Iconoid - Help / FAQ

Move your mouse over the screenshot to see what everything does.

[ FAQ | ReadMe ]

Please also read the
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
page for information about things like Active Desktop, Tips, and other useful tidbits.

Icon Text color

Left-click in this box to use the standard color dialog to select a color for icon text.

Right-click in this box to select a color directly from the image on the desktop. Once the complete desktop is displayed, you can:

Use the Left mouse button to select the color of an individual pixel.
Use the Right mouse button to use the average color of the area around the mouse pointer. This option lets you be less accurate in your selection, though it may result in a slightly different shade then you expect.

Transparency

When selected, Iconoid removes the color background from icon text on the desktop.

Solid Color

Left-click in this box to use the standard color dialog to select a color for the background for icon text.

Right-click in this box to select a color directly from the image on the desktop. Once the complete desktop is displayed, you can:

Use the Left mouse button to select the color of an individual pixel.
Use the Right mouse button to use the average color of the area around the mouse pointer. This option lets you be less accurate in your selection, though it may result in a slightly different shade then you expect.

Automatically Resample Background

Check this box to automatically resample the background whenever the desktop wallpaper changes. Iconoid checks every two seconds to see if the wallpaper name, size or date has changed. Resampling determines the average of all the colors that surround the icon text on the desktop. This is useful when the it is difficult to see the text of a few icons.

Automatic text color

Check this box to automatically determine the best color for the icon text based on the background color. The color chosen will be either white or black.

Enable Drop Shadows

Enables drop shadows in XP or higher. Drop shadows cause icon text color related functions of Iconoid to become unavailable.

Resample Background Now

Check this box to automatically resample the background. Resampling determines the average of all the colors that surround the icon text on the desktop. This is useful when the it is difficult to see the text of a few icons.

Web Page

Click on Web Page to visit the web site for Iconoid. There you will find the latest news about Iconoid as well as the latest version for download.

Hide button

Click "Hide" to hide the iconoid window. If a tray icon is selected in the "Tray" menu, then you can restore the window by clicking on that icon. If a hot key is selected in the "Options" menu, you can press Ctrl-Shift-A to show (and hide) the window.

Help button

The help button shows this help.

Status bar

The status bar gives general help for each tab.

The preview area

The preview area shows how your selection looks on the current desktop. As you move the whole Iconoid window around the screen, you can see your selections look in different parts of your desktop.

The preview pane sees through all other windows on the desktop.

Reset Tab

Press the 'Reset Tab' button to reset the settings on the current tab to their defaults.

To reset all defaults, go to the About page and press the 'Reset All' button.

FAQ link

Click on the FAQ link to view the list of

Frequently Asked Questions

Desktop Backtround Colors and Wallpaper

This is a hidden link... click the group title as a quick way to start the system Display settings dialog.

Don't change the desktop color

When this radio button is selected, Iconoid will not change the desktop background color.

Stretch inner dimension to fill screen

If this box is checked, then when stretching wallpaper to retain the aspect ratio, the smaller dimension of the picture will be stretched to fill the screen. That means that the whole screen will be covered by the picture, but some parts of the picture may not be visible.

If this box is not checked, then the larger dimension is used to calculate the displayed image size and some desktop background may show.

Set desktop colors based on wallpaper colors

When this radio button is selected, Iconoid will set the desktop background color to best match the colors of the bitmap being displayed as the background. The color is determined by averaging the colors of the whole image or of the edges of the image.

Use this when you are displaying images on the desktop that are smaller than the desktop itself.

Use complimentary color

Check this box to use the compliment of the calculated color for the desktop background. This sometimes produces a better contrast of background color to image color.

Ignore solid border

When this is checked, Iconoid looks at the border of the picture to see if it is basically a solid color and ignores the border when determining the background color.

Sample whole image

Check this box to sample the whole image to determint the background color. If this is not checked, then only the outer few pixels of the image are used for the color determination. This is useful when the picture has many areas of different colors.

Select from screen or color box

Left click the color area to select a new desktop background color from a standard color box.

Left click the color area to select a new desktop background color from the current desktop.

This automatically selects the checkbox to the left.

Select from screen or color box

When this radio button is selected, Iconoid sets the background color to be the color in the colored area to the right.

Click on the box to the right to select the desktop background color from either a color box or the current desktop background.

Set when program starts

Check this box to use the color area's color for the background when Iconoid starts. The colored area's color is remembered between sessions.

Retain aspect ratio of stretched wallpaper

Check this box to resize the background wallpaper to maintain the aspect ratio when Windows stretches the image to fit the entire screen. Use this to remove distortion caused by stretching the image. This may cause part of the solid background to show, so you may want to let Iconoid automatically select the background color based on the image.

Sample the Icon Dance (Question Mark)

Press the '?' button to watch "The Icon Dance". You need to be able to see the desktop.

