Removing the Outlook 2003 Desktop Icon

[JohnSanDiego]

I like to keep a clean, uncluttered desktop. To do so I make heavy use of
both the Quick Launch toolbar and the Start Menu.

I recently installed Microsoft Outlook 2003 (version 11.0.8010.0) and added
the Outlook icon to my Start menu. When I then tried to delete the desktop
icon for Outlook, I got the following message: "Are you sure you want to
delete the MicrosoftOutlook icon from your desktop? The Outlook Desktop icon
provides special functionality and we recommend that you do not remove it."

I take this message to mean that something(s) will stop working in Outlook
if I remove the desktop icon. If so, what? What does an icon have to do with
the functioning of a program?

I suppose I should also mention that in addition to using Outlook for it's
regular functions, it is also used by Microsoft's ActiveSynch program to
syncronize my PDA with my Outlook programs.

 

[William Lefkovics [MVP]]

You can still remove the Outlook icon from your desktop. It isn't just a
shortcut to the application (notice it does not have the little arrow in the
corner), but also serves as the Mail item from control panel. You can still
access that functionality from Control Panel.