Icon

GRAPHIC			TEXT
Size	Color1	Color2	Font	Size	Color	Bold	Italic
X			X	X		X	X

Changing the Icon properties has a wide-ranging effect on the Windows environment.

The graphic size of the icon indicates its width and its height (as all icons sit inside a square box) and changing this affects icons on the desktop, windows explorer, the Control Panel, the Start Menu and most Save As / Open dialogs.

The text appearance, which includes font and size but not colour, affects the text that appears underneath and next to icons in the places mentioned above. It also affects text in toolbars, such as in Microsoft Word's font size list, and the text in Windows XP's Task Panels that appear in the file explorer.

You might be able to see from the screenshot that changing Icon font size causes longer text to contract. The text expands when it is clicked upon but never the less can make lists of files difficult to access.

Note that altering the icon size sometimes requires a restart or logoff/logon to for the change to come into effect.

Icon Spacing (Horizontal or Vertical)

GRAPHIC			TEXT
Size	Color1	Color2	Font	Size	Color	Bold	Italic
X

The distance between icons, both horizontal and vertical, is changed automatically in Windows XP as icons are enlarged or made smaller. However in Windows 98 you need to remember to increase the gap between icons or they may overlap.

The ability to change the icon spacing without increasing the size of the icons allows you to spread out the icons (and therefore the labelling text) in some useful areas.

The change affects icons on the desktop and in file explorer windows. It also includes most Save As and Open dialogs. It does not, unfortunately, affect the gaps between icons on the Start Menu or on Word's toolbars.

Inactive Title Bar

See 'Active Title Bar'

Inactive Window Border

See 'Active Window Border'