Browsing through the How-to's I read about changing text (i.e. no text) on icons etc., but what I'm looking for is how I can change the space kept between the icons.
I mean, it looks like this:

And I want this (edited with PSP):

I changed it easily on my Win98, but on Vista I haven't found it. Did I overlook something?

Cheers,
Sarah

Option1
Right click on the desktop. Select "View",
uncheck "auto arrange" and "align to grid"

Option2
Leave those 2 settings checked
(If you prefer to arrange them yourself, uncheck "auto arrange")
In "Advanced Appearance" set the 2 "Icon Spacing" to what you want

Right click on desktop
select Personalize > Windows color and appearance > Open classic appearance...... > Advanced
Expand where it says Desktop, and you will see the 2 Icon Spacing settings

Well at least something works for you :)

And I just remembered the quick way to get to Appearance Settings
press the Win+R keys
type in "control color" (without the quotes)
press <enter>
and there you are.

Of course it does. I am very rarely/often wrong :)

yep