One of my favorite programs in the Windows 2000 era was a utility called SetShellView. This little app tweaked the Windows desktop making your icons appear as “large icons” or “small icons” or as “list view” or “detailed view” – just like any other folder in Windows. Sadly, this program was not updated for, and does not work in, Windows XP.
I searched high and low for a replacement, and for the longest time I couldn’t find one. Eventually I found a post at some now-forgotten message board. It seems that someone else loved SetShellView too, and was also looking for a replacement. One of the replies to the original post was the two-word reply “Try this:”, with a direct link to a program called deskview.exe. I downloaded it and used it for the rest of my Windows XP days. And since it seems that my old site was the last place on the Internet that offered it for download, I decided to “port it” to the new site. So if you’re interested, read on!
As mentioned, deskview.exe changes your desktop icons from “large icons” to “small icons”. Unlike SetShellView, Deskview doesn’t have any options; you just double-click it to change the icons, then double-click it again to return your desktop to the default setting:
You can also put a shortcut to deskview.exe in your Startup folder. Deskview doesn’t remember your settings, so if you set it up and reboot your computer (or if Explorer crashes) you’ll need to double-click on deskview.exe and re-organize your desktop icons again.
Deskview works in Windows Vista, but requires some tweaking. By default, it will only shrink your existing icons by a certain percentage. For example, in the following picture the icons were originally set at “Medium icons” before deskview.exe was run:
To really shrink your Vista desktop icons, you need to hold down the CTRL key, then scroll the mouse wheel (this will shrink – or enlarge – the desktop icons), and then run DESKVIEW.EXE to shrink them even further.
IMPORTANT NOTE: I am not the author of deskview.exe, nor do I know how to contact the author of the software. I have no idea if this software is licensed, and if so, what terms are provided in said license. If you are the author of deskview and want me to remove it, or credit you with its authorship, please don’t hesitate to contact me!
Download Deskview
11kb, zipped
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That’s great idea, but I will wait/expect an enancement of this tool e.g. in combination with an additional utility like “Save Desktop”.
So I can change the view of the desktop and store or restore it with “save desktop”. Why?
The reason to wish non OS utilit-y/ies is that the user-s want avoid numerous click to have the wished results.
Maybe we can find the developper or one of you can reach the developper of “save desktop in order to enance own application/tweeck with “Deskview”
Best regards. Arny006
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Hello
Thanks from Germany !!!!! :-)
Gracias por tu esto pero solo tiene un problema que cuando lo apago y lo vuelo a ensender queda muy mal los iconos
Hi,
Make desktop icons have the “list view” or “deatailed view” is the only tweak I’d like to implement on my Vista-PC.
But rather than installing an application, I’d prefer to run a command or change some register key or value.
Do you know how to do it?
Run DeskView, uncheck auto-arrange and install Desktop Restore:
http://www.midiox.com/index.htm?http://www.midiox.com/desktoprestore.htm
Now save Desktop using Desktop Restore, kill the explorer process, launch DeskView and click Restore Desktop and Voila!!, your icons will be restored to their original positions.
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This bit of software is great on XP, Ive just discovered another app to use in conjunction with Deskview called Fences, and combining the two its almost exactly what I want. However Fences doesn’t display correctly as the icons are left to right instead of up and down at the moment. I have requested it for a future feature addition, so hopefully they will combine the two.
We need this for windows 7! :)
It does work for Windows 7… place it in your startup folder and restart.
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Works fine on my Windows 7 64-bit.
Does anyone know how to configure it so that more text can be seen? I have really long file names and instead of seeing “…” at the end, I’d like to see the entire file name. Thanks!
just started running win7, noticed deskview.exe doesnt minimize desktop icons completely to their smallest size… so i’ve ran “D-color Xp” program first
(another desktop tweaker with deskview option) …
in settings set “tile icons”
then applied deskview.exe
and achieved same icon sorting like in XP
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The “use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop” doesn’t work with this. Any clues?
Thank you my friend!
To change size of desktop icons in W7, select icon, hold Ctrl, mousewheel up or down.
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weee ,, ty for this :)) ,, greats
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