Icon Label Placement

[Lonewolf]

I am currently using TweakVI to place my icon labels to the side of the icons
instead of underneath them. I like the different look, but I don't like
having to load TweakVI every time I start windows (TweakVI has to run in
order for the changes to take place). Is there a registry edit that I can do
that will do the same thing that TweakVI is doing without having to load
TweakVI? If so, what edits would I have to make? My OS is Windows Vista Home
Premium.

 

[Keith Miller \(MVP\)]

The Desktop view settings are stored here:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags\1\Desktop]

They are similar to the saved view settings for individual folders which are
found here:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local
Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags]

To place labels to the side of the icons, you could force the Desktop to use
Tiles or List View. The relevant values are 'Mode', 'LogicalViewMode', and
'IconSize' (though IconSize can be adjusted via <ctrl>+<ScrollWheel>). The
standard combinations are:

'Mode' 'LogicalViewMode' 'IconSize'
2 3 10 Small Icons
3 3 10 List
4 1 10 Details
5 3 30/60/100 Medium/Large/X-Large Icons
6 2 30 Tiles

The tricky part of this is that the current settings are read on logon and
written on logoff, so you need to kill the Shell (explorer), edit the
registry, & then restart the Shell. So you want to:

1) Open RegEdit & Task Manager
2) Click the 'Start' orb
3) <ctrl>+<shift>+<right-click> on the Start Menu & select 'Exit Explorer'
4) Edit the registry values (<alt>+<tab> to switch between windows)
5) In Task Manager, 'File' -> 'New Task (Run...)' -> type: 'explorer'

You can also play with the value 'FFlags', a series of flags that govern
various aspects of the display. Values are defined here:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb762508.aspx