Create invisible titles for desktop icons

Create invisible titles for desktop icons

In this first step, you will need to make sure that Windows XP is configured to use drop-shadow icon titles. Here's how:

1. Right-click My Computer and choose Properties.
2. Click the Advanced tab in the resulting window.
3. Click the Settings button inside the Performance pane
4. Click the Visual Effects tab.
5. Scroll down until you see the entry "Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop". If it's not checked, go ahead and check it now.
6. Click OK.

Now Windows will not include a rectangular background around the icon text.

In this next step, we will create our invisible title. Since Windows will not accept a space as a file name, we will need to use a character that is invisible. The ANSI character "0160" is a non-breaking space and is visually indistinguishable from a space. We will need to insert this ANSI character into the icon title box, here's how:

1. Right click an icon and select Rename (or single click the icon and press F2)
2. Hold down the Alt key and type 0160 on your numeric keypad, then release the Alt key.
3. Press Enter.

Note: You will now see a highlighted rectangle that represents the invisible title but a single click on a blank area of your desktop will make this disappear.

To make a second icon have an invisible title, just insert the special ANSI character twice into the icon title box. (eg: ALT + 01600160) This is necessary because Windows will not allow duplicate file names.