Windows Vista Icons
There are certain things which enhance the look of
the particular software in the graphical user environment.
One of them is the Icons. Icon is a graphical symbol,
which is in the pictorial form which represents a program
or a command or a data file or a concept. The size of
icon pictures will be usually small. Users are passinate
about free vista icons. You can download vista icons
on the internet.
Icons were popular from Windows 3.1
Microsoft introduced this form of representing something
in their Windows Environment, long ago, way back to
late 1980’s. From Windows 3.1 onwards this word
“Icons” started to become popular. Owing
to popularity, Microsoft kept this concept, which is
used still.
Enhanced Graphical User Interface
Microsoft introduces many new features in the coming
version of windows, Windows Vista. It has already been
released to business customers on November 30th 2006,
and home users in January 2007. The new feature includes
an enhanced Graphical User Interface. These enhancements
enable the users to witness significant changes in rendering
of text, allow them to witness smooth, eye-pleasing
window effects etc. This certainly changes the look
of icons too. High resolution icons are used in Windows
Vista, to give better look.
High resolution icons in Windows Vista
Icons in Windows Explorer in Windows Vista make use
of high resolution of 256x256. This will work better
if one has got large display devices. Presently the
computers usually make use of smaller display devices.
Windows Vista dynamically scales down the image to any
size which is suited to the user look. The feature of
256x256 has been kept for future high resolution display
devices. The size of images will be controlled by slider
control provided in Windows Explorer. It replaces the
discrete mode views that are available in Windows XP.
This option in Explorer enables one to assign different
view modes and icon sizes to each folder separately.
Custom Vista icons
The use of high resolution icons is not limited to
system icons. One can assign custom made icons with
a large image and can be applied to folders in Windows
Explorer without much trouble.
PNG compression to reduce icon file size
The 256x256 pixels icon concept is not new in Windows
Vista. It was existed in Windows XP and also in previous
systems. There was a problem in such icons. The file
size was very large compared to standard icon files
i.e. 400KB. The normal icon file size is of 25KB. This
caused a big difference between storing icon files.
Microsoft has resolved this problem by extending the
icon format. Vista icons in png format use compression
technique for storage. In vista, the images in icons
make use of a compression scheme called PNG compression.
This scheme substantially reduces file size, while storing.
This compression technique of course maintains quality
of image, intact.
A Vista icon is made of any of 12 types. They are,
- 16x16 pixels in 16 colors,
- 16x16 pixels in 256 colors,
- 16x16 pixels in true colors,
- 32x32 pixels in 16 colors,
- 32x32 pixels in 256 colors,
- 32x32 pixels in true colors,
- 48x48 pixels in 16 colors,
- 48x48 pixels in 256 colors,
- 48x48 pixels in true colors,
- 256x256 pixels in 16 colors,
- 256x256 pixels in 256 colors,
- 256x256 pixels in true colors.
Vista ensures backward compatibility
Presently, Vista applies PNG compression technique
only for large icon formats. This is because vista needs
to ensure backward compatibility with the previous version
of Windows. Windows XP will ignore the 256x256 high
resolution images and load the standard 48x48 pixel
images. A compressed image fails to load in Windows
XP, loads successfully in Windows Vista, without any
problems.
Vista Icon editor- change Vista icons
Want to change icons in windows vista? Or Want to create vista icons? Get the vista icon editor.
There are many icon editor tools available in the cyber
world i.e. internet. You can edit vista icons using
these icon editors. One can download these editors to
create new icons, modify existing icons. Some such tools
are also available for free of cost. Some are available
on trial basis, after which one need to purchase the
software. Icon editor developers have already started
programming for supporting high resolution icons in
Vista. Some icon editor tools convert the Vista icons
from executable files into XP icons (without PNG compression)
and vice versa.
Vista brings great set of features to its users. The
presence of support for large icons enable vista to
stay compatible with future devices. One can predict
that operating system gives much better working conditions
to its users by defining much better view for its icons.
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All icons look better this time around. The 256x256 resolution icons made Vista world to feel like you have got a computer from heaven.
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