Change in desktop icon appearance for no reason

Question

The text under each icon on my desktop used to be white fonts with no colored box around them. Now there's a blue box around the text and so they look like they are all highlighted (selected).

Not sure what happened. I was installing a souond clip in an Adobe Acrobat pdf I was working on.

I tried to reset - right click on the desktop and going into properties. But, can't get rid of these blue boxes. Now, it's hard to tell which items are being selected and which are not.

Mark

My system:
Latitude D610, Pentium M, 760 (2.00GHz)
1024 MB SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
ATI Mobility Radeon X300
Windows XP
MS Office 2003 SBE

Dr. Lawrence Ho · Answer

Mark, you can repair your desktop icons by trying restore to a date before the problem.  If that doesn't work, you can download tweakui for XP from Microsoft and use its repair function from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

markjohnson · Answer

My XP system restore is deactivated. (Security software does this, I believe, because sys restore is a potential attack point for viruses). I wil try the other idea you had.

Mark

Latitude D610, Pentium M, 760 (2.00GHz)
1024 MB SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
ATI Mobility Radeon X300
Windows XP
MS Office 2003 SBE

RoHe · Answer

Borders on desktop icons can be created when desktop items have been locked.

To unlock the desktop right click on an empty area of desktop. Select "Arrange icons by" and uncheck "Lock web items on desktop", if it has a check next to it.

If you don't have a check there, right click on My Computer and view its Properties. Click Advanced tab and then click Settings button under Performance. On visual effects tab scroll down to "Use drop shadows for icon labels on desktop" and put a check in that box, then click ok. This should remove the shadow border from desktop icons.

And it sounds like you need some malware scans too.

Ron

Message Edited by RoHe on 01-14-2008 12:58 PM

Rebel9 · Answer

Security software should NOT disable System Restore. Often, when removing a virus from a system, the recommended procedure is to disable System Restore, flush the virus and then re-enable System Restore. The reason for this is that restore points could also contain the virus or malware. But, as I said, security software should not disable System Restore.

tomron · Answer

In addition to running scans,try starting in safe mode,than boot in normal mode,this should rebuild the ShellIconCache.

markjohnson · Answer

Actually, I did several scans in Safe Mode -- found nothing. And, I even succeeded in reseting the shadow borders for the desktop icons while in Safe Mode. But, after booting in normal mode, the shadow borders were back. Hmm.

Mark

Latitude D610, Pentium M, 760 (2.00GHz)
1024 MB SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
ATI Mobility Radeon X300
Windows XP
MS Office 2003 SBE

Dr. Lawrence Ho · Answer

Have you tried Restore in Safe Mode as administrator?  Do give a look at Tweakui.

markjohnson · Answer

TweakUI didn't work. However, I did remove the shadow borders from icons on desktop in Safe Mode. But they come back in Normal mode.

Really don't think it's malware. I update software / scan all the time. Did thorough scans in Safe Mode - found nothing.

I was working with a MIDI object - a sound clip - from MS clip file online. I was trying to insert the MIDI clip into a Word doc and then convert the doc to PDF through Adobe Acrobat. But, learned Acrobat can't work w/ MIDI files, so tried to save this MIDI audio clip to my desktop (hoping I could convert to a WAV).

That, I believe, is when the blue shadow borders appeared around text on all desktop icons. The MIDI clip did not save to the desktop, but an image (jpeg) of the little piano keyboard icon did save to the desktop. I deleted that image.

Latest news: the sound clip in the Word doc no longer plays. When I click on the clip (inserted into the document) it wants me to locate the MIDI sequencer.

I really appreaciate your thoughts and help. I'll keep working on it.

Mark

Latitude D610, Pentium M, 760 (2.00GHz)
1024 MB SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
ATI Mobility Radeon X300
Windows XP
MS Office 2003 SBE

Windows General

Change in desktop icon appearance for no reason

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