My Windows XP desktop icon labels lost their transparency...

Question

Good evening,

Currently, my desktop is showing blue rectangular boxes behind the icon labels which looks horrible at this time. I want them to be transparent so I can see the background picture better.

I've been doing a lot of research on the web regarding my subject line and I've tried multiple solutions without any success. I am now turning to you all for some advice.

Here are a couple of main things that I was hoping would remedy my situation, but I found that my settings were already the same as what was being instructed to do to fix the issue:

1) I've made sure that the drop-down shadow option was enabled. It is. I checked this by doing the following:

· Right-click My Computer.

· Choose Properties.

· Click the Advanced tab in the resulting dialog.

· Click the Settings button in the Performance panel.

· Click the Visual Effects tab in the resulting dialog.

· Confirmed the box whose title begins with Use drop shadows for icon . . . . was already checked.

· Let Window's choose what's best for my computer was already selected by default.

2) My background is the Windows XP supplied "Scenic009" and I do not have my Web desktop items locked. This was confirmed by checking the following:

· Right-click on the desktop.

· Choose Properties.

· Click the Desktop tab in the resulting dialog.

· Click the Customized Desktop button.

· Click the Web tab in the resulting Desktop Items dialog box.

· Nothing was checked in the Web pages list.

· The Lock desktop items checkbox was not checked.

Now theoretically, based on the research that I've done, I should not be having this problem. Unfortunately, I still am and I'm hoping that someone who reads this may have an answer for me.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can send my way for I really appreciate it!

tgsmith · Answer

JL14,   Are you currently using a modified theme, Windows Classic or Windows XP theme in your Display Property Settings?  Have you tried choosing the Custom Settings under Visual Effects, checking all items, and applying the custom settings?   Tony

JL14 · Answer

Hello tgsmith,   I am currently using 'My Current Theme'.  I have tried switching to Windows XP, etc., but have had no luck with the icon backgrounds becoming transparent again.   I have also tried making changes to the custom settings under the Visual Effects, but it did not help at all.   Thanks for your assistance though, I appreciate it.  Any other thoughts off hand?   Take care.

tgsmith · Answer

JL14,   I ran into this problem some time back where none of the fixes worked.  I've been wracking my brain to remember how I finally got everything working correctly.    I think I downloaded the WindowFX program found here:  http://www.download.com/3000-2340-5700883.html and used it to fix the problem. It's in the special utilities download folder I have on my machine, so I used it on some client's machine back in 2005.   Tony

Windows General

My Windows XP desktop icon labels lost their transparency...

Was this post helpful?