How to Hide and Restore System Icons from the Desktop | Dramel Notes

You might have a lot of icons on your desktop, but did you know that you can choose whether to have the Recycle Bin, Control Panel, and other system shortcuts showing? Here’s how to make them go away (if they’re too cluttered) or how to get them back (if accidentally removed).

For Windows 10: Right-click empty space on the desktop and choose Personalize. From here, click Themes on the left sidebar and choose Desktop Icon Settings to open the dialogue. You can choose to show or hide Computer (or “This PC”), User’s Files (your user folder), Network, Recycle Bin, and the Control Panel. Click OK to show your icons.

For Windows 7 and 8.1: Right-click on your desktop and choose Personalize, then on the left sidebar choose Change Desktop Icons. You’ll get the same dialogue box with the five choices to show or hide. Click OK to save your changes and see your icons again.

If you want to keep the Recycle Bin shortcut around but don’t like clutter on your desktop, try pinning it to your Start menu. This keeps it accessible without blocking your awesome desktop wallpapers.

Now that you can see it again, make your Recycle Bin even better.

What icons do you like on your desktop? Do you prefer the convenience of showing them, or do you like to keep things clean? Let us know!

Image Credit: Yongcharoen_kittiyaporn via Shutterstock.com

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How to Make the App Icons on the Apple Watch Home Screen All the Same Size | Dramel Notes

The Home screen on the Apple Watch is a large, fluid grid of app icons. As you move them around, icons on the outside rim get smaller than the icons in the middle. This can make it hard to tap the icon you want.

However, this is easily solved. There is a setting, called “Reduce Motion”, that disables the resizing of the app icons, making all the icons on the Home screen all the same size. We’ll show you how to change this setting, which can be changed on your watch or phone.

To change the setting on your watch, press the digital crown until you see the Home screen. Then, tap the “Settings” icon.

On the “Settings” screen, tap “General”.

Tap “Accessibility” on the “General” screen.

In the “Vision” section of the “Accessibility” screen, tap “Reduce Motion”.

Tap the slider button to turn the “Reduce Motion” setting on. The slider button turns green and white.

Press the digital crown to return to the Home screen. The icons are all the same size now, even as you move them around.

You can also change the “Reduce Motion” setting on your phone. To do so, tap the “Watch” icon on the Home screen.

Make sure the “My Watch” screen is active. If not, tap the “My Watch” icon at the bottom of the screen.

On the “My Watch” screen, tap “General”.

Scroll down and tap “Accessibility” on the “General” screen.

On the “Accessibility” screen, tap “Reduce Motion”.

Tap the slider button to turn on the “Reduce Motion” setting.

Enabling the “Reduce Motion” setting on the watch, also enables it on the phone, and vice versa. The icons on the watch’s Home screen will not dynamically change size as you move them now. Enabling the “Reduce Motion” setting will also slightly improve battery life because the watch will not be expending battery power to animate the Home screen icons.

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