How to remove desktop icons w/out deleting?

[Scot]

Setting up WindowsXP Home 2002 SP2 on a new system. How do I remove all of
the pre-bundled, and rather useless icons, that appear on the desktop
without literally deleting them from the system? Doing a Properties / Hide
only seems to gray them out, rather than truly hiding them.

Thanks,

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

When installing a new installation of Windows XP,
the only icon that appears on the Desktop is the Recycle
Bin. What other icons are your referring to?

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.mspx

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:

| Setting up WindowsXP Home 2002 SP2 on a new system. How do I remove all of
| the pre-bundled, and rather useless icons, that appear on the desktop
| without literally deleting them from the system? Doing a Properties / Hide
| only seems to gray them out, rather than truly hiding them.
|
| Thanks,

 

[Scot]

Other icons include those bundled with a Sony system -- Quicken, AOL,
Netscape, Norton Internet Security, SpySubtract, various VAIO icons, etc. I
just now found the answer by Right-Ckicking on the screen / Arrange Icons by
/ Show Desktop Icons (which I would UNcheck to cause all icons to
disappear). What I'd like to do is selectively make certain icons disappear
but retain others such as Recycle Bin and a VAIO icon. Is it possible to
keep some visible while making others disappear without literally deleting
them from the system?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Right-click on each Desktop icon you wish to delete
and select "delete".

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.mspx

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| Other icons include those bundled with a Sony system -- Quicken, AOL,
| Netscape, Norton Internet Security, SpySubtract, various VAIO icons, etc. I
| just now found the answer by Right-Ckicking on the screen / Arrange Icons by
| / Show Desktop Icons (which I would UNcheck to cause all icons to
| disappear). What I'd like to do is selectively make certain icons disappear
| but retain others such as Recycle Bin and a VAIO icon. Is it possible to
| keep some visible while making others disappear without literally deleting
| them from the system?
|

 

[Guest]

Create a folder, drag all the icons you want to hide into it, move that
folder to My Documents. Or run the desktop cleanup wizard, which does the
same except for moving the resulting folder off the desktop (which you could
do after running the wizard.)

 

[Ken Blake]

In

Setting up WindowsXP Home 2002 SP2 on a new system. How do I
remove
all of the pre-bundled, and rather useless icons, that appear
on the
desktop without literally deleting them from the system? Doing
a
Properties / Hide only seems to gray them out, rather than
truly
hiding them.

Desktop icons are normally just shortcuts (you can tell they are
shortcuts by the small arrow in their lower left corner). A
shortcut is just a pointer to a program not the program itself.
Just click on them and press delete.