Sal,

Some of the icons on your desktop can not be removed without great artistry. I believe those are: My Computer and Network Neighborhood.

If you are worried about clutter, most of the others represent shortcuts. Right-clicking on any shortcut, and selecting delete from the context menu merely removes that shortcut from the desktop, and then places it in your Recycle Bin.

After you have sent a shortcut to the Recycle Bin [and then maybe changed your mind], you can recover those shortcuts by selecting the Recycle Bin's restore. However, if you decide that you do not want the shortcut cluttering up your Recycle Bin, you can empty your Recycle Bin without loosing the actual program to which the shortcut represents. This is because a shortcut is a shortcut, nothing else--that is, it is an icon that saves you a few steps in opening a program. [If you want to open a program without a shortcut, you will then need to click START | Programs.]

Taking all of the above into mind, you can remove a great deal of clutter from your desktop by right-clicking and selecting delete.

All of the above [and a great deal more] is covered in your START |
HELP | INDEX under shortcut keys, for desktop shortcuts.

I like the Help; it is always a good, fast place to start.

Message Edited by daShadow on 11-29-2003 08:28 AM

Have a look at Poledit, it is on your Win98 CD in one of the folders - I don't remember which one of the top of my head.