Icon spacing

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XP SP3

I am trying to get my desktop icons a little closer together.

I can make them larger or smaller (Desktop, Properties, Appearance, Advanced . . . then Icon), but changing the Icon spacing (Vertical or Horizontal) in the same list does nothing.

What am I missing ?

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Maybe right-click the Desktop, click View and see what the various choices do?

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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Did you refresh your Desktop after applying the change of distance. You may even need to restart XP (or Disconnect/Login).

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Thanks for the prompt replies.

Refresh changed the icon size but not the spacing – it needed a reboot to do that.

Cheers.

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For Win 7 there is ‘Taskbar Tweaker’ free add-on. You might find there is an older version that will do the same in XP.
It seems to just reduce the icon spacing but only in the taskbar. I suspect the desktop spacing has more to do with your monitor dpi than anything else, but a little research might turn up something similar to Taskbar Tweaker for the desktop.

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Right click on Desktop: Properties, Appearance Tab, Advanced Button, Select Dropdown box, Select Icon Spacing (Horizontal or Vertical). (XP SP3).

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From what I’ve experienced, you may have to change the spacing values by a large amount to see the difference. Instead of changing the spacing by just a few numbers, go ahead and change it by, like 15 or 20, and see if that makes a difference. Whatever you do, it can always be changed back again.

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IIRC, the spacing changes acted as rje49 describes, with no apparent effect with small increments, until some (unknown) threshold value was reached. Experimenting with many values from 1/10 to 9/10s of the icon height and width in pixels should find a pair of values that gives the result you seek. Adjust the vertical until you like it, then the horizontal, for example, because they are independent.

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