Roger Chang teaches you to take control of the little things that bother you about your icons.

Iconoid is a fun program with some pretty useful features. At its core, the program is designed to hide your desktop icons so you can easily appreciate your desktop's background. As Roger demonstrates, it can also help you change the color of the text on your icons and get rid of the obnoxious icon text box.

Iconoid has a clean, intuitive interface. Just choose the tab of the feature you want to change (Colors, Hiding, Positions, or Tray) and change it. While the features of Iconoid are rather random, some of them are useful. Here are a few of our favorite features.

Tweak icon color

Change icon background or text color on the Colors tab. You can even make the background of your icons transparent.

Hide open windows

Go to the Hiding tab to get into Boss Mode. It's a panic button of sorts. If you're looking at something you shouldn't be and need to get it off your screen quickly, scroll your cursor to the side of the open window. Iconoid will minimize every open window, leaving you with a blank desktop.

Keep icons organized

You probably spent a good deal of time putting your icons exactly where you want them on your desktop. But then your desktop looks funny when you change your monitor's resolution. Go to the Positions tab to set and restore icons at different resolutions. I haven't needed to use it, but some of you might.

Fun stuff

Now for the more goofy functions, "scramble icons" and "do the icon dance." Both can be found on the Tray tab.
  • Scramble icons takes your icons and spreads them out around your desktop. Scramble them a couple of times and then see how fast you can get them back in order. Then try and beat your score. It's an icon game!
  • "Do the icon dance." What can I say about this other than that it lives up to its name. Set the icons a-dancin' and then try to start a program. I think you'll find that the icons don't plan on being very cooperative.


The product is officially sillyware (a very appropriate name). If you enjoy it, send the author something silly. Go ahead, his email is provided with the file. I sent him a CNN.com article about a squirrel attacking a British town. Now that's silly! This free file has a bizarre assortment of features, some more useful than others, but I think you'll enjoy it.

Download Iconoid now