Never Hide

When this radio button is selected, Iconoid will not hide the desktop icons.

By cursor position

When this radio button is selected, Iconoid will hide the desktop icons based on the cursor position and the settings on the right of the screen. Hold the mouse pointer over those fields for more information on cursor position sensitive hiding.

Always Hide

When this radio button is selected, Iconoid will hide the desktop icons but will not unhide them until you click the desktop or use a hot key to display them.

If other applications cause the icons to be displayed. Iconoid will not re-hide them. You can reselect this radio button to re-hide the icons.

Tip: If you always hide the desktop icons, but need to see them temporarily, you can use any of the following methods:

Click the desktop (enabled on the Colors tab)
Use a hot key you've defined on the Options tab
Use the selection in the system tray icon's menu (Tray menu)
Use the desktop's context menu if you have enabled Iconoid extensions in the Options tab.

You can disable any of these options, but Iconoid will not let you disable all of the options. That way you will always have at least one way to get the icons back.

You can adjust the amount of time the icons will remain displayed after clicking the desktop by adjusting the slider in the 'Delay times' box. You can disable restoring of the icons by when you click the desktop by using unchecking the box listed in the 'Delay Timers' section of the Colors tab.

Minimum number of seconds to show icons after clicking on desktop

Use this slider to adjust the amount of time icons remain visible.

When the 'Show icons by clicking on the desktop' radio button is selected, you can show hidden icons by clicking on the desktop. The icons will remain on the screen for the specified number of seconds or while you continue to move the mouse over the desktop. When you move the mouse over the desktop while icons are visible, the timer resets.

Show icons by clicking on the desktop

When this radio button is selected, you can show hidden icons by clicking on the desktop. The icons will remain on the screen for the specified number of seconds or while you continue to move the mouse over the desktop. When you move the mouse over the desktop while icons are visible, the timer resets.

Hide cursor after 5 sec

When this is checked and automatic hiding is in effect, the cursor will become invisible 5 seconds after the icons are removed from the desktop or, in Always Hide mode, when the cursor is over the desktop and has not moved for 5 seconds.

Use this option to get a better view of the desktop when you stop moving the mouse.

Hot Corner

If Hot Corner is Checked, then Iconoid will automatically minimize all windows when the mouse pointer goes to the selected corner of the screen.

This behaviour can be modified by the 'One second wait' and 'Use Windows Show Desktop' settings.

Hot Corner selection

Use the 4 radio buttons to select which corner of the screen is the 'hot corner'.

For example, select the upper left radio button to make the upper left corner of the screen the hot corner.

One second wait

If 'One second wait' is checked, then windows will be minimized only after the cursor has been in the selected corner of the screen for at least one second.

Use the one second wait to avoid accidentally minimizing windows when you are trying to perform other tasks.

Hiding option dropdown

Select Hide (Show Desktop) to hide all windows when the mouse pointer moves to the hot corner. If possible, Iconoid will use the Show Desktop function of Windows to hide all windows rather than using its internal mechanism.

Select Start Screen Saver to start your screen saver when the mouse pointer moves to the hot corner. In some cases you may need to wait a few seconds before the password protection becomes active

Select Lock Workstation to lock your desktop. This is only useful if your userid has a password.

If Iconoid can not find the 'Show Desktop.scf' file in the system directory, it creates a file called Iconoid.scf in your temporary directory. This file is removed if Iconoid is uninstalled.

Hide when off desktop

Check "Hide when off desktop" to make Iconoid hide the desktop icons when the mouse pointer is over a window other than the desktop and has not moved within a specified amount of time. Move the slider to select the delay time from 0 to 60 seconds.

For example, if the slider is set to 5 seconds and the pointer is over the desktop and has not moved in 5 seconds, Iconoid will hide the desktop icons.

The default is 5 seconds.

Hide when on desktop

Check "Hide when on desktop" to make Iconoid hide the desktop icons when the mouse pointer is over the desktop and has not moved within a specified amount of time. Move the slider to select the delay time from 0 to 60 seconds.

For example, if the slider is set to 10 seconds and the pointer is over the desktop and has not moved in 10 seconds, Iconoid will hide the desktop icons.

The default is 10 seconds.

Delay show on desktop

Check "Delay show on desktop" to cause Iconoid to delay the showing of hidden icons when the mouse pointer moves from a window to the desktop. Use the slider to adjust the delay from 0 to 10 seconds.

Use this function to avoid annoying flashing icons when you move the cursor between windows and it happens to pass over the desktop.

The default value is 0.3 seconds (1/3 second).

Boss Mouse

Check "Boss Mouse" to cause Iconoid to immediately hide windows if the cursor touches any edge of the screen.

This is called the 'Boss Mouse' option because you may need to use it just in case your boss comes into your office while you are looking at, shall we say, unauthorized applications.

When 'Boss Mouse' is checked, the corner selections and 1 second wait selection are disabled because all corners and all edges become active without any delay.

