Does having many icons on the desktop or task bar use up very much of the memory or will it slow down the computer?My friend seems to think so but it doesn't appear to . Thanks

No, and no. "So won’t you give this man his wings What a shame To have to beg you to see We’re not all the same What a shame" - Shinedown

Icons on the desktop or taskbar do not slow the system, however, icons in the systray (next to the clock) *may* slow things down. It's not the icons themselves but the programs that they represent. Each icon in the system tray is connected to a program that loads at startup, so if you have numerous icons, you *may* be taking a performance hit. The leaner you run, the better. The only icons that really need to be there are the volume control, antivirus, firewall (if you're running one), network connection. Things like AIM, Yahoo messenger, printers, cameras, scanners, Quicktime, Realplayer, iTunes, Adobe, etc should NOT be there. They can be started on an as-needed basis. There's no reason for them to load immediately at startup. "If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions" - Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) in Pulp Fiction

thanks , I have minimal there.

Delete ShellIconCache. Windows will rebuild it.