How do I get rid of desktop icon background color in XP?

drums4life · #1 09-26-2004, 06:23 PM

Hi all,

My issue is hopefully a simple one to fix. I'm running XP Professional (SP2) on my home computer. All my desktop icons show the background color behind each icon's name. I want to get rid of that. I know it can be done, because my computer at work has the same OS and the desktop icons are all "clear". I did some checking in the desktop properties, but I'm unable to find how to make the change. How do I fix this? Any advise on this would be great help. Thanx.

Play_The_0dds · #2 09-26-2004, 07:09 PM

if you bring up your display properties window, select the appearance tab, then click the effects button, where it says use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts, set it to clear type and apply.
if this does not fix it go to the themes tab, select windows xp theme and apply, it will override any other settings and should get them clear. you may have to reset your wallpaper and a few other settings, but they are easy to do.

drums4life · #3 09-26-2004, 10:29 PM

Thanx for replying. I tried both suggestions, but nothing's changed. My desktop icons still have the color behind them.

fatjack · #4 10-12-2004, 01:37 PM

I had the same problem and the solution is really simple. If you have ever right clicked on an item and clikced 'set as desktop item...' then this may be the problem. You need to make sure that they are not selected. Do this by goin to control panel, display, destop tab, then selcting 'customize desktop'. Click on the webs tab and make sure none are selcted. Hope this works.

satya_461 · #5 10-15-2004, 02:24 PM

hi,

I too had this problem. I read somewhere in forms and got rid of that. the solution is
1. Right click on My computer
2. Click properties
3. Go to advanced tab.
4. Under Perfomance click Settings
Under Visual Effect
Use Adjust for Best Appearance and Apply.
Probably this works if not check or uncheck some shadow boxes and then apply...

Phippy · #6 01-11-2006, 09:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatjack

I had the same problem and the solution is really simple. If you have ever right clicked on an item and clikced 'set as desktop item...' then this may be the problem. You need to make sure that they are not selected. Do this by goin to control panel, display, destop tab, then selcting 'customize desktop'. Click on the webs tab and make sure none are selcted. Hope this works.

Pay attention to this. If the first suggestion doesn't fix it, this probably will.

gabateman · #7 01-18-2006, 09:50 AM

From the desktop, "right" click and select Arrange Icons By...

Towards the bottom of the menu, make sure that Lock Web Items on Desktop is unchecked!!!

Hope this works for you too...

SB-X · #8 01-31-2006, 02:03 PM

Hi, I just registered because I wanted to post that I had the same problem and one of the suggestions here helped. The problem is that backgrounds on icon labels can be ugly, especially on some desktop backgrounds. No offense, but most of the answers seem like complete BS to me, and have nothing to do with the original question. Maybe I'm wrong about that. Anyway...

Quote:

Originally Posted by satya_461

hi,

I too had this problem. I read somewhere in forms and got rid of that. the solution is
1. Right click on My computer
2. Click properties
3. Go to advanced tab.
4. Under Perfomance click Settings
Under Visual Effect
Use Adjust for Best Appearance and Apply.
Probably this works if not check or uncheck some shadow boxes and then apply...

This works for me, specifically the "Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop." Checking that fixed it. Thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldtimer

I wish you would post a snapshot of this.I'm sure this can be easily solved if we had a look at what your seeing.
Do you want it to look like mine ?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure he had the same question as me. BTW, I found this post by searching on Google.

Thanks again.

Cache · #9 02-02-2006, 07:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldtimer

I wish you would post a snapshot of this.I'm sure this can be easily solved if we had a look at what your seeing.
Do you want it to look like mine ?

@oldtimer: although it's possible, you can't really expect someone is going to post back about a 2 year old problem they no doubt solved 1.9 years ago. Stop digging up old junk please.

uberness · #10 09-19-2006, 08:03 PM

From the desktop, "right" click and select Arrange Icons By...

Towards the bottom of the menu, make sure that Lock Web Items on Desktop is unchecked!!!

Hope this works for you too...

IT WORKS!

Geeeeeek · #11 10-21-2006, 11:18 PM

Ok, i have this same problem, none of the above fixs have worked.

Theres a screen shot of a section of my screen, just showing the Recycle Bin as an example.

I'm Running Windows XP Home, SP 2.

I've Tried System Restore 3 times, and nothing.

Any Fixs would be great.

Cheers, Nathan.

BTW, it would be better to mail me at stupid[dot]moses[at]gmail[dot]com as i will most likely never read this board again.

Inktoast · #12 03-26-2007, 09:59 PM

I had all of the above listed and none of them worked for me. though I had been tinkering in regedit a little.

your icons will stay with a background no matter what if you have ForceActiveDesktopOn set to a value of 1 (true)

to find this REG_DWORD...

1) Run 'regedit' from run tool

1a) Backup your registry if you're not confident, a simple mistake could cost you your install so if you back it up, you can just import it again.

2) Navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer

3) Edit the value of ForceActiveDesktopOn to 0

4) Profit.

this is just how I fixed my problem, perhaps it'll help someone one day.

searchkeys: icon background desktop

Inktoast

Arkk · #13 04-01-2007, 03:16 AM

You know, I know that the color can be quite annoying when you have a nice looking background and then your icon's mess it up. So I had this problem a long time ago. and Yes all of the solutions they gave work, but sometimes its the simplest one that slips our mind, Find where you got your wallpaper, see if the image is a .jpg file or a .bmp if its a jpg, open it up in Photoshop or ms paint and do "Save As..."; Save it as a 24-bit .bmp file. and make the new .bmp your desktop wallpaper.

harryhill · #14 04-22-2007, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uberness

From the desktop, "right" click and select Arrange Icons By...

Towards the bottom of the menu, make sure that Lock Web Items on Desktop is unchecked!!!

Hope this works for you too...

IT WORKS!

Thanks...I have a Web Page that got there by itself. I unchecked it and it WORKED!

Now, to get rid of that Web Page. The Delete is greyed out.

juliajothika · #15 09-19-2007, 08:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by satya_461

hi,

I too had this problem. I read somewhere in forms and got rid of that. the solution is
1. Right click on My computer
2. Click properties
3. Go to advanced tab.
4. Under Perfomance click Settings
Under Visual Effect
Use Adjust for Best Appearance and Apply.
Probably this works if not check or uncheck some shadow boxes and then apply...

Thank satya.This works for me