008, ripe for you to pick from.
Most of the icon sets were originally intended for use in web design, but many of them are available as .ICO files and almost all of them are available as .PNG. If you don’t have the software tools on your computer to convert graphics into .ICO format for use as icons, take advantage of some of the free tools we’ve reviewed like web-based ConvertIcon and iConvert.
Fences is a Seriously Awesome Desktop Icon Organizer [Downloads]
Posted on February 5, 2009
Windows only: Desktop icon organizer Fences arranges your cluttered desktop icons into containers so you can clean up the mess into useful groups of shortcuts—or optionally hides them altogether.
Once installed, Fences will run through a couple of first-time beginner screens asking if you’d like to use one of the built-in layouts, and will attempt to auto-detect which icons should be placed inside each fence. You can modify any of the fences by simply moving or resizing them around the screen, and then use the Lock item on the desktop context menu to fix them into place when you are done.
The thumbnail on the left shows my cluttered test desktop before, and the one on the right shows the default organizer layout generated by Fences—much cleaner.
Right-clicking on the desktop gives you a couple of new options, including quick and easy access to the settings panel, where you can tweak the look & feel as much as you'd like.
The best feature is the ability to double-click on the desktop to toggle visibility of the icons—but you can optionally exclude certain fences, a very useful feature for hiding clutter while keeping application launching icons visible all the time.
After only a few hours of using this application, it’s already a must-have for keeping my desktop clean and organized. If you aren’t worried about eye-candy and just want to organize your icons, check out previously mentioned Iconoid, or you can hide your desktop icons with a keyboard shortcut instead.
Fences is a free download, works on Windows XP 32-bit and Windows 7 or Vista in both 32-bit or 64-bit versions.
Fences [Stardock]