134. How to make Windows shell to look similar to a Mac OSX ?

Ever wanted you Windows shell to look similar to a Mac OSX? Changing the icon size will add that final touch. Mac OSX has a max size of 128x128 icons. (Windows Max: 72x72).

1. Open Registry Editor.
2. Click on HKEY_CURRENT_USER
3. Then expand Control Panel.
4. Then expand Desktop.
5. Then expand Windows Metrics
6. Select the Shell Icon Size key.
7. Right click Shell Icon Size and select Modify.
8. Then type 128 in the box, and there you go!

Huge Mac OSX size icons!

126. Change the email icon in the start menu

This tweak will allow you to change the default icon for the e-mail shortcut in the start menu to whatever you want. You should be familliar with regedit prior to trying this.

1. Click on "Start" and go to "run"
2. In the run dialog type "regedit"
3. Go to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\Mail\" by expanding the appropriate branches of the tree.
4. Select the email client that you are currently using.
5. You can now modify the (default) key and rename the shortcut to whatever you want.
6. To change the icon expand the selected client and click on "DefaultIcon".
7. Change the (default) key to point to the icon file of your choice by double-clicking it. If you are going to use a .exe file with multiple icons inside you should specify with a comma after the target the index number. (Eg. C:\icons.exe, 2)
8. Reboot your computer for the changes to take effect.

That's it! Have fun.

125. Associate an icon with a drive

To set the icon of any drive (hard disk, cd rom or anything else) with a letter (C:\ etc.), run REGEDIT (Start -> Run -> regedit)

Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

If one doesn't already exist, create a new KEY called "DriveIcons". Under this key, create a new key with the letter of your drive.

I.e. C for your C:\ drive.

To change the icon for that drive, create a key inside that one called DefaultIcon and set the path of (Default) to the location of your icon

eg C\DefaultIcon\
then (Default) = D:\Documents\C Drive Icon.ico

To change the name of that drive, create a key in the drive letter one (eg C\) called DefaultLabel and set the (Default) to what you want the drive to be called.
This is useful if you want to assign a long name to the floppy drive.

93.Create invisible titles for desktop icons

In this first step, you will need to make sure that Windows XP is configured to use drop-shadow icon titles. Here's how:

1. Right-click My Computer and choose Properties.
2. Click the Advanced tab in the resulting window.
3. Click the Settings button inside the Performance pane
4. Click the Visual Effects tab.
5. Scroll down until you see the entry "Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop". If it's not checked, go ahead and check it now.
6. Click OK.

Now Windows will not include a rectangular background around the icon text.

In this next step, we will create our invisible title. Since Windows will not accept a space as a file name, we will need to use a character that is invisible. The ANSI character "0160" is a non-breaking space and is visually indistinguishable from a space. We will need to insert this ANSI character into the icon title box, here's how:

1. Right click an icon and select Rename (or single click the icon and press F2)
2. Hold down the Alt key and type 0160 on your numeric keypad, then release the Alt key.
3. Press Enter.

Note: You will now see a highlighted rectangle that represents the invisible title but a single click on a blank area of your desktop will make this disappear.

To make a second icon have an invisible title, just insert the special ANSI character twice into the icon title box. (eg: ALT + 01600160) This is necessary because Windows will not allow duplicate file names.

84.Transparent Desktop Icons

If you would like the background of the desktop icons to have a transparent appearance, here's how:

1. Go to Start>> Control Panel>> System
2. Once at the System Properties windows, select the Advanced tab
3. Under the Performance category, select the Settings button
4. In the Performance Options windows select the Visual Effects tab
5. Scroll down the list of settings and place a checkmark next to the entry titled: Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop.