The 'Internet Explorer' icon on my computer is a shortcut, not the
pretty (or ominous, as some see it) solid 'e' without the arrow in the
corner of the icon.

My question is: In Win2K, what are the tips to remove and restore
desktop icons, specifically IE, but hopefully others?

I can find the answer on experts-exchange, I just can't see it:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Web/Browser_Issues/Q_21079914.html

Could you please help? Hopefully the next person searching will find
the free answer here, and only one person (me) has the privilege of
paying.

Thank you researcher!
-Brett

Hello applecore-ga

The Microsoft way to remove/restore the IE icon in Windows 2000 is this:

"In Windows 2000:
1) In Internet Explorer, click Internet Options on the Tools menu.
2) On the Advanced tab, click to clear the Show Internet Explorer on
the Desktop check box under Browsing, and then click OK."
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q162170

Therefore to restore the icon you simply need to recheck the box.

To gain more power over the default settings in Windows, Microsoft has
published a program called TWEAKUI.  Although this is an unsupported
tool it is one I always have in my toolbox to start troubleshooting. 
There are various flavours of this piece of software for each version
of Windows.  The Windows 2000 version can be downloaded from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/ntworkstation/downloads/powertoys/networking/nttweakui.asp

TweakUI allows you to alter a number of hidden settings including
shortcut arrows on the icons, the spacing between the icons and
whether the icons appear or not.  In the version I use (for Windows
XP) you can chose to remove IE, My Computer, My Network Places,
Recycle Bin or the My Documents icons from the desktop with the check
(or uncheck) of a box.  There are small differences between each
different version but I would highly recommend you download and
install it your your version of Windows.

Further information on TweakUI:
http://www.houseofhelp.com/articles/win2k_guide/win2k_config_guide_13.php
http://www.houseofhelp.com/articles/win2k_guide/win2k_config_guide_14.php
http://www.malektips.com/windows_98_-_tweakui_help_and_tips.html
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/tweakui
http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBF/TIP2800/rh2860.htm
http://is-it-true.org/nt/nt2000/atips/atips14.shtml

Another excellent and similar tool is X-SETUP:
http://www.x-setup.net/product/home.asp?lang=EN

Other links used in researching this answer, excluding Google of course, include:
http://www.ntcompatible.com/thread12787-1.html
http://www.techrescue.net/TWEAKUI.ASP

If you have any further queries on this subject please ask for
clarification and I will do my best to respond swiftly.

---

Clarification of Answer by palitoy-ga on 30 Sep 2004 09:43 PDT

Thanks for the 5-star rating and tip, they are both appreciated.

As for your question regarding my Google search terms I haven't
written them down but they were nothing out of the ordinary.  Having
previous knowledge of the area I knew roughly what I was looking for
so did searches like these:

://www.google.com/search?q=%22windows+2000%22+tweakui
://www.google.com/search?q=%22win2k%22+tweakui
://www.google.com/search?q=%22windows+2000%22+remove+%22desktop icons%22

lol. RTFM. or RTFWM. I should have known M$ would have the answer. I
am embarrassed it is so obvious. But thanks, anyway.

And thanks for the detailed bonus information! JOoC, did you use any
special search terms, or is this your area of expertise?
Google Answers Rocks! Especially its researchers!
Thanks,
-Brett