Windows Vista Unloading the dock

Maybe I am just totally not cool, but I find that giant "billboard" of icons at the top of my otherwise glorious sunset to be really obnoxious. I have tried deleting the icons, one by one, but it appears that one is required to keep at least three.

I know there must be a way around this. Does anyone know?

 

If you have Rocket Dock (like Desktop in Apple Macintosh) installed uninstall it.

(thanks Matt)

 

Thanks for writing, hawk 22. I just checked on all my programs, and I don't have Rocket Dock. I'm using a Dell, and I'm not too far along with learning Vista...

 

Hi noclue,

Yours would be called "Dell dock ", similar to Rocket Dock but made specifically for Dell OEM systems. The problem is I don't have an OEM Vista so I can't walk you through disableing or turning this thing off. Somewhere within those icons is the settings and or options for this toolbar. It may even be a right click option, I'm just not sure. Your going to have to investigate this yourself. In any case, from what I gather by link provided below, the icon with he question mark in it should have the how-tos in it, also.

Look in "Dell Dock" in the uninstall section of control panel. (ughhh, I've forgotten what they call this in vista).

In a pinch I see you can at least close it, see jpg close up on following link:
http://delldock.com/
and
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2008/06/dell_dock_puts_a_little_mac_os_x_into_vista_studio_laptops.html

--------------------------------
Found these instructions:
Remove it by going to Control Panel (in classic view) > Programs and Features.

Scroll down to Dell Dock, right click on it and select 'Uninstall'.

 

Hiya, goddez1! It's great to hear from you again. I sort of departed abruptly. I can't believe I drowned my other laptop. What a way to go.

Well, you actually gave me the exact instructions I needed to get rid of the thing. I didn't realize it was called Dell Dock (duh). Maybe it's Mac-cool, but I found it to be really ugly. Problem now is that the icons I have put onto my desktop myself are misbehaving badly; they won't be good little (well, *large*) icons and live at the bottom of my screen. They yank themselves over to the left-hand side of the page, so I guess I'll have to learn to live with that.

There must be a way to make those icons smaller, right? A secret place? I'm figuring out that Vista has lots of the same stuff as XP; they just decided to hide everything so you can't find what you're used to.

 

Two ways to size desktop icons:
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/61412-desktop-icon-size.html

1. Right click desktop.
2. Click on View. (See screenshot below)
3. Select the size you want. (Classic, Medium, or Large Icons)

-------------below method is special---------
1. Click blank spot on desktop, to bring focus to it.
2. Press and hold down the keyboard CTRL key (Control).
3. Roll your mouse scroll wheel up or down to adjust the icon size
NOTE: The trick is not moving the mouse while rolling the scroll wheel. (up=larger, down=smaller)

 

She shoots, she scores! <wild crowd applause> Yes!! Thank you -- again.

That was totally painless. I just didn't know where to look. The choices for icon size are large, medium, and classic. I was getting "medium." Wow, the a large icon would pretty much eat up the screen.

The Vista recycle bin looks like a huge jigger. Well, now a small jigger.

When I try to find out how to do something on the computer, I usually enter my dilemma into the Goggle search box. Sometimes I can find out what to do, but frequently the information I find is pretty dated. Gotta love BBS! I also bookmarked that Vista forum link you posted. That way, maybe I won't have to bug you guys so much.

 

Not a problem, and your most welcome. How are you liking Vista so far?

 

I am still pretty lost, but slowly plodding along. Vista is like it should be familiar, but it's not. Things are really streamlined, making for a nice presentation, but it's hard to find stuff. I think a computer savvy person would be doing a lot better than I am!

The Dell laptop screen is really pretty. It's very clear, sort of like an HD TV screen. My giant mug of water is waaay far away!

I got all full of myself and went cruising on that tutorial site. I've been wondering how to put my email icon on the start menu, so I started reading all about that. HA! I got so confused that I felt like someone was using my brain for a cement mixer. I just need time -- not readily available at this time of year.

It's great to be back in touch again!

 

glad to hear you got it all sorted out, that Girl is great isn't she, one off.
hawk22

 

Vista does take a bit to get used to, but your right by the time I got done tweaking mine it was pretty much xp with security and application perks. I even used a trick (which I will not recommend), that has allowed me to use a Luna theme. Hated black, and although I could live with the odd colors one could come up with customizing the display I missed my Luna.

What email icon? A shortcut IE url or an application shortcut such as OE? On most shortcuts, a rightclick option "pin to startmenu" will add them to your start menu.

I will check in tomorrow for a followup. I'm so sleepy at the moment I'm finding it hard to keep my eyes open. Keep dry and goodnight.

 

Yeah, I had to shut down last night, too. I'll put the pin-the-icon-on-the-start-menu in another thread on the long shot that maybe someone else would like to learn it.

BTW, what is OEM Vista? I have it and you don't??