Want to know how to manage and customize icons on your Windows 10 desktop? In this guide, we will share the seven most useful tips to manage and customize desktop icons.
In addition to Windows 10, these tips and tricks will work on Windows 8 and Windows 7 as well.
Those who would like to customize the desktop background, please refer to our four ways to customize the desktop background in Windows 10 article.
Get more sizes for desktop icons
The desktop context menu offers three sizes for icons: small, medium, and large. If you need more sizes, simply hold down the Ctrl key and then scroll the mouse wheel to increase or reduce icons size. Check out our 3 ways to resize desktop icons in Windows guide to know all the ways out there to resize desktop icons.
Change desktop icons
If you want to the change the default icons of programs on the desktop, you can do that with ease. Right-click on the program’s shortcut icon, click Properties, click Change Icon button, and then click the browse button to select an icon.
Go through our how to change desktop icons in Windows 10 guide for step-by-step directions. Refer to our how to change Recycle Bin icon in Windows 10 article to know how to change Recycle Bin and This PC icons without the help of third-party tools.
Remove shortcut arrow from desktop icons
Those of you who have tens of program icon on the desktop might not be happy with the arrow mark on the icons. If you want to remove the arrow from all shortcut icons, refer to our how to remove or customize shortcut arrow from desktop icons guide.
Lock desktop icon positions
If you have arranged your favorite program shortcuts in a particular order on the desktop, you might want to lock icon positions to avoid accidentally changing their positions.
Refer to our how to lock desktop icon positions in Windows guide for directions.
Change desktop icons view
By default, Windows 10 arranges all icons on the desktop in Icons view. If you want to change it to something else, you cannot do that via the desktop context menu.
Our how to change desktop icons view in Windows 10 guide can help you change the default view of desktop icons.
Change spacing between desktop icons
If you find that the desktop icons are placed very close to each other, you can change the desktop icon spacing. You can change the spacing via Registry, but there is a dedicated software out there to help you change the default icon spacing, and the tool works on Windows 10 as well.
Head over to our change desktop icon spacing article to download the software and change the spacing.
Keyboard shortcut to show or hide desktop icons
There is no dedicated keyboard shortcut to show and hide icons on the desktop. If you often hide and show desktop icons, you can create a dedicated hotkey with the help of a little utility called Actual Hide Desktop Icons. Not exactly a customization tip, but we find the tool very helpful.
Refer to our how to create a keyboard shortcut to show or hide desktop icons in Windows 10 guide to download and use the program.
Don’t forget to check out the list of 10 free tools to tweak and customize Windows 10 article to know the best software out there to tweak and customize your Windows 10.
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