One of the programs that sometimes doesn't get a lot of
attention is IconX. However, IconX is a great program to enhance the icons
on your Windows desktop.
IconX, which is also included in a subscription to
Object Desktop, can add
shadows, labels, mouse-over effects, and much more. I'm going to take you
through a walkthrough and show some of the features of IconX, and how to get
started with it.
Here is the holiday desktop I'm putting together for this
month. The WindowBlinds skin is taken care of so now lets fix up those
icons. This screenshot shows the desktop with the default folder icons,
and shortcut to one of my browsers. Nothing spectacular going on here, so
lets fire up IconX either from Stardock Central or your Programs menu in XP.
First thing I want to do is change that default browser
icon to something more appropriate for the season. Right-click the icon
and select "IconX item properties". Check the "external images" button,
and then browse to select the icon you want to change it to, and click OK.
Repeat this process for the other icons you wish to change.
Here you can select from the default icon or use an external image
Now that we have changed all our icons, just right-click the
IconX icon in the system tray and select "configure IconX". IconX has some
themes included which you can select from the Themes tab in the
configurations menu. I want to customize them even more so lets select the
States tab. From here we can customize the icons, labels, and more.
You can even add transparency to your icons!
I made the icons a little bigger by increasing their size,
and adjusted the shadow to my liking. I selected the label setting so I
can change the appearance of the labels so they will match a little better.
I'd like the icon to increase in size when I move the mouse over it, so just
select the icon properties under "mouse over" and increase the size a little
more for that effect. There are many options here and you can adjust them
to how you want your icons to appear.
Now that I have finished with that lets move on to the Events tabs to add
some sound and special effects to our icons. Just select "click" from the
menu, and then select your sound and special effects from the drop-downs menus.
When you are finished, just hit the apply button.
Add sound and special effects.
Moving on to the Options tab we can adjust the
alignment of our icons, and even hide some desktop items such
as the recycle bin. I have configured IconX to my liking, and I can now
save the theme in the "themes" tab in case I want to use it again next year.
So here is our desktop icons with IconX applied.
Big difference from our standard default icons, right?
Click the links below for more information on IconX and the entire Object
Desktop suite of desktop enhancement.
