Why use the boring icons Microsoft provides? Display your artistic flair by making your own.

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Many of us change our desktop images, browser skins, and event sounds in an effort to make our PCs more personal. For those so inclined, here is another project: Create your own icons. Today Paul Boyer from Odyssey-3 and The FauxS-X Project walks you through the process.

Windows allows you to customize icons, and several companies publish programs to produce them. Two of our favorites are Microangelo and Icon Workshop. Both are shareware and provide free trials, but cost $40 each if you want to keep them. Another program we like is IrfanView 32. IrfanView is a freeware image-conversion utility capable of creating icons and other image formats.

Icons come in three different sizes: 16x16, 32x32, and 48x48. 32x32 is the default, the size you see on your desktop. To create icons for your system tray or taskbar, go with 16x16.

A great site to visit for icons is The Iconfactory. They have Photoshop filter called IconBuilder that can help you make icons. It has an alpha channel to add transparency (a Windows XP feature).

Download the "Call for Help" icons package by Paul Boyer here.

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