Vista and Big, Pretty Icons

[Jeff Bellune]

Now that Vista has come of age with the release of SP1, it's time for XY to catch up.

Macs are popular partly because the UI is attractive. One of Vista's most popular features is Aero - also because it is attractive. Gamers and power users (including developers) will turn all of that kind of stuff off because it isn't necessary for their chosen environment and can rob performance on weaker systems. However, a lot of us do real work on a powerful PC and a pleasing-to-the-eye working environment is nice to have.

Therefore, I would like to see the icons in XY be a lot bigger than 32x32. Please? I have a 1920x1200 Dell 24" monitor, and I would like to see the drive and folder icons in thumbnail view in XY without squinting at the screen. 256x256 is probably ridiculous, but I think 72x72 and 96x96 would be viable options for the folders that I keep in thumbnail view.

I've read the argument that XY is optimized to be wicked fast with small icons. Phhhht. My 2.0 GHz P4 system is a door stop now. It's time for XY to accommodate users with large screens and high-power systems.

-Jeff

[admin]

I made a note for 7.90. Good idea!

[Jeff Bellune]

Incredibly responsive, as always!

Thanks, Don.

-Jeff

[ivan]

I made a note for 7.90. Good idea!

Let's see how far it will push my Quad-core with OC'd gfx card

[lukescammell]

Can't say it bothers me on a daily basis, but it is certainly a good idea, especially from a marketing view point Look forward to seeing some new stuff - and why not 256×256?

[j_c_hallgren]

It's time for XY to accommodate users with large screens and high-power systems.

Fine with me..as long as...it still can work with smaller laptop screens and lower power, as might be found on older systems like mine, ok? Options to select the icon size, even if via tweak, would be needed to accomodate this.

[ivan]

Fine with me..as long as...it still can work with smaller laptop screens and lower power, as might be found on older systems like mine, ok? Options to select the icon size, even if via tweak, would be needed to accomodate this.

If XY can evolve into being a scalable application so it adapts to current system spec and utilises any extra "juice" that may be available then that would be fantastic. However, I fear that the degree of portability may be reduced as a consequence of the latter. The issue to debate here is, if symbiosis of ultra-low needs and high-end systems cannot be achieved, will the plank of system requirements be raised as technology evolves?

[admin]

Therefore, I would like to see the icons in XY be a lot bigger than 32x32. Please? I have a 1920x1200 Dell 24" monitor, and I would like to see the drive and folder icons in thumbnail view in XY without squinting at the screen. 256x256 is probably ridiculous, but I think 72x72 and 96x96 would be viable options for the folders that I keep in thumbnail view.

It should work already: please check registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics\Shell Icon Size and set it to 48 or whatever you need. XY uses this setting to determine the size of the large icons. Needs XY restart after registry edit.

[Jeff Bellune]

Therefore, I would like to see the icons in XY be a lot bigger than 32x32. Please? I have a 1920x1200 Dell 24" monitor, and I would like to see the drive and folder icons in thumbnail view in XY without squinting at the screen. 256x256 is probably ridiculous, but I think 72x72 and 96x96 would be viable options for the folders that I keep in thumbnail view.

It should work already: please check registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics\Shell Icon Size and set it to 48 or whatever you need. XY uses this setting to determine the size of the large icons. Needs XY restart after registry edit.

Thanks for the tip, Don. It works great.

I was getting ready to whine about how this "feature" didn't make it into the 7.90 release.

-Jeff

[Jeff Bellune]

It should work already: please check registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics\Shell Icon Size and set it to 48 or whatever you need. XY uses this setting to determine the size of the large icons. Needs XY restart after registry edit.

Hi Don,

This fix works great for all application and OS icons that are "Vista-ready". However, for older app icons that are smaller, it causes them to look pixelated from being enlarged too much.

Windows Explorer in Vista handles this by never increasing the size of the icon beyond its maximum native size and then creating a frame of blank white space automatically around the smaller icon up to the requested icon size. It works well and looks great.

Is there a shell registry entry or command that can do the same thing? Or is there any way to make XY smart enough to check the icon's native size before displaying it?

Thanks,
-Jeff

[admin]

It should work already: please check registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics\Shell Icon Size and set it to 48 or whatever you need. XY uses this setting to determine the size of the large icons. Needs XY restart after registry edit.

Hi Don,

This fix works great for all application and OS icons that are "Vista-ready". However, for older app icons that are smaller, it causes them to look pixelated from being enlarged too much.

Windows Explorer in Vista handles this by never increasing the size of the icon beyond its maximum native size and then creating a frame of blank white space automatically around the smaller icon up to the requested icon size. It works well and looks great.

Is there a shell registry entry or command that can do the same thing? Or is there any way to make XY smart enough to check the icon's native size before displaying it?

I'm not aware of any way to handle this, sorry.

[Jeff Bellune]

One new problem in XY with increasing the Shell Icon Size is that the thumbnail for the icon in the Info tab of the Properties panel doesn't resize to match the new icon size. So all you get to see is the top left corner of the resized icons.

It's ugly.

-Jeff

[admin]

One new problem in XY with increasing the Shell Icon Size is that the thumbnail for the icon in the Info tab of the Properties panel doesn't resize to match the new icon size. So all you get to see is the top left corner of the resized icons.

What size did you choose?

[Jeff Bellune]

One new problem in XY with increasing the Shell Icon Size is that the thumbnail for the icon in the Info tab of the Properties panel doesn't resize to match the new icon size. So all you get to see is the top left corner of the resized icons.

What size did you choose?

72

[admin]

Okay, 72 is too much. I'll check what can be done...

PS: should be fixed in next version.