"I suspect that the icon cache holds much more than the desktop icons, since "icons" are all over the machine"

hmmm...I remember someone in a newsgroup suggesting that one make copies of all the icons one uses for the desktop in one folder, then point Windows there to quickly load them. Faster for Windows, and perhaps would lighten RAM load...?? (it is a resonably easy thing to do once you see how it works)

In my case this would take a lot of editing, but I already have done minor bits of this, and just need to keep good records of what I have done.....