You might check this, then press the Ctrl-Shift-A hotkey to hide the Iconoid window so that when windows are hidden, Iconoid will not remain on the screen.

Hide Taskbar

Check "Hide Taskbar" to cause Iconoid to hide the Windows taskbar when automatically hiding icons. The taskbar will not be hidden if the cursor is over it even when the icons are hidden. Selecting this option will not affect your ability to get to the task bar by moving your mouse over it.

Start Iconoid when windows starts

When this is checked, Iconoid will automatically start when windows starts.

This is done through a Registry setting, so you will not find an entry for Iconoid in your Startup folder.

Hide when started

Check this box to force Iconoid to hide itself when it is first started. This is most useful when the 'Start Iconoid when windows starts' box is also checked.

If Iconoid is started without a tray icon, you will need to use the Ctrl-Shift-A key combination to restore the Iconoid window.

Select Hot Keys

Press this button to customize the hot keys that Iconoid can use.

Iconoid has 4 hot keys:

Show/Hide: Shows and hides the Iconoid Window (Default is Ctrl-Shift-A)
Show Icons: Shows the icons on the desktop for 5 seconds if you have "Always Hide" checked on the Colors tab. This is mainly for XP users since previous operating systems let you click the desktop and press F5. (Default is Ctrl-F5)
Wallpaper Layout: Cycles the wallpaper setting between Centered, Tiled and Stretched. Use this hot key when you are testing different files as wallpaper when the pictures are not the same size as the screen. (Default is None)
Cycle Positions: Cycles the positions of the desktop icons in the order: edge, left, right, bottom, top, restore. Use this to quickly move icons out of the way. Note that icon positions can not be saved when they are forced to the edges. (Default is None)

Display Tool Tips and the Status Bar

Check this box to show the status bar at the bottom of the screen and to show tool tips (those little windows with descriptions that you see when you hold the cursor over items like checkboxes and buttons). The status bar gives some pointers on how to use Iconoid, while tooltips describe each individual control.

On Exit requests:

These three radio buttons determine what happens when you try to close Iconoid using the X in the upper right, the system icon, or ALT-F4.

Prompt: Prompts you to see if you really want to exit Iconoid or just hide the window.
Exit: Forces Iconoid to exit when you try to close the window.
Hide: When you attempt to close the Iconoid window, Iconoid will hide itself instead.

Enable Window Fading

Check 'Enable Window Fading' to cause almost any window to become transparent one second after the cursor moves to the upper right corner (generally over the standared location of the X (exit) icon in a title bar).

Use this checkbox if you want to be able to see what is behind a window without having to minimize the window.

This function will work for most standard windows, menus and tool bars. Some windows, such as command prompts (DOS boxes) do not support transparency.

This option works on Windows 2000, XP and higher only.

Add to Desktop Context Menu

Check 'Add to Desktop Context Menu' to add an Iconoid choice to the desktop context menu. That is the menu that is shown when you right-click on the desktop.

Use separate positioning for each screen resolution

When this is checked, Iconoid will save the positions of icons for each screen resolution separately. It automatically saves the positions the first time it sees a resolution, but you must manually save the positions thereafter.

The text of the save button indicates (For this resolution) when this radio button is selected.

Use relative position for all resolutions

When this radio button is selected, Iconoid restore icon positions to the same location on the screen whenever the screen resolution changes. For example, if an icon is 2 centimeters from the top of the screen and 3 centimeters from the left when the screen is being displayed at 800x600 pixels, and you change to a resolution of 1024x768, Iconoid will automatically reposition that icon to be 2 cm from the top and 3 cm from the left.

This is a great option to use if you frequently change screen resolutions or if you run programs, such as some games, which change the screen resolution for you.

The text of the save button indicates (Relative) when this radio button is selected.

Save icon positions

Press this button to save the positions of icons. If 'Use separate positioning for each resolution' is checked, Iconoid will save the icon positions for the current screen resolution. Otherwise, it saves the relative positions of the icons for use in all resolutions.

Automatically restore icon positions...

When this box is checked, Iconoid will automatically restore the positions of icons to their last saved position.

The position of icons depends on the settings above (for each resolution or relative).

For new icons (those that do not have saved positions), Iconoid will attempt to move them to an unused place if they occupy the same space as a saved icon. Iconoid attempts to place new icons within the normal desktop grid, but may use closer spacing if there is not enough space on the desktop to hold all the icons in a well ordered grid.

This is a great option to use if you frequently change screen resolutions or if you run programs, such as some games, which change the screen resolution for you.

Restore icon positions now

This button restores icon positions to the locations they were in when you last saved them.

Positions are restored from the currently selected type of save (relative or absolute, as indicated at the top of the screen).

Special Positions: Top

Press the 'Top' button to line up icons along the upper edge of the screen when you want to temporarily move them out of the way of an image.