8 Keywords: Desktop Settings, Icon, Accessibility, Operating System, Ease Of Use, Usability, Ease Of Access, Universal Access

"I have my own desktop settings which would be the icons, shortcuts and quick key buttons. I have to customise everything I use to my own preferences. That’s very important. That saves me time in the future and I store data in a very organised way. The icons help me to have a quick access to data, because I have a lot of data and they pile up quickly."

"When Dell, for example, set the resolution to very small letters, and for example, in Word, I used 150% as a standard, I wanted to customise it to have it bigger, but the number of icons is limited as well. It was a bit blurry. I was looking for a strategy and maybe then there was another toolbar for having quick access, so I decided to look for different icons.

The first thing to do, because I knew you could change the icons, I was trying to do it with Windows. For example, when Windows gives you some standard icons which don’t necessarily connect to the thing I am looking for - there is a tree (Windows tools icon) OK so I can always describe the tree – my post folder is a tree. You can plant lots of these trees and then you are in a wood again, in the forest, and you can’t find your way! (laughing) Then I found in Corel (Draw) that you can do it. When I first checked it - it was the format of an icon and ‘where could I export such a thing?’- and it was in Corel, so that was solved…

Windows offer instructions for changing default icons in XP but these notes can also be applied to Vista

"If you click Change Icon, and there are no icons available, use the Browse button to find Shell32.dll (C Drive, Windows folder, System32):

1. Right-click the shortcut you created, click Properties, and then click Change Icon.
2. Click Browse, type %systemroot%\system32\shell32.dll in the File name box, click Open, click the icon you want to use, click OK, and then click OK.

It is possible to make icons using Paint found under the Windows Accessories folder. Open the program, go to Image and make sure the attributes are 32 x 32 pixels, be creative and then save the graphic as a .bmp file. Re-name the extension to .ico and you will be able to link it to any folder, file or application via the change icon setting in Properties as above. You can download a set of PowerPoint slides (download 309KB) to explain the process or a QuickTime video (download 348KB) if this Flash movie goes too quickly.