Desktop Icon Toy 4.6

Among the software available on the Internet, there are a few applications which are designed just to make a Windows desktop funnier. If you are tired of the the same dull and inanimate desktop, you can use one of these tools to give a bit of life. Desktop Icon Toy comes with some fun features for arranging your desktop icons in various patterns. Some of its functions will be useful even in some serious circumstances.

The setup package weighs in at less than one Mb, so any type of Internet connection can handle it. Installing it involves navigating a few simple steps, like setting a destination path and shortcuts and nothing else.

When running the application, a system tray icon will be made available. Right clicking it will display all the available options in separate submenus. The icons on your desktop can be arranged automatically in different patterns like stars, hearts, and other shapes. Doing this only requires navigating through a few submenus and clicking the desired option. Icons can also be arranged as a fully functional analog clock. Again, navigate through the system of menus (after right clicking the system tray icon), click the layout and it will take effect. Four icons will be placed in the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock positions and the rest of them will form the hour and the minute hands. When the time changes, the icons will change their positions as well.

The pop up menu also contains options for aligning icons. With a few clicks of the mouse, all icons on your desktop will be arranged in an orderly fashion on one of the screen's edges. Another neat way to align them on one of the edges can be activated from the application's main settings panel. When activated, you can just click and drag on your desktop and the icons will be sent immediately to one of the edges, according to the direction of the click and drag action. You can save the layout of your icons in order to load it later. This can come in useful if you took your time to manually arrange them and you don't want to do it all over again. Other options include applying hover effects to the icons, hiding their text, locking or animating them and more. The icons can also be made to hide automatically when you are not working directly on the desktop. They will stay hidden until you close the explorer window you are working on or when you simply click the desktop.

Pros:
The application lets you play around with your desktop icons in various ways. They can be used to form a working analog clock, arranged in certain patterns, aligned to one of the screen's edges with simple mouse gestures and more.

Cons:
The animations you can apply are too simple. For an application which is not free, additional effects would have been in order.

The standard Windows desktop can be too boring sometimes. With Desktop Icon Toy you can breathe some live into it by animating the icons, arranging them automatically and more.

Desktop Icon Toy has been reviewed by Frederick Barton on 23 Feb 2012. Based on the user interface, features and complexity, Findmysoft has rated Desktop Icon Toy 3 out of 5 stars, naming it Very Good