How to shrink the bounding box of desktop icons?


  1. mmo
    Posts : 140
    Windows 10
       #1

    How to shrink the bounding box of desktop icons?


    I just reimaged my office computer from Win 7 to Win 10. Most things are fine but one thing annoys me greatly:

    The desktop icons are embedded in an insanely wide bounding box. I.e. if I select a desktop icon it gets surrounded by a light-bluish transparent box that is at least three times as wide as the icon.
    It is thus impossible to place an icon close to the screen border, because if its "bounding box" overlaps the border, Windows will automatically place the icon elsewhere (another one of those unwanted behaviors, but that's a different story).
    Due to this huge box I also have to place my desktop very widely interspaced (i.e. at least the equivalent of two icons' width apart) or else I get a hard time hitting the right one, because clicking on it then frequently triggers the overlapping left or right icon. :-(

    On my home system that bounding box is barely wider than the displayed icon, maybe 20% of the icons's width on each side and I am thus used to place my icons in groups and also much closer to each other.

    Any ideas how one can shrink or do away with that surrounding box?

    Just in case: of course I have already switched to small icons and disabled automatic placement and grid alignment. :-(
    I also fiddled with the registry settings at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics, specifically with IconSpacing as suggested in misc. google hits that I found but changing that value does not seem to have any influence whatsoever (I tried values between -20 and -2000, the original value being -1115).
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 42,985
    Win 10 Pro (22H2) (2nd PC is 22H2)
       #2

    You could disable it.. (see translucent selection...)
    How to shrink the bounding box of desktop icons?-1.jpg

    Ar you using the latest build (1803)? Is your monitor/screen particularly high res?

    Note- that screenshot is from 1709, so may differ from what you see if 1803.
      My Computers


  3. mmo
    Posts : 140
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #3

    [QUOTE=dalchina;1386514]You could disable it.. (see translucent selection...)

    I found an disabled that option but it didn't change a thing. I still get these translucent boxes. And they are still much too wide...

    > Are you using the latest build (1803)?
    Nope - systeminfo shows:
    OS Name: Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise
    OS Version: 10.0.16299 N/A Build 16299

    (the system is company managed).

    > Is your monitor/screen particularly high res?
    No. It's 1920x1200 pixels on a 17" screen.

    Any other suggestions or ideas?
      My Computer


 

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