Unhappy with the way the shortcut icons on your desktop look?  Here is a quick way to change them to a different icon included in XP. Here I have a shortcut to a folder of batch files boring old shortcut.  Now right click the shortcut folder icon and choose Properties.  In the Shortcut Properties window select the Shortcut tab and the Change Icon button.

You can scroll through the included icons in XP and select the one you want to use.  I try to select one that I will remember what it is for.  It seems to make navigating through tons of folders easier.  Especially if there are a few I use a lot.  In this example I made it a star ... no reason other than to demonstrate.

   

In my next post I will show you how to customize the desktop icons to your liking.