Many of the icons available in previous versions of Windows boast an excellent design, but if we try to use them on a modern desktop, we'll discover that they don't fully adapt to HD resolutions. Fortunately, some artists decided to invest their time and talent to recreate these classic icons in high definition. That's the case of Matt Pettit, who shared a pack of Windows XP icons, completely redesigned and updated to 1024 x 1024 pixels.
There are many things to criticize in the "new interface" of Windows, but one of the most serious I consider is the "death of the icon". Remember the Control Panel in Windows 7? Each of the icons that appear there has color, detail, perspective, depth. Now, go to the Windows 10 settings section and look at the icons there. A seven-year-old can make better icons in Paint.
Windows 11 picked up the gauntlet to some extent, but if you're one of those who believe Windows needs to return to a richer icon style (with an extra retro touch), then you should download the pack created by Matt Pettit, better known as MarchMountain on Twitter. His Windows XP High Resolution Icon Pack was born in January 2019 taking advantage of some free time, and what began as a project limited to Control Panel icons ended up reaching more than 500 designs in that operating system.
Windows XP High Resolution Icon Pack
The pack is divided into 501 Windows XP icons, and another 29 that were part of Whistler, its beta edition. The artist indicates that his work is based on Windows XP Home, Professional, Media Center Edition 2005, Starter and Tablet PC Edition, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise, the aforementioned Whistler, and several free programs for XP that Microsoft distributed at that time. Left out of the group were the Internet Explorer 7 and 8 icons (they are more aligned with Vista's design), the Office 2003 icons (there are plans to create a pack with them), and the 9x icons that survived in XP.
All icons are saved in PNG format with transparent backgrounds, and a resolution of 1024 x 1024, which should be enough for use on higher-definition desktops. The only technical requirement to download this Windows XP icon pack in HD is a DeviantArt account, but personally I hope Matt decides to add a link on his personal blog, which is full of details about interface changes in Windows and macOS over the years.
Official site and download: Click here
