transparent windows xp icons HELP tried (almost) everything

G

gn

I can't get the desktop icon text to show against the desktop only,
without the colored box around it. I have surfed and read and surfed
and read. I have:


* checked the use drop shadows box (system properties performance
settings)
* unchecked all active desktop web pages in desktop items inside
display properties (deleted all but the default, and unchecked that
one).
* unchecked lock desktop items on the same dialoge box as I describe
above
* unchecked lock web items on desktop under 'arrange icons by' (right
click empty desktop)
* performed spyware and virus checks (ad_aware, spybot s&d, norton)
* cleared any fishy entries with hijackthis
* downloaded third party software: Iconoid insists that this computer
is currently using activedesktop, so I:
* downloaded and ran mvp kellys corner toggle active desktop vsb
script. toggled active desktop to disabled
* restarted and restarted and restarted computer with different
settings
* downloaded and ran mvp kelly's wallpaper changes enabled script
* removed all icons from the desktop in case one happened to be an
activedesktop icon. Currently only have 4 system icons on desktop as
checked off in customize desktop area.


Unusual things that happen:


-- iconoid always thinks activedesktop is always on no matter what I do

--on restart, if I run the kelly's corner script to disable active
desktop, it will toggle it to disabled even though i thought it was
ALREADY disabled.
AND
--If I switch users to my very rarely used guest log in, THAT desktop
has no problem making the icon's textbox invisible, darnit.


I am somewhat technically minded, and read many posts on this subject,
so if you're reading my plea for help and notice that I seemed to have
incorrectly performed something I mentioned, I may have mistyped the
steps I followed (this sentence is my attempt to reduce the number of
responses that repeat the often repeated check this and that
instructions).


Many posts I read repeated 4 circumstances that had to be satisfied in
order for the icons to be transparent; I have met the 4 as far as I can

tell.


I have tried to find out what programs may be working under my radar
but I can't seem to find anything that would interfere. I suspect there

is some active desktop foul up but I (obviously) can't resolve it.


Thanks for your help, I've been doing this for hours!


Please respond in the newsgroup!
 
G

gn

Well it took hours of fiddling but I finally did something that fixed
it. And for posterity, the something was:

I used this web page's tool: http://noahdfear.geekstogo.com

I read about it here:
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...read/thread/2e0f3a4955aad274/5ff359ae97996e02

I'd like to thank Malke of Elephant Boy Computers, MS-MVP, for
directing me (through his answer to someone else) to noahdfear's site,
and noahdfear for creating SmitRem, the spyware/adware removal tool
that apparently repaired my problem.

I say apparently because I'm still shaking my head that the problem was
a spyware or adware issue. I surf with the Proxomitron on and my
explorer security settings set to medium or better and I scan with
ad-aware and spybot. hmm whatever, I hope this helps others restore
their desktop icons to transparence.
 

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