Vista Toolbar Icons for Windows

Vista Toolbar Icons from icon specialist Aha-Soft promises to update your Windows Vista interface with a spiffy new look. It offers dozens of different icons executed in Vista's shiny, glassy, highlighted style. You can replace the default Vista icons with new ones that initiate the same functions, or add entirely new icons linked to new programs and features. They seem to have an icon for just about everything, and if it's not in Vista Toolbar Icons, it's probably in one of Aha-Soft's other icon packages. They do custom icons, too.

The icons that come with the free trial version of Vista Toolbar Icons are certainly well rendered, and they come in five sizes, from 16x16 (tiny) to 256x256 (extra large) and in icon, BMP, and GIF formats. Unfortunately, there are only three of them: Cut, Preview, and Burn Dustbin. They provide an image file displaying all their icons (struck through) so you can see what's available, and it's certainly a lot. But you have to buy the program to get them, and it costs $129, a pricey makeover. For the enterprise user, however, it could be an affordable way to achieve a custom look.

Vista Toolbar Icon downloads as a ZIP file but installs and uninstalls politely and cleanly. The 256-color, 32-bit icons work fine in 64-bit Vista. The icons are nicely rendered and useful, but with so many free icon programs out there, you may want to look around a bit before you plunk down serious cash on toolbar bling.