Appearance of Desktop Icon Names

[Guest]

I have two computers running Windows XP Home. On one machine, the names of
the desktop icons appear in white letters against the desktop background, but
in the other, the names of the icons appear in white letters inside a blue
rectangle. The icons are not selected. Only the name is in the blue
rectangle. The system with the plain text is an OEM system from Dell, and
the other one is an upgrade disk including SP2 that i purchased. Both
systems are up to date.

Where is the attribute that controls this? I don't like the blue rectangles.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Rick,

It happens because there are web items on the desktop. Turn off this
behavior in the display properties/desktop tab, click on the "customize
desktop" button to access the web items. Also, right click the desktop on
the affected system, choose "arrange icons by" and make sure "lock web
items..." is not checked. If it is, click on it to uncheck it.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Malke]

I have two computers running Windows XP Home. On one machine, the
names of the desktop icons appear in white letters against the desktop
background, but in the other, the names of the icons appear in white
letters inside a blue
rectangle. The icons are not selected. Only the name is in the blue
rectangle. The system with the plain text is an OEM system from Dell,
and
the other one is an upgrade disk including SP2 that i purchased. Both
systems are up to date.

Where is the attribute that controls this? I don't like the blue
rectangles.

Open the System applet in Control Panel, choose the Advanced tab, and
click Settings in the Performance section. Turn on the "Use drop
shadows for icon labels on the desktop option", and click Ok.

Four things are required for transparent icon backgrounds:

1) System Properties>Advanced>Performance Settings>VisualEffects - check
"use drop shadows for icon labels".

2) Right-click on Desktop ->Arrange Icons by>Lock Web items must be
cleared.

3) If you have any web content on your desktop, transparency won't work.
To check for web content: Display Properties>Desktop>Customize
Desktop>Web - make sure all checkboxes are clear.

4) Wallpaper must be an image file, not html.

Malke

 

[Guest]

Thanks Rick, but it must be something else that is causing it. The only
items on the desktop are My Documents and Recycle Bin. On both systems,
Display Properties >> Desktop Items >> Web contains the item "My Current Home
Page" in the list, but it is not on the desktop and "Lock desktop items" is
unchecked.

The new behaviour appeared right after a clean install of the Windows XP
Home upgrade disk on a Dell Inspiron 3500. I wonder if there is an attribute
in the registry that is normally set under the conditions you describe, but
is is set inappropriately on my system?

I know it is a small thing, but it's nagging me.

 

[Guest]

That was the solution, Malke. Thank you!

Both systems have "Let Windows choose what's best for my computer" selected
under Visual Effects. The slower machine did not have "Use drop shadows for
icon labels on the desktop" checked.

 

[Malke]

That was the solution, Malke. Thank you!

Both systems have "Let Windows choose what's best for my computer"
selected
under Visual Effects. The slower machine did not have "Use drop
shadows for icon labels on the desktop" checked.

Glad it worked for you, Rick. FWIW, even on fast machines I always turn
off all the eye candy - from the Display applet Effects "Use X effect"
and from the System applet except for drop shadows, show window when
dragging, smooth screen fonts, and use XP styles. The machine's
response will be even faster and none of that eye candy is ever missed.

Malke