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Sep 18, 2008
Making The Desktop Icons Invisible
by GlueTooth|
Sometimes you have to hide your privacy better. This article shows how to do that by using invisible icons on your desktop. You should keep in mind that it’s not enough to simply make your files and folders hidden, because every file or folder that has been hidden, can be reveled by simply clicking on Tools > Folder Options. What is more efficient is to make icons that lead to your privacy files and folders invisible. And how to do that? We’ll show it on simple example of the desktop folder by making it invisible as well as the text below it. The process for making a folder invisible and making an icon invisible differ, but the following methods work both Windows Vista and XP. First you can start to make an invisible folder. Invisible Folder 1) Create New Folder on the Desktop 2) Right click the Folder and choose Properties 3) Click on the Customize Tab 4) Choose Change Icon at the bottom  5) Once you get the window with all the different icons, scroll until you see some white spaces instead of icons. Select 1 of the 4 blank spaces and click Ok.  6) Once you are done, click on Apply then Ok. After that, only the text below the invisible folder will be visible to you. Also, you can make non-folders icons invisible as well. Invisible Non-Folder Icons 1) Find the icon you want to make invisible. Right click, and choose Create Shortcut 2) Right click on the Shortcut and choose Properties 3) Make sure you are on the Shortcut tab. Choose Change Icon at the bottom of the window.  4) Again, once you get the window with all the different icons, scroll until you see some white spaces instead of icons. Select 1 of the 4 blank spaces and click Ok. 5) Once you are done, click on Apply then Ok. Sometimes, you might end up with a black square instead of an invisible icon. To fix this problem, first right click on the desktop and press Refresh. If this does not fix the problem, then repeat the step 4 and try choosing a different white space other than the one you picked when choosing an icon. Once you have done with making the icons invisible, you may find that they aren’t actually totally invisible. There is text below that shows their position. Making the Text Invisible To make the text invisible as well, you have to do following. First, make sure that your folder options are set, so the file extensions are not shown. To check this, open Windows Explorer window > Tools > Options > View tab > Hide extensions for known file types. It is very important that you check the box beside this feature. Modifying the entire file name and not giving an extension, can potentially alter or damage your files. After renaming, you can then re-enable the extensions. If you’re ready, here’s what you should do: 1) Right click the Icon or Folder and choose Rename 2) Press Alt+255 or Alt+0160, making sure the numbers are inputted with the Numpad. You can use a series of combinations or repeat the same key as well, just make sure you do not use the same file name twice as this can cause problems. This means that you are actually inputting characters when pushing those buttons, meaning you cannot have duplicates in the same directory. Make sure you do not use the same key combination twice. However, there have been reports that some people was unable to rename their folders and icons after making them invisible. It’s possible to rename them by going into command prompt (cmd.exe), typing this into it: First correct location: cd F:usersalbertdesktop Then you have to remember the combination you used. So if the file name was Alt+255, I would type: ren “Alt+255″ newfoldername Once you made your icons and text below them invisible, you might be in a problem how to find them if you forget their location on the desktop. It’s simple, just press Ctrl + A or select all items on the desktop and you should be able to see where your invisible folder is. Again, as a final note - Make sure you don’t erase your file extension or alter it while making the icons invisible. You may lose your file or folder irreversibly. |
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