Making xp desktop icons longer

From the desktop, pick an icon with the longest name, then Right-Click on it. Once the pop-up window appears, left-click on "Rename", and just use a shorter name- perhaps a one or two word title...

Another appraoch is to go to an empty area of the desktop and right-click. When the pop-up window appears, click on "Properties" and look for the "Advanced" box to click on. Inside that window, you will find quite a few display settings that you can tweak, from Title Bar colors to putting a thin black line around the windows. (I didn't like the standard Windows Blue-Gray color scheme, so I personalized it.

One of the Display settings that can be changed in that new pop-up window is the size of the icons.

Try a few different settings until you get the one you prefer. You can always change them back if you don't like the new settings. You can also change the color or text style of the font inside the Icon descriptions.

Personally, I use one or two-word descriptions for my Desktop icons.

You can also allow "dragging" the icons further apart vertically (or horizontally) by right-clicking an empty area of the desktop and making sure that the "align to Grid" is unchecked in the pop-up window.

Cheers!
Bob

Hi under display properties, appearance, advanced you can increase the icon horizontal spacing but only up to 150 so depending on font size you will only fit so much before it pushes the text to the next line.

You also have to untick (right click on desktop) align to grid if it is ticked.

I've also read there is a registry fix under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\desktop\WindowMetrics changing IconTitleWrap to 0.

HTH
Damian.