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Gadgets or Icons
https://computerhaven.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=1328		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Allyson [ Sun May 22, 2016 2:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Gadgets or Icons
Is there any way to add gadgets to the ones that exist in Windows 7 Pro? Or is it possible to make a single icon that is larger than the other desktop icons? My new canon printer put a huge icon on the desktop so there must be a way to do it.
Author:  sboots [ Sun May 22, 2016 3:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Gadgets or Icons
Gadgets for Windows 7 and Vista are still available, but Microsoft has recommended that you stop using them due to security concerns. Most developers have not updated theirs in ages.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/gadgets

You can search for them, but do take care where you are downloading from. Here is a link from Tom's Guide with some:
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/pictures-st ... dgets.html

-steve
Author:  jaylach [ Sun May 22, 2016 10:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Gadgets or Icons
I suspect that your Canon icon is not really an icon but rather a gadget.

While creating a gadget for something like this is not hard I would not recommend bothering with it. From doing a pretty quick search I have found that it is impossible to have different sized icons unless you are good enough to edit and modify the code for Aero. Unless someone is hiding abilities I am probably the most experienced on this site as to dealing with code and I would not even consider the project.

However I CAN see a way to do this by cheating but it would take time and effort. You could create your own icons. There are many free icon editors available. What you would do is to set the desktop icon size to what you want for the larger icons. Now you would have to create new icons for the ones that you would want smaller. In the icon editor you would just not use the entire space allowed leaving the outer not used 'frame' transparent.

Personally I would do none of the above. But I DID want to show that there were options.

I have zero icons on my desktop, I launch everything from my taskbar; even my recycle bin is on my taskbar. I would assume that the icons that you would want larger would be those that you use most often. I would 'pin' these to the taskbar and remove from the desktop. For this to work quick launch must be enabled under the taskbar properties.

The result would be the lesser used icons sitting on the desktop waiting to be double clicked to launch. On the taskbar would be the more used programs that just need a single click to launch.
Author:  chasbox [ Mon May 23, 2016 1:29 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Gadgets or Icons
Jay
If you ever want Quick Launch on Win. 10. Check this out.

http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-enable-q ... indows-10/
Author:  jaylach [ Mon May 23, 2016 1:36 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Gadgets or Icons
My Win 10 taskbar is identical to my Win 7. Mayhaps I'm not actually using Quick Launch but rather just pinning stuff to the taskbar. Basically the same results between the two.
Author:  Allyson [ Mon May 23, 2016 11:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Gadgets or Icons
sboots wrote:
Gadgets for Windows 7 and Vista are still available, but Microsoft has recommended that you stop using them due to security concerns. Most developers have not updated theirs in ages.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/gadgets

You can search for them, but do take care where you are downloading from. Here is a link from Tom's Guide with some:
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/pictures-st ... dgets.html

-steve


Thanks Steve, I will look into it.
Author:  Allyson [ Tue May 24, 2016 5:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Gadgets or Icons
jaylach wrote:

Personally I would do none of the above. But I DID want to show that there were options.

I have zero icons on my desktop, I launch everything from my taskbar; even my recycle bin is on my taskbar. I would assume that the icons that you would want larger would be those that you use most often. I would 'pin' these to the taskbar and remove from the desktop. For this to work quick launch must be enabled under the taskbar properties.

The result would be the lesser used icons sitting on the desktop waiting to be double clicked to launch. On the taskbar would be the more used programs that just need a single click to launch.


Hi Jay, I did pretty much as you suggested by putting my most used icons on the task bar. I went to a black and white background and used a colored icon on the headset making it really easy to locate. Although that is the only icon on my desktop, clicking on it takes me to 3.6gb 's of data on my computer as well as on line.

http://www.picpaste.com/headset1-KGSJBcyg.jpg

You mentioned that you have the recycle bin on the task bar and although I did that, it always shows as full even though there is nothing in it and I was wondering if yours works the same on the task bar as it did on the desktop?
Author:  jaylach [ Tue May 24, 2016 6:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Gadgets or Icons
My taskbar recycle bin works exactly like the desktop version, proper icon for full/empty. Here is what I did...

1) Right clicking on the taskbar and went to Toolbars, selected Links.

2) Dragged the desktop recycle bin to the Links Toolbar.

3) Right clicked in the Links Toolbar and removed everything except for the Recycle bin.

4) Right clicked again on the Links Toolbar and un-selected the Title option.

All that remains is a small working Recycle bin icon and the Recycle bin text. Well, actually mine says 'Trash' instead of Recycle bin as I renamed. Left clicking on the icon takes you to the Recycle bin location and right clicking brings up the normal Recycle bin context menu.
Attachment:
taskbar-trash.jpg
taskbar-trash.jpg [ 5.38 KiB | Viewed 9484 times ]
Author:  Allyson [ Tue May 24, 2016 9:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Gadgets or Icons
jaylach wrote:
My taskbar recycle bin works exactly like the desktop version, proper icon for full/empty. Here is what I did...

1) Right clicking on the taskbar and went to Toolbars, selected Links.

2) Dragged the desktop recycle bin to the Links Toolbar.

3) Right clicked in the Links Toolbar and removed everything except for the Recycle bin.

4) Right clicked again on the Links Toolbar and un-selected the Title option.

All that remains is a small working Recycle bin icon and the Recycle bin text. Well, actually mine says 'Trash' instead of Recycle bin as I renamed. Left clicking on the icon takes you to the Recycle bin location and right clicking brings up the normal Recycle bin context menu.
Attachment:
taskbar-trash.jpg


No luck with doing the above. I got stuck on 4) where you say to un-select the title option and I have no idea what the title option is.
Author:  jaylach [ Tue May 24, 2016 10:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Gadgets or Icons
If you right click on the chevrons to the right of the recycle bin icon you should see two checked options, show test and show title. If you uncheck just the show title option you will have the recycle bin icon and the associated text. If you also uncheck show text option all you will have is the recycle bin icon which will still fully work. If the taskbar is locked these options will not appear.
Author:  Allyson [ Tue May 24, 2016 11:16 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Gadgets or Icons
jaylach wrote:
If you right click on the chevrons to the right of the recycle bin icon you should see two checked options, show test and show title. If you uncheck just the show title option you will have the recycle bin icon and the associated text. If you also uncheck show text option all you will have is the recycle bin icon which will still fully work. If the taskbar is locked these options will not appear.


Got it Jay.......thanks so much for your help!!!
Author:  jaylach [ Tue May 24, 2016 11:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Gadgets or Icons
You are quite welcome. :)

I believe that it was you that had an issue where all of a sudden there were like ~240 updates to do in Windows 7. If you want some possible insight as to why that MAY have happened look at the following thread.
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=1330
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