my desktop icons are normal size, but the picture representing the shortcut i.e. MSNBC , is very small in the center of the icon

Anonymous
2009-12-07T12:39:59+00:00

i don't need to resize the icons, just the picture in them....thanks!!!!

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility

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Anonymous
2010-01-10T13:59:25+00:00

not helpful

You may try something like that: you need to download these icons on your hard drive and then you can right click on the website shortcut > Properties > Change icon... > point out where you saved downloaded icon.

You are wondering how to download these icons? There is one rule.. it should usually work. I will show you using some examples:

After changing icon for your shortcut it will display big size.

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Anonymous
2010-01-22T12:58:28+00:00

Hello all,

As was previously stated in this thread, the icons in reference are pulled from the favicon.ico of each website that you are creating the shortcut for. This is not part of Windows.

If you visit http://www.cnn.com/favicon.ico for example, you will noticed that cnn is using a larger icon. If you visit http://www.yahoo.com/favicon.ico, you will notice it is smaller. This is the reason that you are seeing a difference in the size of the image on your shortcut. If you follow the suggestions in this thread by Grzegorz, you will see that the method works perfectly. However, since some of the icons are smaller, they will appear blurry because they are stretched to fit.

Hope this helps

Chris.H

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

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@CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2010-01-09T02:04:22+00:00

You can have the icon from the website, but it won't get larger: it's stuck at 16 by 16 pixels.  That's the way the icons on webpages are programmed.  It's not Microsoft's fault: it's just the way the world is.  If you forced MSN's website's icon to be large enough to match the size of the 'large' view desktop icons, this is what it'd look like:

Obviously they don't want people to complain about the ugly stretched-out icon, and since Microsoft can't replace the icon for every webpage in the world, they just leave it at the default size so it looks nice.

Since stretching them large would cause them to become extremely blurry, Windows leaves these low-res icons at their normal size, centered insize a box.

>> If you only want it to be as big as XP's was, you still can do that:  Just right-click the desktop, choose View, and then Classic Icons.... Classic is the size XP used.  The stretched example above is what it would be if you choose Medium or Large inside Windows Vista or 7, which is larger than anything XP could ever display.

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-09-08T03:58:15+00:00

    Gentlemen,

    "What we have here is a failure to communicate"

    1.  "Windows 7 didn't "break" anything"

    Hogwash.  If you don't believe me, go to WinXP Pro, open any folder you want (except the desktop folder) change the folder view options to "show hidden files and folders" and "Show Protected System Files", select "Apply to Folders" and let the fun begin.

    If you go to any folder with hidden/system folders/files, you will see them, including the infamous "Desktop.ini" files.  However, if you go to the Desktop, hidden files and folders are NOT shown, especially the desktop.ini files.

    Do the same thing in either Vista or 7 and - even if you do NOT select "apply to folders", the changes are automagically applied to every folder - INCLUDING the desktop!

    2.  "If you clear your temporary internet files, the icons are removed with the other temp data.  It's been said many times here, although this page is getting a bit out of hand"

    I do that almost continuously - and it does not help.

    3.  (Paraphrase) "Things are the same now as they were in XP"

    Unfortunately, I do not seem to be able to attach files, or embed pictures.  I have four JPG's that (as soon as MediaFire's site comes back on-line), I will upload and post the link so that you folks can download these JPG's and examine the evidence for yourselves.

    I have:

    • Set everything to the same size ("small" on Win 7), and the screens to the same resolution (1152 x 864) and have the same icons on both of them (mostly - I am migrating my wife to the Win7 box and it's still being built up.)
    • Created two screen-shots of the entirety of both desktops so they can be compared "apples to apples".
    • I have selected four identical icons from each desktop and have grouped them together so that they can be compared.  They are:

    https://www.accessline.com/login.asp

    http://www.superpages.com

    http://cbworks.coldwellbanker.com

    http://www.weather.com

    Do the following:

    1. Using WinXP Pro, open Internet Explorer 8, navigate to each page in turn and perform a File --> Send --> Send to Desktop.
    2. Note the appearance of the icons:

    (a)  All icons fill the icon boundaries, though some may be a bit fuzzy as a result.

    (b)  Two icons - the "Superpages" icon and the "Accessline" icon have transparent backgrounds - that is they are not bounded by a box 3. Using Win7 Pro, or Win7 Home Premium, (they both exhibit this issue), perform the same steps as noted above using IE-8. 4. Note the appearance of the icons:

    (a)  All icons are now small pictures in a larger white box that is the original size of the icon boundaries in XP.

    (b)  Neither the Superpages nor the Accessline icons have a transparent background.

    I would like multiple viewers/posters here to try this experiment and report results.

    Notes:

    • Both systems were set to the same video resolution.  The icon sizes and spacings are nearly identical - and are set to the system defaults for these particular resolutions.
    • Both systems are up-to-date with the latest-and-greatest service-packs, updates, etc, etc. etc. as per Windows / Microsoft Update as of this instant date.
    • The WinXP system is a 32 bit system.
    • The Win7 system is a 64 bit system.

    (I have noticed the same issue on 32 bit installations of Win7 on native 32 bit systems.)

    • I cannot testify reliably about this effect on Vista - 32 or 64 bit - as after I used it for about a week, (it being a total fuster-cluck), I took it out behind the shed with a .22 pistol and put it out of it's misery.

    PLEASE do not just blow me off as an uncircumsized noob that can't find the "any" key. 

    Repeating the same line - "It ain't broke!" - isn't solving the problem.  Sure, I could buy software that "fixes" the problem, or hunt down "improved" icons.  I could also down-rev to XP, or dump the whole shebang and load up Ubuntu as well.  Unfortunately, the stuff my wife does would be difficult to migrate to Ubuntu - not impossible, it could be done - I just have better things to do with my time than try to fix Microsoft's mistakes.

    Please try the steps I outlined above and - if possible - post screen-shots of the results, or upload them to someplace where they can be retrieved.  I will do the same and post the link here when my upload site comes back on-line.

    What say ye?

    Jim

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  2. @CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2010-12-20T23:43:41+00:00

    You don't click the Desktop folder or icon, you right-click your Desktop wallpaper, then point to "View" and choose Small icons.  The reason the icons show up find in this mode is because it's 32x32 pixels size, which is the largest that XP was capable of displaying on the Desktop.  Although if you were to open a folder with web shortcuts and switch to larger view in XP, you'd see the same phenomenon -- which is why Windows 7 didn't "break" anything, it just gave you the ability to use larger icons on the desktop.

    If this solves your issue, click the 'Propose as Answer' link below, and vote as helpful by clicking the green triangle to the lelft. Thanks!

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