112 - Icon Spacing on Windows7 Starter

A Newbie (Noob) Adjusts Icon Spacing on the Desktop of a Windows 7 Starter Netbook
======== written by JCPMA© [Oct.14.2011]

My netbook's default resolution is 1024 x 600 pixels. The default icon spacing values are 47 pixels horizontal and 47 pixels vertical. This translates into being able to fit 12 icons across the screen and 6 icons along the height of the screen. This means this desktop can accomodate 72 icons visually. If you have more than 72 items, they are still there, but you will not be able to see them on the desktop.
Holy Cow! Who has 72 or more items on a desktop?

My preference for desktop items is along the philosophy of "Fewer is Better." Perhaps the ideal desktop has six or less icons on it. This being said, there may be times where you need to do some intense work or heavy organizing, and being able to have more desktop items will be helpful.
When you reduce the Icon Spacing values, what you are doing is decreasing the space between icon items. That is, decreasing the pixel number of the "spacing" (padding) will "scrunch/squish" the icons more closely together. The Horizontal spacing will adjust the number of icons for the width of the screen, and the Vertical spacing, the number of icons for the height of the screen. In my extreme example, without altering the netbook's resolution, I can fit upto 120 icons on the desktop! (Values for this are: "IconSpacing Horiz."=36(pixels), and "IconSpacing Vert."=28; [ie., This holds 15 icons across & 8 icons down].) Look at the illustration for examples.

Photobucket netbookIconDensity-b.png http://s556.photobucket.com/albums/ss4/jcpma/blogger-kx/?action=view&current=netbookIconDensity-b.png

Accessing the Adjustment
This adjustment is located in the "Advanced Window Color and Appearance" settings. Access this by typing into the StartMenu search field "Change the color scheme" > Advanced button > Item dropdown menu > adjust the size to your taste, and then > click OK, followed by clicking on the Apply button.

Here are the values. [You would enter the 1st number before the slash]:
Icon Spacing Horizontal: 47/12 icons; 46/13 icons; 40/14 icons; 36/15 icons
Icon Spacing Vertical: 47/6 icons; 41/6½ icons; 36/7½ icons; 28/ 8 icons

This method allows upto 120 desktop items, 48 more than the default 72. Although we may prefer a sparser icon spacing on our desktop, it is nice to know we can have the choice of easily changing this when the need arises.
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In a future post, I will discuss the Windows 7 Starter netbook desktop theme "Visual Styles".