When I receive emails from readers with some great column ideas I copy them to my desktop and save them on the right side of the screen. Later when I restart my computer I know where they are and can get right to them. However, I sometimes have an issue and that is they may be where I left them!
Once you expertly arrange icons on your desktop and the system is restarted you most likely find that they have all moved to line up in a neat orderly list. The list is neat but not where you want them. I want emails and all of my other icons to stay where I put them not where Bill Gates folks want them.
Enter, Icon Restore (http://users.rcn.com/taylotr/icon_restore.html)! “Icon Restore” allows you to keep all of your desktop icons where YOU want them. Warning, “Icon Restore” is recommended for Windows 95/98/ME/XP/2000/NT4.0. Nevertheless, I have used it on my new Vista machine and have had no problems with functionality,but as with any program use it at your own risk.
Once this safe little program has been installed you are back in control of, at least, this one issue. “Icon Restore” adds two options to the menu that appears when you right click a folder or the Recycle Bin. They are “Save Desktop Icon Layout” and “Restore Desktop Icon Layout”.
You have probably already figured out how to use it but here it is - quick and easy.
First, right click on your desktop in an empty place, i.e., not on an icon. Touch “Arrange Icons By” and make sure that “Auto Arrange” isn’t checked. If it is checked, click on “Auto Arrange” to uncheck this feature.
Now arrange the desktop icons exactly where you want them. Now right click the recycle bin icon or any other folder on the desktop and choose, “Save Desktop Icon Layout”. You will hear a little “ding” sound and see a message indicating that the layout has been saved. That’s all.
The next time your icons area is messed up, right click on the recycle bin or any folder and choose, “Restore Desktop Icon Layout” and they will magically return to where you want them…slick!
This reminds me (since I just saw it when I right clicked) of another application that I wrote about a couple of years ago named, “Eraser”. From the emails that I have received from several of you recently I think that I will revisit that app next week.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 1:28 am and is filed under Columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
