How do I change size/color of one or two desktop icons?

kneehowguys

New Member
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When I turn on the computer, I want a few shortcut icons to be very prominent with color and size so I can find them easily and poke them with my finger on the touchscreen.

Question 1 (the title^)

Question 2: In general, if you want to save all the windows you are currently using and be able to open them all up within a few clicks later, what are the best options to do this? So say you have an excel file, a word doc, and some internet browser windows all related to one of your projects and you want to access all of those later without having to find them. What are your options to do this?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8
A basic principle of desktop icons is that they are all the same size. Windows does not support any violation of this principle.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
When you create your shortcut for each, right click on it and choose properties. Under the Shortcut tab, choose the Change Icon button.

It will bring up all the icons available in the default shell.dll file. Many dll files have one or more icons imbedded. Choose the icon you want to use for your project. You can also use the browse button to search for a different dll or create your own .ico file to use for that project.

Of course, this won't change the size, but you can have a distinctive icon for each project and make all your shortcuts for that project show that particular icon.

Screenshot (32).jpg
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Self Built
    CPU
    Intel I-7 860
    Motherboard
    Asus P7B
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia 580
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer (Primary), Asus (secondary), Sony TV (third)
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    Kingston 128GB SSD Windows 8 Boot Drive
    WD Black 1 TB (2 ea)
    WD Red 3 TB
    WD Black 500GB
    Keyboard
    MS 1000
    Mouse
    MS Flip
    Internet Speed
    Verizon FIOS 35/35
    Browser
    IE 11, Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari
    Antivirus
    Windows 8 Defender (MS Security Essentials)
poke them with my finger on the touchscreen.
Are you really talking about "icons" on the "Desktop" or are you talking about "tiles" on Windows 8 "Start Screen"?

I use W8.x but not tiles or the Start Screen (using Start8). I am not aware of any program that will let you change the size or font of individual desktop icons. So what I recommend is moving them so they are always in the same location, for example, on the right side, or upper right corner.

Or... (two birds with one stone...)

For Q2 - I don't know how to "open" all those different file types with one click, but you can surely right-click on a blank space on your desktop and create a new folder with a descriptive name. Then dump or create shortcuts to your spreadsheets, docs, or Internet shortcuts in that folder. In this way, all these common files are located in one place so you find them easily (for Q1) and then you can open them all "within a few clicks" (for Q2).
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    W10 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Well if your using IE all your pages should be on tabs to start up when you start up IE? Look in IE Options

I also can't help you with touch screen or Metro Tiles, as I boot straight to desktop.

The program/files you want to start at start up can have shortcut in the Start up Folder Drag and drop to the start up folder
or Create a start up folder on your Desk top put the short cuts in that folder.

Personally I use the old quick Launch toolbar same as I did in XP Vista and win 7
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro MC
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus G75VW / Z97 Pro
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3610QM / I7-4790K
    Motherboard
    Z97 Pro
    Memory
    16 GB Hyundai HTM315156CFR8C-PB PC3-12800
    Graphics Card(s)
    nVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M (GF114M)
    Sound Card
    VIA 6.0.10.1600
    Screen Resolution
    1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 850 Pro 256, Samsung 850 Pro 1TB
    Internet Speed
    30 down 3 up
    Browser
    Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    NIS and Malwarebytes
Question 2: In general, if you want to save all the windows you are currently using and be able to open them all up within a few clicks later, what are the best options to do this? So say you have an excel file, a word doc, and some internet browser windows all related to one of your projects and you want to access all of those later without having to find them. What are your options to do this?
If you want to open a bunch of stuff you can use the powershell command Start-Process followed by what you want to do. For example this will open eightforums as a tab in your default browser and then Book1.xlxs and Doc1.docx. The program that starts is the default for the file type so for me MS Internet Explorer, Excel and Word.
Code:
Start-Process "[URL]http://eightforums.com[/URL]"
Start-Process "C:\Users\adam\desktop\Book1.xlsx"
Start-Process "C:\Users\adam\desktop\Doc1.docx"
Create this file in notepad and save it somewhere with extension .ps1 for powershell. For this example I called it test.ps1. Next make a shortcut and enter the following (changing the path in red to the file you just made) as the target:
Code:
%SystemRoot%\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -noprofile -executionpolicy bypass -File "[COLOR=#ff0000]C:\Users\adam\Documents\test.ps1[/COLOR]"
. You can then change the icon as described above in post 4 and pin it to the desktop, taskbar or start screen.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro Prieview x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    MacBook Pro Core2Duo
    CPU
    T7600
    Memory
    3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon X1600
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Internal
    Screen Resolution
    1440 x 800
    Hard Drives
    40GB
    Keyboard
    Apple
    Mouse
    Apple
    Internet Speed
    Varies
    Browser
    Various
    Antivirus
    Defender
poke them with my finger on the touchscreen.
Are you really talking about "icons" on the "Desktop" or are you talking about "tiles" on Windows 8 "Start Screen"?

I use W8.x but not tiles or the Start Screen (using Start8). I am not aware of any program that will let you change the size or font of individual desktop icons. So what I recommend is moving them so they are always in the same location, for example, on the right side, or upper right corner.

Or... (two birds with one stone...)

For Q2 - I don't know how to "open" all those different file types with one click, but you can surely right-click on a blank space on your desktop and create a new folder with a descriptive name. Then dump or create shortcuts to your spreadsheets, docs, or Internet shortcuts in that folder. In this way, all these common files are located in one place so you find them easily (for Q1) and then you can open them all "within a few clicks" (for Q2).

Thank you. Is there any fast way to create a shortcut for say a word document in word itself when the document is open without having to find the file? Basically it sounds like the only step I could speed up for Q2 is to create the shortcuts faster.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8
Thank you. Is there any fast way to create a shortcut for say a word document in word itself when the document is open without having to find the file?
Word already does that for you by listing your "Recent Documents" when you click on the orb in the upper left. You can set it to display up to the last 50 documents you opened. This setting is found under "Word Options" in the "Display" section. Note, I am talking about Word 2007 but I think it is the same for later versions.

Basically it sounds like the only step I could speed up for Q2 is to create the shortcuts faster.
Create the shortcuts faster? Sorry, you lost me there.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    W10 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
Thank you. Is there any fast way to create a shortcut for say a word document in word itself when the document is open without having to find the file?
Word already does that for you by listing your "Recent Documents" when you click on the orb in the upper left. You can set it to display up to the last 50 documents you opened. This setting is found under "Word Options" in the "Display" section. Note, I am talking about Word 2007 but I think it is the same for later versions.

Basically it sounds like the only step I could speed up for Q2 is to create the shortcuts faster.
Create the shortcuts faster? Sorry, you lost me there.

So let's say you have two word docs open and two pdfs and a powerpoint and maple open.

Now you are going to make a folder on a desktop with several shortcuts- a shortcut to each document currently open so you can easily find all the files again later.

To do this, normally you would have find every file you have open. Is there a fast way to create a shortcut for every window open?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8
Is there a fast way to create a shortcut for every window open?
I know of no way to create a shortcut for an already opened Window, or program or file. You need to create the shortcuts first.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    W10 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
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