If you want to keep features of Active Desktop but prefer traditional-style
Windows to the browser style, click Classic Style. Custom, the default, gives
you a considerable number of options to control the appearance and function
of the desktop. Play with them. You can always change the settings back --
and you can't break anything.
Getting Rid of Annoying Desktop Icons
 For as long as Windows 95 has existed, every desktop has been graced
by the Microsoft Network icon. Even if you never use MSN -- even if you never
installed it -- you couldn't get rid of the MSN icon by any ordinary method, and even
exotic, secret approaches didn't always work. Microsoft has finally relented.
Once you install IE 4, you can get rid of that pesky MSN icon simply by right clicking on it and selecting Delete from the context menu, or by dragging the icon to the Recycle Bin (for some reason, the method of selecting the icon and hitting the delete key does not work consistently).
Unless you use Microsoft Exchange as a mail system, you probably
couldn't figure out what the Inbox icon was good for, but you couldn't get rid
of it either. In any event, Outlook Express has rendered it superfluous. It
can be deleted by the same method, although you'll get a dialog box saying
that Inbox can't be moved to the Recycle Bin and will be deleted permanently.
Just click yes.
Microsoft has taken care of one long-standing annoyance
on its own. Windows 95 has always had a globe desktop icon labeled The Internet.
But when you clicked on it, you just launched Internet Explorer. In IE 4,
this presumptuous icon has been replaced by an unassuming Internet Explorer
E.
Stopping IE 4.0 from Launching the Browser at Startup
Right click on the Internet Explorer icon on the decktop. Select the Advanced tab. In the browsing section, uncheck Show Internet Explorer on the Desktop. Restart the computer.
In addition to the browser not opening on startup, the IE icon will disappear from the desktop, though you can still launch the browser by clicking the IE icon in the taskbar. To get back to the IE properties dialog, since you can no longer right click the icon, select View|Internet Options from the browser menu.
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